The people who know the most in a technical company are usually the ones with the least time to write.
So the content gets written by someone further from the work, and it shows. The posts are correct, but they could have come from any company in the industry.
Asking your engineers and founders to write more won’t fix this. A better approach is to ask them to talk for 30 minutes, once a month.
Step 1, book the right person
Pick whoever spends the most time with customers or with the product. That might be a founder, a sales engineer or a project lead. Tell them they don’t need to prepare anything.
Step 2, ask these six questions
- What did a customer get wrong this month?
- What did you have to explain more than once?
- What surprised you on a recent project?
- What do competitors say that you disagree with?
- What would you tell a new customer before they sign?
- What result are you most proud of lately, and why?
Record the call, with their permission. The exact words people use when they speak are usually better than anything written afterwards.
Step 3, turn each answer into more than one post
Six answers can easily become twelve posts, because each answer works in at least two formats:
- A short text post with the main point
- A carousel that walks through the steps
- A customer story, with the problem first and the fix second
- A myth and the reality behind it
A customer mistake becomes a “common mistake” post and also a short how to. A proud result becomes a case study and also a lessons learned post. Open each one with a strong first line, these 7 hooks for technical content help.
Step 4, let the expert check, not write
Send the drafts back for a 10 minute review. Their only job is to confirm the facts and flag anything that doesn’t sound like them. Reviewing is far easier than writing, so it actually gets done.
What this costs
About 40 minutes of expert time a month: 30 for the conversation and 10 for the review. In return you get a month of posts that sound like your company and nobody else.
This is the translation step of the 4 part LinkedIn system, and it is the step that keeps content going after month three, when most company pages go quiet.
Want us to run the interviews?
Tidea Marketing interviews your experts and turns the conversation into a month of LinkedIn content. See our LinkedIn content management service, get a free LinkedIn audit, or book a free strategy call.