How to Write a LinkedIn Post That Stops the Scroll

With over 1.3 billion users worldwide on LinkedIn, you might be wondering: how the heck do you get your ideal target audience to stop scrolling and actually read your post?

With so much content competing for attention, simply posting on LinkedIn isn’t enough. You need to know how to write a post that grabs attention, keeps people reading, and, ideally, gets them to take action.

While it does take time to see results, getting your LinkedIn posts in front of the right people and getting them to actually engage… is absolutely possible.

You just have to know how, and that’s where this article comes in.

In it, we will show you exactly how to write LinkedIn posts that grab your audience’s attention.

(Need a little help getting your LinkedIn content to actually generate leads? Book a free 15-minute strategy session with the CEO of SalesBread. We help our clients generate 1 lead per day using ultra-personalized LinkedIn outreach and storytelling that gets people to pay attention.)

What Makes a Good LinkedIn Post?

So, what actually makes a good LinkedIn post?

Well, for starters, you need to give people a reason to stop scrolling.

Your opening few lines are really important because they’re what will determine whether someone clicks “see more” or keeps scrolling.

Try starting with a question, a bold statement, an interesting result, or a problem you know your audience is dealing with.

Once you’ve got their attention, you need to give them a reason to keep reading.

A good LinkedIn post should have:

• One clear point

• Something useful – This could be a tip, a lesson that you learned, or a mistake to avoid.

• Don’t try to cram five different ideas into one post.

It’s also important to remember that LinkedIn is a social platform, so write like a person, not a robot.

Also, nobody wants to read a post that just has corporate jargon and buzzwords. Talk to your audience like you’re having a conversation with them.

Share your experiences, have an opinion, and don’t be afraid to let some of your personality come through.

And make your post easy to read.

Huge blocks of text are going to make people scroll straight past you.

Keep your paragraphs short and break things up with bullets or formatting where it makes sense.

You can also use storytelling to make your posts more interesting. Talk about what happened, what you learned from it, and what your audience can take away from the experience.

Lastly, you want to give people a reason to engage.

Ask them a question, invite them to share their experience, or simply give them something of value that is worth saving or sharing. And remember, not every LinkedIn post needs to sell something. Some posts are there to build trust, start conversations, and keep you top of mind.

Types of LinkedIn posts (with examples)

You get many different types of LinkedIn posts that you can use to capture the attention of your audience. You can rotate these types of posts to keep your content interesting.

Educational posts

These are posts where you teach your audience something useful.

Think of tips, how-tos, industry insights, frameworks, or even business advice. For example, “5 things I wish I knew before starting a sales team.”

Or, for example, at SalesBread, we love doing tear-downs of LinkedIn messages we receive. This helps our audience dive a bit deeper into copywriting and how to send better LinkedIn outreach messages.

Personal or storytelling posts

Personal stories are exactly what they sound like. In these posts, you will share something that happened to you, a lesson you learned, a mistake you made, or an experience that your audience can relate to.

Josh Braun does this really well on LinkedIn if you are looking for storytelling examples.

These are great for showing the person behind the business and building a connection with your audience.

Opinion posts

Have an unpopular opinion about your industry or a different opinion from someone else in your industry?

Share it.

These are great opportunities to show your expertise and ideas. Opinion posts can work really well because they give people something to agree or disagree with.

Just make sure you actually have something interesting to say rather than being controversial for the sake of it. These posts can also create quite a bit of engagement.

Industry or thought leadership posts

This is where you share your take on what’s happening in your industry. You might comment on a new trend, explain a change in the market, or share your prediction about where things are heading.

The key is that you’re not just saying what is happening. You’re explaining what you think it means and why people should care.

For example, instead of posting:

“AI is changing the way businesses approach marketing.”

That’s true, but it’s not particularly interesting. Thousands of people have already said it.

A thought leadership post might take a stronger position:

“AI isn’t going to replace your marketing team. But marketers who know how to use AI are probably going to replace the ones who don’t. Here’s what I’m seeing…”

Now you’ve given people a reason to keep reading.

You can use thought leadership posts to:

• Share your perspective on an industry trend

• Challenge a commonly held belief

• Explain something you’ve noticed through your own experience

• Make a prediction about where your industry is heading

• Share research or data and explain what you think it means

• Discuss a change that could affect your customers

• Explain what you would do differently from the usual approach

And you don’t need to be a huge industry expert to create thought leadership content.

Your own experiences can be enough. If you’ve worked with dozens of clients and noticed the same problem coming up again and again, that’s an insight worth sharing.

The important thing is to add your own thinking.

Case studies, success stories & testimonials

Did you help a client get a great result? You could always share it in a post. Instead of simply saying “Our client got amazing results!”, explain what the problem was, what you did differently, and what happened.

This lets you show your expertise without sounding like you’re constantly trying to sell your services. You could even share successful client stats, or even testimonials.

This builds great social proof.

When your audience sees that you are getting great results for other clients, the chances of them reaching out to you will be so much greater.

Behind-the-scenes of your business

People like seeing what actually happens behind the scenes.

You could share a look at your team, a new project, an event you’re attending, how you create something, or even what went wrong along the way. Don’t be afraid to show when things go wrong too.

Sometimes the mistakes, challenges, and lessons you learn along the way make for much more interesting content than another perfectly polished company update.

You could even share some content from your personal life.

Remember, people buy from people, and showing a little bit of who you are outside of work can help your audience get to know you on a more personal level.

That doesn’t mean you need to share every detail of your life, but things like a hobby, a family milestone, a book you’re reading, a trip you’ve taken, or even something you’ve learned outside of work can give people a glimpse of the person behind the business.

The key is to make sure there’s still a connection to your audience.

Your personal content doesn’t always need to directly sell your product or service, but it should help people understand who you are, what you value, and what makes you different.

And sometimes, those are the posts people remember most.

Engagement posts

These are posts that are designed to get people talking.

You could ask a question, run a poll, ask for opinions, or get people to share their own experiences. They’re particularly useful when you want to start a conversation.

Promotional or lead-generation posts

Yes, you can promote your business on LinkedIn. But just don’t make every single post a sales pitch. These posts might promote a service, webinar, guide, free consultation, or another offer.

The key is to make the post about the problem you’re solving for your audience, rather than just shouting about how great your company is.

Tips for writing a great LinkedIn post

Know Who You’re Writing For

Before you write a single word, you need to know who you’re actually writing for. And no, “business owners” or “B2B decision-makers” isn’t specific enough.

Think about the person you actually want reading your post.

Are they a founder trying to generate more leads? A sales director struggling to get their SDR team to book enough meetings? A marketing manager trying to prove that LinkedIn is actually generating business?

The more specific you can be, the easier it becomes to create content that speaks directly to them.

Think about what keeps this person up at night.

What problems are they dealing with? What are they frustrated by? What questions are they asking? What have they already tried that hasn’t worked? And, most importantly, what do they actually want to achieve?

For example, if you’re trying to reach a B2B founder who is struggling to generate a consistent pipeline, a post about “5 ways to improve your LinkedIn profile” might get some attention, but it isn’t necessarily speaking to their biggest problem.

A post that starts with “You’re posting on LinkedIn every week, but you haven’t gotten any new leads… Here’s why.” is much more likely to grab their attention because it speaks directly to something they care about.

This is also why you shouldn’t try to make every LinkedIn post appeal to everyone.

If your goal is to generate leads from LinkedIn, your content should make your ideal prospects feel understood, show that you understand their problems, and that you can also offer a solution on how to fix it.

Start With a Hook That Makes People Stop Scrolling

Let’s be honest, there’s a lot happening on LinkedIn.

Your ideal customer is scrolling through posts from colleagues, competitors, industry experts, and about a hundred other people trying to get their attention.

So, if your opening line sounds like every other LinkedIn post, or AI content, there’s a good chance they’re going to keep scrolling.

That’s why your first few lines matter so much.

Your hook needs to make the right person curious enough to stop and read more.

How do you do this?

You could ask a question, make a bold or controversial statement, call out a problem, share a surprising result, or challenge something your audience believes about your industry.

For example, instead of starting with:

“Here are 5 LinkedIn tips that can help you generate more leads.”

Try something that speaks directly to the problem your audience is experiencing:

“Your LinkedIn posts aren’t generating leads. And posting more isn’t going to fix the problem.”

See the difference?

The second one immediately speaks to a specific pain point. If you’re a founder who’s been posting consistently but isn’t seeing any business come from it, you’re probably going to want to know what you’re doing wrong.

And this is where a lot of businesses get LinkedIn wrong.

The goal isn’t to create a hook that gets everyone to stop scrolling. It’s to create a hook that makes your ideal customer think, “That’s exactly the problem we’re having.”

You don’t need to go viral. You need to get noticed by the right people.

A good rule of thumb is to write your hook for one person, not everyone. Think about who you want reading the post, what they’re struggling with, and what would make them stop and think, “Wait, this is about me.”

That’s the type of hook you want to create.

Give People Something Worth Reading

Getting someone to stop scrolling is only half the battle.

You have to give them a reason to keep reading your post. And this is where a lot of LinkedIn posts go wrong. They start with a great hook, but then there’s nothing really interesting or useful behind it.

Before you post, ask yourself:

“What is someone going to get out of reading this?”

Maybe you’re sharing something you’ve learned, a mistake you’ve made, a useful tip, an interesting insight, or a different way of looking at a problem.

It doesn’t have to be groundbreaking.

Sometimes the most useful posts are the ones that simply explain something your audience has been struggling with in a way that finally makes sense.

And don’t be afraid to share your own experiences. Your experience is valuable content.

The things that seem obvious to you because you’ve been doing them for years might be completely new and valuable to someone else.

Share what you’ve learned, what worked, what didn’t work, and what you’d do differently next time.

The goal isn’t to sound clever or impress people with how much you know. It’s to make someone finish your post and think, “That was actually useful.”

If you can consistently do that, people will start looking forward to your content, and you’ll build credibility with the people you ultimately want to do business with.

Keep Your LinkedIn Post Easy to Read

You don’t want to write loooong essay posts. If people see a long wall of text, they will most likely scroll past.

Why? Because they’re busy.

They might be looking through LinkedIn during a quick lunch break and don’t have the time or energy to read a long post.

Keep your paragraphs short.

One or two sentences per paragraph is usually much easier to read than a huge block of text.

Use line breaks to create some space and help guide the reader through your post. You can also use bullet points, numbers, or emojis when they genuinely make the content easier to follow.

You don’t need to use complicated language or write like you’re submitting a university essay.

Write the way you actually speak. If you wouldn’t say it in a conversation, there’s a good chance you don’t need to write it that way on LinkedIn.

You also want to think about the structure of your post. Your hook should pull people in, your main points should flow naturally, and your ending should give the reader somewhere to go next.

And finally, don’t go overboard with formatting. You don’t need five different emojis, ten hashtags, and asterisks around every other word to make a post stand out.

Good formatting should make your content easier to consume, not distract from what you’re actually saying.

Write Like a Person, Not a Robot

This one is becoming more important as AI-generated content floods LinkedIn.

And while there’s nothing wrong with using AI to help you brainstorm, structure, or polish a post, you don’t want your finished content to sound like it was written by a robot.

We’ve all seen those LinkedIn posts.

They start with something like “In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape…” and five paragraphs later, you’ve learned absolutely nothing.

The words might sound professional, but there’s no personality, no real opinion, and nothing that makes you want to keep reading.

People want to hear from people.

Write in the way you actually speak. Use your own experiences, opinions, stories, and sense of humour.

If you normally say “this is a load of rubbish,” don’t suddenly write “this is a suboptimal approach” because it sounds more professional.

Your personality is what makes your content different from everyone else’s.

AI can be incredibly useful when you’re stuck staring at a blank screen, but don’t simply copy and paste what it gives you and hit publish.

Add your own examples, challenge what it says, change the wording and, most importantly, add your own perspective. The more of you that comes through in the post, the less generic it will feel.

And there’s another reason this matters. If your goal is to generate leads on LinkedIn, you don’t just want people to read your content; you want potential customers to get a feel for who you are and what you know.

A perfectly polished AI post might get a few likes, but a genuine post that sounds like you can start an actual conversation.

So, by all means, use AI as a tool to help you with your process, but don’t let it steal away the opportunity for your audience to get to know you.

Use data and proof

If you want people to believe what you’re saying, show them the proof. Anyone can jump on LinkedIn and say they’re an expert, but numbers, results, and real examples make your content much more believable.

For example, instead of saying “Personalized LinkedIn outreach gets better results,” show people what happened when you actually did it.

Did you help a client increase their response rate? Book more meetings? Generate more leads? Share the numbers and explain what you did to get there.

You don’t always need impressive statistics either. Even a small result, a lesson from a campaign, or a real client example can make your post more interesting.

You could share something like, “We tested two different LinkedIn messages and one generated 3x more replies. Here’s what we changed…”

Now you’ve given people a reason to keep reading because you’re showing them something that actually happened.

Screenshots, campaign results, graphs, customer stories, and before-and-after examples can all help bring your content to life.

They also make your expertise much easier to demonstrate without having to constantly tell people how good you are.

Just make sure your numbers are accurate and that you have permission to share any client information. The goal isn’t to throw random statistics into a post to make it look impressive.

Use data when it genuinely supports the point you’re making.

Add a Clear Call to Action

Once you’ve given someone a reason to read your post, don’t leave them wondering what they’re supposed to do next.

A good LinkedIn post should usually have some kind of call to action (CTA), but that doesn’t mean you need to turn every post into a sales pitch.

Your CTA should depend on what you’re trying to achieve with the post. Should they book a call with you? Visit your website? Read an article you posted or go to your YouTube channel?

For example, instead of ending a post with:

“Hope you found these tips useful!”

Try something that actually gives people somewhere to go:

“What’s the biggest challenge you’re having with LinkedIn right now?”

Or:

“If you’re struggling to turn LinkedIn into a consistent source of leads, send me a DM and let’s chat.”

The important thing is to make the CTA feel natural.

If you’ve spent the entire post teaching someone something useful and then suddenly hit them with a hard sell, it can feel jarring. Your CTA should make sense based on what you’ve just talked about.

And remember, not every post needs to generate a lead immediately. Sometimes the goal is simply to get someone to comment, share your post, remember your name, or start seeing you as someone who knows what they’re talking about.

Use Different LinkedIn Post Formats

Experiment with different types of LinkedIn post formats. You might prefer text posts, or maybe you enjoy video more. Try a few different types and see which you feel the most comfortable with.

You could turn a list of tips into a carousel, use a short video to explain an idea, share a client result as an image, or tell a personal story through a text post.

Different formats can also help you present the same idea in a completely different way.

The important thing is not to use a format just because you think the algorithm likes it. Choose the format that makes the content easiest and most interesting for your audience to consume.

A complicated idea might work brilliantly as a carousel, while a personal story might be much more powerful as a simple text post.

Keep an eye on what gets people commenting, sharing, saving, and starting conversations, and then do more of what works.

Your LinkedIn brand strategy shouldn’t be set in stone. It should evolve as you learn what your audience actually wants to see.

Use hashtags

Hashtags can still play a small role on LinkedIn, but don’t rely on them to get your post seen. Helpful content still performs the best.

If you do use hashtags, keep them relevant to what you’re actually talking about.

For example, if you’re writing about B2B lead generation, you might use hashtags such as #B2BLeadGeneration, #LinkedInMarketing, or #B2BSales.

There’s no need to add 15 or 20 hashtags to the end of every post just because you can.

Think of hashtags as a little extra context. Don’t stuff your post with hashtags or use popular hashtags that have nothing to do with your content. It can make your post look spammy and doesn’t help the reader.

Ultimately, if your post is genuinely useful and gets the right people talking, that’s going to matter far more than how many hashtags you add at the bottom.

Common LinkedIn Posting Mistakes to Avoid

Even if you understand how to write a good LinkedIn post, there are a few mistakes that can stop your content from getting the attention it deserves. Here are some mistakes to steer clear of.

Writing for the algorithm instead of your audience.

It’s easy to get caught up in what you think LinkedIn wants to see. But if you’re writing awkwardly or stuffing your post with keywords and hashtags just to please an algorithm, your audience will notice.

Rather, focus on creating something people actually want to read. Helpful content that adds value to your reader will do better than trying to beat the algorithm.

Making every post sound like a sales pitch.

Your audience doesn’t want to be sold to every time they open LinkedIn. If every post is about your product, your service, or how great your company is, people will quickly start ignoring your posts.

But if you keep creating content that actually makes an impact and helps readers, then over time you will gain more followers and have better engagement.

Chasing likes instead of meaningful results.

A post getting hundreds of likes doesn’t necessarily mean it generated business. That’s why it’s important to pay attention to comments, conversations, profile visits, DMs, and conversions.

Are the right people engaging with your posts? Are leads coming in from your content?

These are better metrics to track than just vanity metrics.

Posting something just because you think you should.

You don’t need to force yourself to publish daily content. Try posting 3 times a week if you can, but if you can only post one really great, helpful post a week, that’s better than posting unvaluable content just for the sake of posting.

If you don’t have a useful insight, story, opinion, or great idea, it’s okay to wait. Quality will always beat quantity when it comes to LinkedIn content.

How to Post on LinkedIn

It’s really simple.

At the top of your feed, you will see a section that says “start a post.”

You then have the option to post a video, text, photo or even to write an article.

You can add images too if needed.

Once you are happy with your post, you can either post it immediately or schedule your post for a later time.

It’s that simple.

Final Thoughts

Writing LinkedIn posts gets easier with practice. So don’t give up if you’re not seeing immediate results.

Keep experimenting with different types of content, pay attention to what your audience responds to, and keep improving.

And if you need a little help turning your LinkedIn content into a consistent source of leads, hop on a free 15-minute strategy session with SalesBread.

We’d love to show you how we can help you get more from your LinkedIn strategy.