Linkedin

LinkedIn Post Creator

name: linkedin-writer
description: >
  Creates LinkedIn posts across all formats - event announcements, product launches,
  thought leadership, and community engagement. Handles the full lifecycle from
  sourcing context through drafting, review, and self-improvement.
triggers:
  - linkedin post
  - LN post
  - write a post about

MCP connectors

When to Use

Use this skill whenever a LinkedIn post is needed:

• Sharing an article, video, or piece of content
• Announcing an event, launch, milestone, or hire
• Sharing a contrarian take or industry observation
• Community engagement (calls for help, celebrations, vulnerability posts)
• Repurposing content from other channels (blog, Substack, talks)

Quick Start

Every LinkedIn post falls into one of four categories. Route to the right sub-file:

Read the relevant sub-file for format-specific templates and patterns.

Core Writing Principles

Tone

• Direct and conversational, never corporate
• First person singular ("I") unless it is a team moment ("we")
• Confident but not arrogant - share what you learned, not what you know
• Short sentences. Fragments are fine.

Opening Patterns

The first line is the post. If it does not stop the scroll, nothing else matters.

Strong openers:

• Contrarian hook: "Most [X] advice is wrong. Here's what actually works."
• Specific number: "We went from 0 to 500 users in 3 weeks. No ads."
• Question: "Why do analytics teams still spend 80% of their time on data prep?"
• Confession: "I almost shut down the company last month."
• Bold claim: "[Thing everyone assumes] is dead."

Weak openers (never use):

• "Excited to announce..."
• "Thrilled to share..."
• "I'm delighted to..."
• "Big news!"

Generic Post Structure

[Hook - 1-2 lines that stop the scroll]

[Context - why this matters, what prompted it]

[Substance - the insight, story, data, or takeaway]

[Landing - CTA, question, or forward-looking statement]

Keep posts between 150-300 words. LinkedIn truncates after ~210 characters, so the hook must land before the "see more" fold.

Voice Calibration

Structural Preferences

• Use line breaks liberally - one thought per line
• Bullet points for lists of 3+ items
• No walls of text
• Emojis: sparingly, max 1-2 per post, never as bullet markers
• Hashtags: 3-5 max, at the bottom, relevant to the topic

Punctuation Rules

• Never use em dashes (--) or en dashes (-) as punctuation. Use a hyphen (-) or colon (:) instead.
• Periods over exclamation marks. One exclamation mark per post maximum.
• No ellipsis (...) for dramatic effect

Voice Tells to Match

• Short declarative sentences
• "Here's the thing:" as a pivot phrase
• "Turns out" to introduce a surprising finding
• Direct address to the reader ("If you're a [role]...")
• Specific numbers over vague claims

Vocabulary to AVOID

These words and phrases are ghostwriter cliches. Never use them:

Sourcing Context Before You Write

Never write a post from thin air. Always fetch the source material first.

Read the source fully before drafting. Extract:

1. The single most interesting claim or data point
2. Why it matters to the target audience
3. What is non-obvious or counterintuitive about it

Full Workflow

Step 1: Understand the Request

• What is the core message?
• Who is the audience? (founders, data teams, engineers, general tech)
• What is the goal? (awareness, engagement, traffic, hiring)
• Is there source material to fetch?

Step 2: Pick the Post Type

Route to the appropriate sub-file (events, launches, ideas, community) and select a template.

Step 3: Draft

• Read content/linkedin/_insights.md for channel learnings
• Read content/linkedin/_examples/ for high-performing references
• Write the draft following the template and voice rules
• Save to content/linkedin/_drafts/YYYY-MM-DD_slug.md with frontmatter:

---
date: YYYY-MM-DD
channel: linkedin
topic: short-topic
format: post
status: draft
type: event | launch | idea | community
performance:
notes:
---

Step 4: Review Checklist

Before presenting the draft, verify:

• Hook lands before the "see more" fold (~210 chars)
• No banned vocabulary
• No em dashes or en dashes
• No "Excited to announce" or similar weak openers
• Post is 150-300 words
• One clear CTA or question at the end
• 3-5 relevant hashtags
• Emojis used sparingly (0-2)
• First person voice throughout
• Specific numbers/evidence over vague claims
• Source material accurately represented
• No corporate jargon

Step 5: Self-Improvement

When moving a post from _drafts/ to _published/:

1. Scan the conversation for edits the user made
2. Diff what was drafted vs what the user kept
3. Identify patterns: What did they cut? What did they rewrite? What did they keep?
4. Add learnings to content/linkedin/_insights.md
5. If the post performs well later, promote it to content/linkedin/_examples/

DO's and DON'Ts

DO

• Start with the most interesting thing
• Use specific numbers and evidence
• Write like you talk
• Break up long blocks of text
• End with a question or clear next step
• Fetch source material before writing
• Save drafts to _drafts/ first

DON'T

• Start with "Excited to announce"
• Use corporate jargon or buzzwords
• Write walls of text
• Use more than 2 emojis
• Self-describe as a "thought leader"
• Write without reading _insights.md first
• Skip the review checklist
• Publish directly without user review

Tips for Success

1. The hook is 80% of the work. Spend most of your time on the first two lines.
2. One post, one idea. If you have two ideas, write two posts.
3. Specificity beats cleverness. "Reduced query time from 45s to 2s" beats "Made it way faster."
4. Read it aloud. If it sounds like a press release, rewrite it.
5. When in doubt, shorter. Cut every sentence that does not earn its place.
6. Stay close to the user's voice. Improve, don't rewrite. Don't invent angles they didn't suggest.