PipeflowWhat is different on LinkedIn compared with Instagram
On Instagram the image is at the centre, on LinkedIn it is more the thought behind it. People there have a professional eye: business partners, corporate customers, potential employees, colleagues from your industry. They want to understand how you work, what you know and how you make decisions.
That doesn't mean you have to write lofty texts about leadership or the future of work. The best topics for small businesses are often very down to earth: a question a customer asked, a mistake you learned from, a decision you made in your business.
Six topic areas that almost always fit
If you can't think of anything, go through this list. Over time, each area can give you many posts:
- Expertise explained simply: what non-experts should know about your field, for example why a tax advisor prefers to receive receipts on an ongoing basis rather than once a year.
- Frequent customer questions: every question you have answered three times already is a post.
- A look behind the scenes: how a job runs, what happens on a normal day, which tool you would never give up.
- Decisions and the reasons behind them: why you don't use cheap materials, why you changed your opening hours, why you train apprentices.
- People in the business: apprentices, long-serving staff, new colleagues, of course only with their consent.
- Observations from your industry: what is changing in materials, regulations or customer wishes, and what that means for your customers.
How to find topics in everyday work
Most business owners don't have a topic problem but a memory problem. The good thoughts come in the car, on the building site or during a customer conversation and are gone again by the evening. So set up a simple place to collect them: a note on your phone, a notebook in the workshop, a voice message to yourself.
Only write down the keyword, not the finished text. "Customer asks whether you can lay tiles on top of tiles" is enough. When you sit down to write a post, you choose from the list instead of starting from scratch.
Your website is also a source of topics. Every service, every page about the business, every reference project can be turned into a post that answers a question or tells a story.
Conversations with your team are another good source. At the next meeting, ask which customer questions are coming up often right now, or what went particularly well or badly last week. Employees often see things that you as the boss no longer notice because they have become second nature to you. It is exactly these things you take for granted that are often the most interesting for outsiders.
An example: from keyword to post
An electrician has made a note: "Yet another customer who ordered the wallbox online and then realised the wiring in the house isn't suitable." This becomes a short LinkedIn post:
"Last week I was once again standing in front of a wallbox that had been bought before anyone looked at the electrics in the house. The device was good. The meter cabinet couldn't have handled it as it was. My advice before you order a charging station: first have someone check what your system can handle. It's usually quick and, in the worst case, saves you an expensive conversion. Which question about charging stations do you hear most often? #ElectricalEngineering #EMobility"
The post has a concrete occasion, clear advice and a question at the end. It doesn't sell anything directly, but it shows that someone here thinks ahead. That is exactly what sticks with customers and business partners.
What tends not to work
Some posts take time and still bring little. Typical examples:
If you work in a profession with its own professional rules, for example in a practice, law firm or pharmacy, or as a financial or insurance adviser, there are additional limits: no promises of healing, no promises of success and no cases involving patients or clients. General expertise, on the other hand, is usually a very good topic.
- Pure advertising: "Book your appointment now" without any content is quickly scrolled past.
- Shared links without a sentence of your own: someone else's article needs your take on it, otherwise there is no reason to read it on your profile.
- Off-the-shelf motivational quotes: they fit everyone and therefore no one.
- Customer details: names, addresses or recognisable buildings only with explicit consent.
Spreading topics over the weeks
So that your profile doesn't become one-sided, alternate between the topic areas. A simple rhythm: an expert topic, a look behind the scenes, a customer question, then start again. How often you post depends on your time. There is no universal ideal frequency; what matters more is that you keep it up for months.
After a few weeks, look at the statistics LinkedIn shows for your posts. Which topics were read, commented on, shared? Do more of those, and try the others again in a different form.