Guide
LinkedIn content strategy: one idea a week, three formats
Updated
Post one idea a week as a text post, a carousel and a short video. Write for your buyer, grow through comments and let your profile catch the clicks.
In short
- A LinkedIn content strategy you can keep is one idea a week, posted as text, a carousel and a video.
- Write for your buyer rather than for your peers, because buyers read quietly and message you months later.
- Useful comments on other people's posts do more for your reach than hashtags.
- Your profile is the page every post sends people to, so give it one clear action.
- The whole routine takes about two hours a week once it settles.
- Yearly growth in LinkedIn video watch time (LinkedIn, 2024)
- +36%
- Short video is created twice as fast as any other LinkedIn format (LinkedIn, 2024)
- 2x
- People who watch video with the sound off in public (Verizon Media, 2019)
- 69%
- Credits for one finished 30-second video on Cutroom
- 110
Write for your buyer
Posts written for other people in your industry get likes from other people in your industry. Buyers read without reacting, then message you months later.
- Name your reader. It is the HR manager, the founder or the pre-retiree, whoever actually pays you.
- Write in their words, at their level, about the problems they have.
- Watch profile visits, follows from the companies you want, and messages that arrive in your inbox.
- Ignore likes. They mostly measure what your peers think.
What each format is for
Each format has a different job. Platform rules change often, but these jobs have stayed the same for years.
LinkedIn formats and their jobs
| Format | Best for | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Text post | Opinions, observations, lessons | Fastest to make. The first two lines decide if people read on |
| Carousel | Processes, checklists, steps | Gets saved and shared, so it lasts longest |
| Video | Building trust | Face and voice build familiarity fast. Few people in the feed do it |
| Poll | Research, used rarely | One honest poll shows what buyers struggle with. A poll every week stops telling you anything and readers scroll past |
Format: Text post
- Best for
- Opinions, observations, lessons
- Why
- Fastest to make. The first two lines decide if people read on
Format: Carousel
- Best for
- Processes, checklists, steps
- Why
- Gets saved and shared, so it lasts longest
Format: Video
- Best for
- Building trust
- Why
- Face and voice build familiarity fast. Few people in the feed do it
Format: Poll
- Best for
- Research, used rarely
- Why
- One honest poll shows what buyers struggle with. A poll every week stops telling you anything and readers scroll past
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
The weekly plan: one idea, three posts
Pick one idea from your week and post it three ways. Three posts from one idea takes most people about two hours a week.
- Only a fraction of your followers see any single post, so the same idea in three formats reaches three different sets of people.
- Ideas come from a question a client asked twice, a mistake you keep seeing, or a view you changed.
- Keep the text post short and spend the effort on the first two lines, because LinkedIn hides the rest behind 'see more'.
- Make the carousel as a PDF and upload it as a document post. Around ten slides, one idea a slide, is enough.
- Canva has a free plan, and it makes carousel slides and exports them as a PDF.
The weekly plan
One idea from real work, three posts, one profile catching the clicks.
Monday: text post
The idea, said plainly
Wednesday: carousel
The idea, in steps
Friday: video
The idea, to camera
Profile
Catches everyone who clicks through
How to get more reach
Hashtags do very little on LinkedIn now. Comments and replies do the work.
- Spend 15 minutes writing useful comments on posts your buyers read, before and after you post.
- Answer every comment on your own posts, ideally in the first few hours.
- Send people to your profile rather than to your website.
- Keep the pitch in your profile. A post that opens with your offer gets fewer readers and fewer comments.
Make your profile the landing page
Every post that works makes a stranger click your name. Most profiles waste that click on a job title.
- Your headline says who you help and with what.
- Your about section should read like a person talking, not like a CV.
- Put one action in your featured section, such as a booking link, your newsletter or one piece of work.
- Answer messages like a human. Templated replies end the conversation.
Where video fits, and what it costs
Text and carousels alone are a complete strategy. Add video when buyers need to trust you as a person first.
- Video suits consultants, coaches, advisors and recruiters, where buyers are hiring the person.
- Filming takes ten minutes. Editing takes the evening, which is why the weekly video is the post people skip.
- With Cutroom, one clip of yourself talking, up to 3 minutes, comes back as a 9:16 MP4 in about a minute.
- LinkedIn plays vertical 9:16 video in the feed, so the file Cutroom gives you needs no changes.
- Captions come timed to your voice, which matters because LinkedIn plays video with the sound off.
- Your phone and LinkedIn's own captions cost nothing, if you would rather not pay at all.
Cutroom prices
| What | Cost |
|---|---|
| Your first video | Free. 600 credits, no card, 7 days, with a Cutroom mark |
| Editing one clip | 100 credits |
| Export | 20 credits per finished minute |
| One 30-second video | About 110 credits |
| Lite plan | $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits, about 11 videos, no mark |
| Basic plan | $39.99 a month for 2,500 credits, avatars at 350 credits a minute |
What: Your first video
- Cost
- Free. 600 credits, no card, 7 days, with a Cutroom mark
What: Editing one clip
- Cost
- 100 credits
What: Export
- Cost
- 20 credits per finished minute
What: One 30-second video
- Cost
- About 110 credits
What: Lite plan
- Cost
- $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits, about 11 videos, no mark
What: Basic plan
- Cost
- $39.99 a month for 2,500 credits, avatars at 350 credits a minute
Questions people ask
- How often should I post on LinkedIn?
- Two to three times a week, kept up for months. This plan gives you three posts from one idea, so you can keep going in busy weeks. Daily posting that stops after a month does less.
- Do hashtags still matter on LinkedIn?
- Barely. One to three do no harm, but they do not spread your post. Comments on other people's posts, replies on your own and posts worth saving do.
- Which works better on LinkedIn, text or video?
- They do different jobs. Text gets the most reach per hour of work. Video builds more trust per view, because a buyer who watched you talk arrives at the first call already familiar.
- Should I post from a company page or my personal profile?
- Your personal profile. A company page usually gets much less reach than a named person posting the same thing. Its job is to look credible when a buyer checks you out.
- How long until LinkedIn content brings in leads?
- Months. Buyers read quietly before they write, often for a long time. Judge the plan after a quarter of kept weeks, on profile visits and conversations started, not likes.
- What does a weekly LinkedIn video cost with Cutroom?
- About 110 credits per finished 30-second video: 100 to edit plus 20 per finished minute to export. Your first video is free. Lite is $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits, about 11 videos, and you cancel in one click.
One reader, one idea a week, three formats and a profile that catches the click. Your first video is free.