LinkedIn Content Creator (AU SME)

When to use

Triggers:

• "Write a LinkedIn post" / "Help me draft something for LinkedIn"
• "Turn this into a LinkedIn post" / "Post version of this idea"
• "LinkedIn article on [topic]"
• "Optimise my LinkedIn profile" / "Fix my headline / about section"
• "LinkedIn content calendar / weekly posting plan"
• Any AU SME operator wanting to post consistently or revise existing drafts

Don't fire for:

• Paid LinkedIn ads (use a paid-media skill)
• Mass-outbound connection campaigns (use au-cold-outreach-spam-compliant principles + thl-linkedin-outreach-personaliser internally)
• LinkedIn Recruiter / hiring campaigns (different platform area)

How LinkedIn reaches actually work (2026)

Reality check first — then we can stop chasing the wrong metrics:

• Native text posts outperform external links 5–10× by reach. Paste the article; don't link to it.
• Dwell time > engagement. LinkedIn rewards posts people actually read through, not just like.
• Comments > likes, early comments > later comments. The first 60 minutes matter most.
• Connections + niche fit > total follower count. A post to 800 targeted followers outperforms one to 8,000 general followers.
• Consistency beats virality. Posting 2× per week for 6 months builds a body of work that compounds; posting once hoping to go viral doesn't.
• Company pages underperform personal profiles. For AU SME operators, prioritise the founder's profile.

Don't chase "how to go viral on LinkedIn" advice. Optimise for the lead that comes 90 days later after someone has seen you consistently.

The 4 post formats that consistently pull

1. The story post

A specific thing that happened, with a lesson or observation embedded. Not a motivational story — a concrete, nameable event.

Structure:

• Hook — a single specific sentence. Avoid "I want to share something important." Start with the actual thing.
• The situation — 2–4 sentences of context, with one specific detail (a name, a number, a place) that anchors it
• The turn — what changed, what happened, what you saw
• The reflection — one paragraph on what this means for your reader
• Close — a question or a pointed observation, not "let me know your thoughts"

Length: 150–300 words usually. Longer is OK if the story earns it.

2. The framework post

A way of seeing or doing something, structured as a mental model or checklist.

Structure:

• Hook — name the problem the framework solves
• The framework — 3–5 items (bullets, steps, or questions), each with a short explanation
• Example or application — one concrete instance of using the framework
• Why this matters — 1–2 sentences on why this frame is better than the default

Useful when: you've noticed a pattern in how you or others approach something.

3. The take / opinion post

A pointed view on something in your industry. Requires having an actual opinion.

Structure:

• The take — one clear sentence stating the view
• Evidence — 2–4 pieces of evidence or reasoning, each with specifics
• Counter-position acknowledged — 1 sentence nodding to the other side
• Why you still hold the take — the thing that holds after the counter

Works when: you're willing to be wrong publicly, and your view is actually differentiated (not a bland "AI will change everything" take).

4. The data post

A specific number + what it means. Not "studies show" — your number or a cited number.

Structure:

• The number — bold, specific, surprising or confirming
• The source or method — one line
• What it means — 2–3 paragraphs of implication
• What changes — your recommendation if the data is right

Works when: you have access to data others don't (your customer cohort, your ops data, your sector benchmarks).

The anti-patterns

Don't generate content that matches these. They're low-reach and read as AI-generated.

• "What if I told you…" / "Here's the thing…" / "Imagine this…" — generic AI slop openers
• "Today I want to share with you…" — useless preamble
• Engagement-bait polls ("A or B?" with nothing at stake) — LinkedIn down-weights these since 2024
• The rule-of-5 — posts with exactly "5 lessons from X" that are obviously AI-written
• Emoji salad — ✨🚀💡 opener clusters
• "Let me know your thoughts in the comments 🙏" — performative close
• "What a time to be alive" / "I'm humbled" / "I'm grateful" — filler without substance
• Long line-break chains with one word per line — the whitespace formatting that exploded in 2022 is now over-used
• Fake cliffhangers — "I couldn't believe what happened next…" structure

If Claude catches itself generating any of these, it should revise. These won't help.

Profile upgrades that actually matter

Headline

Most profiles have the default title ("CEO at XYZ"). Better: a specific value proposition.

Examples:

• ❌ "Founder at Acme Consulting"

• ✅ "Helping AU accounting firms move from hourly to packaged fees | Founder, Acme Consulting"

• ❌ "Plumber"

• ✅ "Commercial plumber for fit-outs across Brisbane | 20+ years on tools"

About section

First 300 characters show before "…see more". Make the first 300 count.

Structure:

1. What you do, in plain English, with a specific who-for (1–2 sentences)
2. Why you specifically — credentials, years, specific outcomes (3–4 sentences)
3. Who you help — specific — "AU SME operators in [sector]" (2–3 sentences)
4. How to take the next step — one clear call (book a call, follow for more, send a DM)

Featured content

Pin 3 things: your best post, your best case study/testimonial, and something that qualifies good leads.

Experience section

Each role gets 3–5 bullets of concrete outcomes. Not job descriptions. Not "responsible for X". Specific wins.

Weekly posting cadence for an AU SME operator

A defensible cadence:

• Tuesday, 10–11am AEST: Post type 1 (story or take — personal)
• Thursday, 9–10am AEST: Post type 2 (framework or data — educational)
• Occasional weekend: Light personal / team / behind-the-scenes

Why those times: AU LinkedIn engagement peaks mid-morning on workdays. Tuesday catches the start-of-week planning; Thursday catches the mid-week information gathering.

Skip weekends unless you genuinely have something. Quality beats presence.

Comment strategy (the under-used lever)

Writing comments on other people's posts is the single most under-used LinkedIn lever:

• Pick 5 accounts your target readers follow
• Comment substantively on one of their posts per weekday morning
• "Agree" isn't a comment — your comment should add a thought, a specific example, or a good question
• Consistency for 30 days usually drives more profile visits than your own posts

Article vs post

• Post (short-form, <3000 chars): daily/weekly cadence, immediate distribution
• Article (long-form, no character cap): one per month at most, for evergreen content worth searching

Articles have less reach per piece but rank in search and live forever on your profile. Post to introduce the idea; article to flesh it out.

Voice rules for AU SME operators

• Specific over abstract ("8 operators in our Slack said X" beats "many people say X")
• Numbers over adjectives (not "significant revenue" — "$47k quarterly")
• Contractions ("I'm", "we've") — you're talking, not writing a press release
• One-person-to-one-person — even though thousands might read it, write as if to one specific person
• Don't overclaim — "I learned this the hard way" is fine; "I became a 10× founder" reads as insecure
• Australian English (colour, organisation, favour) — consistency matters less than avoiding a mid-paragraph switch

Output format

Per post request:

1. Post draft — ready-to-paste, no markdown in the post body (LinkedIn doesn't render it)
2. Format type used (story / framework / take / data)
3. Alt opening hooks — 2 alternatives if the first hook doesn't land with you
4. Suggested time to post — in the cadence above, or user's own pattern

Per article request:

1. Working title + 2 alternatives
2. Outline — 5–7 sections
3. Full draft — 800–1500 words for most topics
4. Pull quotes — 2–3 lines you'd pull out as headers

Per profile optimisation:

1. Headline rewrite
2. About section draft (structured per above)
3. Experience bullets for the current role
4. Featured content suggestions

What this skill does NOT do

• Post on your behalf. Use Buffer, Hootsuite, LinkedIn's own native scheduling, or post manually.
• Run automation for comments / DMs. LinkedIn penalises automation; do it manually or don't do it.
• Gain followers artificially. Pods, engagement-farming, buying followers all hurt long-term credibility.
• Optimise for LinkedIn Creator Accelerator programmes. Those are separate niche strategies.

Tier access

Base. LinkedIn is a universal channel for AU SME operators. Pro-tier members get voice-matching (upload 10 of your best past posts, skill matches tone) + monthly calendar planning.

Related skills

• customer-persona-builder — know who you're writing for
• review-response-au-reputation — different channel, same "be specific and human" principle
• au-cold-outreach-spam-compliant — LinkedIn DMs are different from email; use both
• social-media-calendar — for cross-platform scheduling

References

• LinkedIn — Algorithm changes 2024+ (official blog)
• LinkedIn — Creator best practices