What to post on LinkedIn when you run out of ideas

Running dry usually means you are waiting for an original idea. You do not need one. Almost nothing on LinkedIn is original, and the posts that do well are rarely new information: they are a familiar subject seen from a specific position, with a real example attached.

Nine angles that always exist

• A question someone asked you this week.
• Something you changed your mind about, and what changed it.
• A mistake you made and what it cost in time or money.
• A number from your own work, and what it actually means.
• Advice in your field that you think is wrong.
• How you choose between two options people commonly confuse.
• A tool or process you stopped using, and why.
• What beginners in your field get wrong first, and why the mistake is reasonable.
• A short story from a project, with the client anonymised.

How to pick

Go down the list and stop at the first one where a specific example comes to mind immediately. Not a general point, an actual instance: a Tuesday, a client, a number, a conversation. If nothing concrete surfaces within ten seconds, move on. An angle without an example produces a generic post no matter how good the angle looked in the abstract.

Why the disagreement angles work

Two of these nine are disagreements, and they are there deliberately. Posts that take a position get replies rather than likes, and replies are what carry a post beyond your existing followers. They are also the posts that make people remember your name, because a position is memorable in a way that agreement never is. The only rule is to disagree with an idea, not a person.

Do not save the good one

People routinely hold back their strongest idea for a week when they have more time to do it justice. That week rarely arrives, and the post that eventually gets written is usually worse than the one you would have written while you still cared about it. Publish it now, and if it deserves a second pass, write the follow-up in a month.