AI & Automation
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
When I started working with B2B SaaS clients who wanted to "build their LinkedIn presence," I noticed something that drove me crazy. Every single guide out there was the same recycled advice: post consistently, engage with comments, use hashtags, optimize your profile.
Yet my clients were following all this advice and getting nowhere. One founder spent 6 months posting daily, following every "LinkedIn guru" playbook, and had maybe 200 followers to show for it. Another agency owner was burning through content ideas faster than they could execute them.
That's when I realized the fundamental problem: everyone was optimizing for LinkedIn the platform instead of optimizing for what actually works on LinkedIn. The difference? One focuses on gaming the algorithm, the other focuses on building genuine expertise distribution.
After working with several B2B clients on their LinkedIn strategy, I discovered that the most effective approach isn't about "content strategy" at all. It's about treating LinkedIn as a documentation platform for real work, not a content creation challenge.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why the "content-first" approach kills most LinkedIn efforts before they start
The "Experience First" method that builds audiences through documentation
How to turn client work into audience-building content without generic advice
The specific content types that actually convert strangers into business conversations
Why distribution strategy matters more than posting frequency
Industry Reality
What the LinkedIn gurus won't tell you
Walk into any marketing conference or browse LinkedIn advice, and you'll hear the same playbook repeated endlessly. The standard LinkedIn growth advice follows this pattern:
The Traditional Approach:
Post 3-5 times per week on a consistent schedule
Engage with 50+ posts daily in your first hour
Use 3-5 relevant hashtags per post
Write long-form posts with "LinkedIn-friendly" formatting
Share industry insights and thought leadership content
This advice exists because it's measurable and seems logical. Social media managers love it because they can create content calendars and engagement schedules. It feels productive because you're always "doing something" on the platform.
The problem? This approach treats LinkedIn like a content creation platform instead of a business development tool. You end up optimizing for vanity metrics (likes, comments, followers) rather than business outcomes (qualified conversations, pipeline, revenue).
Here's what nobody talks about: most successful B2B professionals on LinkedIn aren't following any content strategy at all. They're simply documenting what they're already doing in their business. The content is a byproduct of real work, not the primary focus.
When you start with "what should I post today?" you've already lost. When you start with "what interesting problem did I solve this week?" you're building something sustainable.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The wake-up call came when I was working with a B2B SaaS client who wanted to increase their founder's LinkedIn presence. This wasn't just vanity - they were struggling with user acquisition and needed a more cost-effective channel than paid ads.
The founder was smart, ran a solid product, had plenty of expertise. But when we looked at his LinkedIn strategy, it was the typical "thought leadership" approach. Generic posts about "5 ways to improve your SaaS onboarding" or "Why customer success matters in 2025." Posts that could have been written by anyone in SaaS.
After three months of this content-first approach, the results were brutal. Maybe 50 new followers, minimal engagement, and zero business conversations. The founder was frustrated and ready to give up on LinkedIn entirely.
That's when I had the realization that changed everything: his best LinkedIn content already existed - it just wasn't on LinkedIn. Every week, he was solving interesting problems for customers, making product decisions, running experiments. He was doing the work that other SaaS founders desperately wanted to learn about.
The issue wasn't that he lacked expertise or interesting insights. The issue was that he was trying to create "content" instead of documenting his actual work. He was writing generic advice when he could have been sharing specific, uncommon experiences that only he could provide.
This became the foundation for what I now call the "Experience First" method - a completely different approach to LinkedIn that focuses on documentation over creation, specificity over generics, and real business outcomes over engagement metrics.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Here's exactly how we transformed this founder's LinkedIn presence using the Experience First method:
Step 1: Content Audit and Strategy Shift
Instead of starting with "what should we post," we started with "what's happening in the business." I had him track every interesting problem, decision, or experiment for two weeks. Not for LinkedIn - just for business documentation.
The results were eye-opening. In two weeks, he had:
Tested a new onboarding flow that increased activation by 15%
Had a customer request a feature that revealed a entire new market opportunity
Discovered that his best customers were using the product in an unexpected way
Made a pricing decision that went against conventional SaaS wisdom
Step 2: The Documentation Framework
Each piece of "content" followed this structure:
Situation: What specific business situation triggered this?
Action: What did you actually do (not what you think others should do)?
Result: What happened, including unexpected outcomes
Learning: What would you do differently or what surprised you?
Step 3: The Anti-Generic Rule
Before posting anything, we applied this test: "Could this exact post be written by any other SaaS founder?" If yes, we scrapped it. The goal was uncommon specificity, not broad applicability.
Instead of "5 onboarding best practices," he posted: "We added one question to our signup flow and activation jumped 15%. The question wasn't about the product - it was about why they signed up today specifically."
Step 4: Business-First Metrics
We tracked business outcomes, not social media metrics:
How many business conversations started from LinkedIn
Quality of inbound leads vs. other channels
Revenue attribution from LinkedIn connections
The shift was dramatic. Within 6 weeks, he was getting 3-5 qualified business inquiries per week directly from LinkedIn. People weren't just engaging with his content - they were reaching out to work with him or learn from his specific approaches.
Real Examples
Document actual work situations and decisions rather than creating generic advice content
Anti-Generic Filter
Apply the test: "Could any competitor write this exact post?" If yes, make it more specific to your experience
Business Metrics
Track conversations and pipeline generated, not likes and followers that don't convert to revenue
Documentation System
Create a simple process to capture interesting business moments as they happen throughout the week
The transformation was remarkable and happened faster than traditional "content strategy" approaches:
Engagement Quality: Instead of generic "great post!" comments, he was getting substantive questions and connection requests from qualified prospects. The conversation quality improved dramatically because the content was specific and actionable.
Business Conversations: Within 8 weeks, he was averaging 4-6 business conversations per week that started on LinkedIn. These weren't cold outreach responses - these were warm inbound from people who had read his documented experiences.
Unexpected Network Effects: Other SaaS founders started referring business to him because they saw his specific expertise in action. The documented work became social proof that was more convincing than any case study.
Content Sustainability: Instead of burning out on content creation, he was documenting work he was already doing. The "content strategy" became self-sustaining because it was built on real business activity, not artificial posting schedules.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After implementing this approach with multiple B2B clients, here are the key insights that changed how I think about LinkedIn entirely:
1. Specificity Beats Reach
100 people who read about your specific solution to a specific problem are worth more than 10,000 people who read generic advice. The goal isn't maximum audience - it's right audience.
2. Documentation Scales Better Than Creation
You can't create content forever, but you'll always have business problems to solve. Building a system to document real work is infinitely more sustainable than trying to manufacture "thought leadership."
3. LinkedIn Works Like a Search Engine for Expertise
People search LinkedIn for specific knowledge, not entertainment. When someone needs to solve a problem you've documented solving, they find you. This is fundamentally different from hoping the algorithm shows your content to the right people.
4. The Best Content Already Exists
Most B2B professionals are sitting on goldmines of content - they just don't recognize it. Every client problem, product decision, or business experiment is potential content that only they can write.
5. Business Development > Social Media
LinkedIn works best when you treat it as a business development tool rather than a social media platform. The goal is qualified conversations, not viral posts.
6. Uncommon Specificity Creates Authority
Sharing the specific, unusual details of how you solve problems establishes expertise faster than broad, applicable advice.
7. Process Documentation Builds Audience
People want to see how you think through problems, not just what you recommend. The reasoning process is often more valuable than the final recommendation.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
Document product decisions, user feedback insights, and growth experiments as they happen
Share specific metrics and results from trial optimization or feature launches
Focus on uncommon problems and solutions that demonstrate deep product expertise
For your Ecommerce store
Document conversion optimization experiments, seasonal campaign results, and customer behavior insights
Share specific product sourcing decisions, supplier negotiations, or inventory management solutions
Focus on behind-the-scenes business operations that other store owners rarely discuss publicly