← Personal Brand & LinkedIn for Founders
Day 3 of 7
Content Strategy — What to Post
The Content Pillars Framework
Pick 3-4 content pillars — topics you'll consistently cover. For a founder like Matt:
PILLAR 1 — EXPERTISE: AI tools, automation, building with AI. 'Here's what I learned using [tool] for [use case]'
PILLAR 2 — FOUNDER JOURNEY: Behind the scenes of running a tech business. 'The thing nobody tells you about pitching to enterprise clients'
PILLAR 3 — INDUSTRY INSIGHTS: Observations about where the industry is heading. 'Most SMBs are going to miss the AI wave and here's why'
PILLAR 4 — CONTRARIAN TAKES: The opinion everyone holds that you disagree with.
CONTENT MIX: 50% expertise, 30% founder journey, 20% opinions/takes. Rotate through pillars each week.
What Formats Perform
LINKEDIN ALGORITHM 2025-2026:
• Native text posts (no external links) reach 3-5× more people than posts with links
• Carousels (PDF documents) get saved and shared most
• Short-form video getting stronger reach
• Single images with text overlay — strong on mobile
FORMATS THAT WORK FOR FOUNDERS:
1. STORY FORMAT: 'Two years ago I made a decision that nearly killed the business. Here's what happened.' Hook → context → lesson.
2. LIST FORMAT: '7 things I learned building AI tools for SMBs' — scannable, shareable.
3. CONTRARIAN TAKE: 'Hot take: [mainstream belief] is wrong, and here's why.' Engagement-driving.
4. CASE STUDY: 'We took [client] from [problem] to [result] in [timeframe]. Here's exactly what we did.'
NEVER POST: 'Excited to announce...' / 'We're hiring...' / 'Check out our new blog post...' — these are dead on organic reach.
⚡ Today's Action
Write your 3 content pillars. Then write 5 post ideas for each pillar — you now have 15 post ideas in your bank. Schedule 3 posts for next week.
💡 Pro Tip
The best LinkedIn post format for a founder: start with a hook (first line is critical — it's the only thing shown before 'see more'), tell a specific story, extract the universal lesson. 200-400 words.