Platform Linkedin

LinkedIn Presence Plan

Use When

• Create or revise a Linkedin-specific presence, growth or publishing plan.
• Translate a confirmed audience, offer and objective into channel decisions.

Do Not Use When

• The task is cross-channel operating procedure; use the closest playbook-* skill.
• The task is choosing channels or business direction; use strategy-channel-architecture.

Required Inputs

Capability and Permission Boundaries

Read supplied artefacts and search relevant evidence. Treat review, audit and planning as read-only. Editing the requested draft is allowed; publishing, messaging, production changes, personal-data processing, spending, destructive actions and certification claims require explicit authority. Use network access only for authorised verification.

Degraded Mode

If accounts, files, network, rendering or current evidence are unavailable, return the narrowest useful qualified Linkedin channel plan plus an evidence-gap list. Mark each unavailable check not assessed; never convert it into a pass.

Decision Rules

Workflow

1. Confirm the consumer, objective, market, decision owner and permission boundary; stop if the objective or owner is missing.
2. Inspect supplied evidence and verify volatile claims; record missing inputs rather than filling them with assumptions.
3. Apply the decision rules, preserve useful existing material and draft the Linkedin channel plan.
4. Test each action against platform, privacy, safeguarding, brand and approval constraints; stop and escalate a blocking risk.
5. Run the quality and anti-slop gates. If a check fails, correct the draft and rerun it before handoff.

Outputs

Evidence Produced

Quality Standards

Use British English and the specified market context. Recommendations must be executable with the stated capacity, current claims must be verified or qualified, and acceptance conditions must be observable. A worked example must use a labelled scenario, not fabricated client evidence.

Anti-Patterns

• Inventing a client fact, benchmark, budget or approval. Fix: cite the source or label the assumption and its effect.
• Copying one channel or client pattern unchanged. Fix: tie each choice to the named audience, objective and evidence.
• Stating volatile platform or legal details from memory. Fix: verify the current official source or omit the claim.
• Treating an inaccessible account, file or metric as healthy. Fix: mark it not assessed and bound the conclusion.
• Publishing, spending, messaging or changing production state from planning authority. Fix: obtain explicit action authority.
• Delivering actions without owner, timing or acceptance. Fix: assign all three or return the item as an unresolved gap.

References

• Anti-AI-slop production gate
• East African English standard
• Use the directly cited sources and companion skills in the domain guidance below; verify time-sensitive claims before use.

Required Input

Before generating this plan, collect the following from the client:

• Client name — business name and founder/consultant name
• Industry — sector and sub-sector (e.g. financial services: SME lending)
• Country / city — default: Uganda / Kampala
• Primary goal — thought leadership / B2B lead generation / talent recruitment / investor relations / brand credibility
• B2B, B2C, or both — determines content tone and CTA approach
• Target decision-maker job title — the specific role the client wants to reach (e.g. Head of Procurement, CEO of an SME, HR Manager)
• Products / services — list top 3–5 offerings with brief descriptions
• Current LinkedIn stats — Company Page follower count, founder/consultant personal connection count, average post impressions if available
• Client type — organisation (company/NGO/agency) or individual (consultant/artist/politician/executive/professional)
• Founder willingness to post personally — yes/no and frequency they can commit to
• Brand voice — reference the 04-brand-voice-intake output; if not yet completed, note the tone preference (formal/professional/conversational)

1. Company Page vs Personal Profile Strategy

Most East African SMEs and consultancies should run both — the personal profile builds trust and drives engagement while the Company Page provides institutional credibility. Apply the guidance below to decide where to focus the majority of effort.

Prioritise the Company Page when:

• Recruiting talent at scale — candidates research the company independently of the founder
• Managing investor or donor relations — institutional stakeholders expect an organisational presence
• The business has multiple spokespeople or a communications team producing content
• The organisation is transitioning from founder-led to a brand-led identity

Prioritise the personal profile (founder or lead consultant) when:

• The business is a consultancy, advisory, or professional services firm where the client buys the individual's expertise
• Thought leadership is the primary value proposition — clients choose the person before the company
• The business is in an early growth stage where the founder's network is the primary lead source
• The service is high-value and trust-dependent (legal, financial, medical, education)

Recommended approach for most EA SMEs: Run both in parallel. The founder posts 4–5 times per week on their personal profile; the Company Page posts 3 times per week with curated and company-specific content. Cross-reference: personal profile posts can be shared to the Company Page to amplify reach. Company Page posts can be shared by the founder to their network.

Practical setup checklist — Company Page:

• Logo: 300×300px; transparent background preferred
• Cover image: 1128×191px; include tagline, website, and one CTA
• Tagline: 120 characters — precise description of what the business does and for whom
• About section: 2,000 characters maximum — include keywords, services, location, and a clear value proposition
• Specialities: complete the specialities field (shown in search) — use specific service terms

Practical setup checklist — personal profile:

• Headshot: professional, well-lit, face fills 60–70% of frame, camera at eye level; minimum 400×400px. Profiles with a photo receive 11–21× more views (Serdula, 2023; Long, 2023).
• Banner image: 1584×396px — use as a brand billboard: name, title, positioning statement, website, contact method. A blank/default banner signals an inactive, unserious profile.
• Headline: 220 characters — never accept LinkedIn's auto-generated job title. Apply the formula: "I help [specific audience] achieve [specific outcome] — [keyword] | [keyword]". Each keyword in the headline is a high-weight SEO field.
• About section: first 2–3 lines show before "see more" — lead with the strongest point. Include 40+ words to improve search ranking. Never write in third person. End with contact details in the body (the Contact section is only visible to first-degree connections).
• Featured section: pin best post, a case study or lead magnet, a booking/contact link. Update every time a new service or strong post goes live.
• Experience: achievements not duties. Add rich media attachments (case study decks, press coverage, project samples) to each role entry.
• Custom URL: set to linkedin.com/in/firstname-lastname. Never use numbers — they signal the name was taken and the profile is secondary.
• Turn off "People Also Viewed": Settings & Privacy → Privacy → "Viewers of this profile also viewed" → Off. The default setting advertises competitors to every visitor to your profile.
• All-Star completion: LinkedIn only surfaces profiles widely in search at All-Star level (requires: photo, location, education, 5+ skills, 1+ current position, About section, 50+ connections). All-Star profiles are 27× more likely to be found (Serdula, 2023).
• Skills: list 5+ relevant skills, pinned in keyword priority order. Members with 5+ skills receive 31× more messages and are viewed 17× more (Long, 2023). The top 3 pinned skills are among the five highest-weight SEO fields on LinkedIn.

2. Content Types and Rationale

Apply the POEM model (Paid/Owned/Earned — Chaffey, 2024) to LinkedIn: these content types are all Owned and Earned media. Each type serves a different function in the RACE framework (Reach/Act/Convert/Engage).

Algorithm fundamentals LinkedIn shows a new post first to first-degree connections. If the post does not gain engagement within the first 60 minutes, it dies — it will not be pushed to second-degree connections. This makes the first hour critical: alert close contacts to engage immediately after publishing. Comments are worth 2× likes to the algorithm; shares are worth 3× likes (Menke, cited in Ingram, 2020). Posts with external links in the body receive significantly reduced distribution — LinkedIn penalises content that sends users off-platform. Always paste external links in the first comment and note this at the end of the post ("link in the first comment").

Text posts The most accessible format — no design required. LinkedIn's algorithm currently favours native text posts that generate comments. Maximum impact comes from a strong hook in the first 1–2 lines before the "see more" truncation. Keep to 1,300 characters or fewer for the hook-and-content section. Works best for: opinions, lessons learnt, personal experiences, quick tips. Text-only posts (no links, no images) often outperform rich media posts in raw reach.

Document / carousel posts (PDF upload) Upload a multi-page PDF as a document post — it displays as a swipeable carousel. Generates the highest dwell time of any LinkedIn format because readers swipe through multiple slides. Works best for: frameworks, step-by-step guides, checklists, data summaries, list-based content. Aim for 8–15 slides; first slide is the cover and must work as a standalone hook image.

Native video Upload video directly to LinkedIn — do not share YouTube or Vimeo links, which receive lower distribution. Recommended duration: 30–90 seconds for feed posts. Works best for: service demonstrations, office walkthroughs, event recaps, founder commentary on industry news. Always add subtitles — the majority of LinkedIn video is watched without sound.

Articles (LinkedIn Publishing) Long-form content indexed by LinkedIn and by Google. Use for thought leadership pieces: 800–1,500 words. Always link back to the client's website blog. Works best for: detailed frameworks, opinion pieces, case studies, guides. Note: articles receive lower immediate feed reach than posts — use a separate post to announce the article and drive readers to it.

Polls High-engagement format — LinkedIn's algorithm boosts polls because they generate click interactions quickly. Use polls for: industry debate questions, product/service research, audience preference questions. Keep the question genuinely interesting to the audience. Follow up the poll with a post sharing the results and the client's interpretation.

Events Use LinkedIn Events for webinars, workshops, panel discussions, and product launches. Send invitations to connections and followers. Event pages allow direct registration. Post about the event 2 weeks out, 1 week out, and the day before.

3. Thought Leadership Content Approach

For founder/consultant personal profiles, apply this content mix to build authority and generate inbound enquiries.

Five content categories:

1. Professional insight posts — share a lesson learned from client work, a business experience, or an observed pattern in the industry. Be specific: name the situation and the outcome. Generic observations are forgettable.

2. Industry opinion posts — take a clear position on a relevant debate or trend. Avoid "it depends" conclusions — these generate no comment or discussion. Example: "Most Ugandan SMEs don't need a social media manager. Here's what they actually need first." A clear stance invites both agreement and respectful disagreement — both drive reach.

3. Case study posts — structure: Challenge / Approach / Result. Use the Challenge/Approach/Result format within a single post (no link required). Anonymise the client if needed. Results must be specific: "revenue increased by 40% in 3 months" outperforms "significantly improved their results."

4. Q&A posts — pose a question to the audience and invite responses in the comments. Example: "What's the biggest mistake you made in your first year of business? I'll start." High comment volume signals to the algorithm that the post deserves broader distribution. Always return to reply to every comment.

5. Behind-the-scenes professional life — show the working reality of the business: team meetings, client sessions (with permission), proposal writing, research, events attended. Not personal life — professional context only. This builds the "know, like, trust" sequence Bodnar and Cohen (2012) identify as the foundation of social selling.

Post structure — AIDA formula (Pattar, 2022):

[ATTENTION — Hook line: curiosity, astonishment, surprise, or announcement. 1 sentence. Makes the reader click "see more".]

[INTEREST — Lines 2–3: add context to the hook; build a "drumroll" feeling without resolving it yet.]

[DESIRE — Body: develop the idea toward a big reveal; one continuous logical flow; no new ideas introduced here.]

[ACTION — Big Bang conclusion + CTA: the payoff, followed by one question to invite comments.]

[Signature hashtag — your personal branded hashtag on every post, e.g. #PeterWrites]

Use white space aggressively — blank line between every 1–3 lines. Walls of text are scrolled past without reading.

The 1.80 Dollar Strategy (GaryVee, adapted): Find 10 relevant hashtags in your niche. Every day, search each hashtag, read the top posts, and leave one meaningful comment — your genuine perspective, not "Great post!" — on each. Ten hashtags × 10 posts × 1 real comment = 100 touchpoints daily, all public and attached to your profile. Do this for 3 months. Your search ranking rises, your profile views compound, and your niche authority builds. Devote at least 80% of LinkedIn content time to engaging with others' posts; only 20% to creating your own content (Long, 2023).

What to avoid in posts: failure stories with no resolution (self-pity, not authority); purely promotional posts more than once per week; "it depends" opinion posts that take no position (these generate no discussion); editing published posts (signals indecision and reduces authenticity perception).

4. B2B Lead Generation Through Content

Generate qualified B2B leads without paid advertising by applying this systematic approach. Reference: Bodnar and Cohen (2012) describe this as the "content-first" outreach method.

Core principle: post content that solves a problem your ideal client has. When they find the post useful, they are pre-qualified — they have self-identified as someone with that problem.

Five-step organic lead generation system:

1. Name the problem in the post — decision-makers recognise their own situation when it is described accurately. Begin posts with the problem before offering the solution. Example: "If you're running a Ugandan SME and still managing your finances in a spreadsheet, this is for you."

2. Soft CTA within content — at the end of value-led posts, offer something more: "Send me a message and I'll share the full framework / checklist / template." This creates a reason to DM without feeling like a sales pitch.

3. Hard CTA for offer posts — once per week, a post may explicitly promote a service or product. Be direct. State who it is for, what they get, the outcome, and how to start. Link to a landing page or invite a DM.

4. Warm outreach after engagement — when a decision-maker likes or comments on a post, send a connection request within 48 hours with a personalised note referencing their engagement. This converts content interaction into a direct relationship.

5. LinkedIn Newsletter — use the native newsletter feature to build a subscriber list of interested prospects. Every new subscriber receives a notification. Publish fortnightly. Topics: industry insights, practical guides, company news. The newsletter builds a permission-based audience that is independent of the algorithm.

Content ACT Framework (Dodaro, 2019) Organise all thought leadership content around three functions:

• Authority — positions the professional as the leading expert: opinion posts, industry analysis, prediction pieces, published articles
• Credibility — demonstrates results: case studies, client outcomes, speaking engagements, certifications, measurable before/after results
• Trust — shows the human behind the expertise: behind-the-scenes, team moments, values-based posts, honest reflections on challenges

A content calendar that includes all three builds the conditions for inbound enquiries. Missing any one creates a gap — technically excellent content from someone the audience does not yet trust will not convert.

Buyer journey content mapping (Dodaro, 2019) Match content type to where the target buyer sits in their decision process:

A monthly content calendar should contain posts at every stage — not only Awareness (the most common mistake) and not only Decision (which reads as a sales pitch to cold audiences).

5. Employee Advocacy Activation

Employee shares extend the Company Page's reach to networks the brand cannot access directly. One employee share can reach 10× more connections than the Page has followers if the employee has an active network.

How to activate employee advocacy:

• Provide share-ready post templates — pre-written LinkedIn posts the employee can post with one click and minor personalisation. Templates should feel personal, not like corporate press releases.
• Publish a one-page internal guide (or Slack/WhatsApp message) outlining: what is encouraged (sharing company news, celebrating wins, sharing their own professional content), what is off-limits (client confidentiality, financial data, personal opinions on behalf of the company). Reference the 04-brand-voice-intake for tone guidance.
• Recognise employees who share — an internal mention, a "team spotlight" Story on Instagram, or a public thank-you on the Company Page post itself. Recognition drives repeat behaviour.
• Do not mandate sharing — coerced employee advocacy reads as inauthentic and can backfire publicly. Make it easy and attractive, not compulsory.

Sample share-ready template:

"Excited to share that [Company Name] just [achievement / publication / event]. This is what we've been working on — really proud of the team. Read more here: [link]." (Edit to your own voice before posting)

6. Posting Frequency Guide

Company Page

• Minimum: 3 posts per week (Monday / Wednesday / Friday rhythm)
• Growth phase: 5 posts per week
• Avoid posting more than once per day on the Company Page — it suppresses the reach of each individual post

Personal profile (founder/consultant)

• Maintenance: 3 posts per week
• Growth phase: 4–5 posts per week
• Posting 5+ times per week is only sustainable with a content planning system — use the 11-content-calendar skill

Best posting times for Uganda and the EA market (EAT, UTC+3):

Avoid Friday afternoons and weekends — LinkedIn usage drops sharply. Monday morning posts can work if the topic is a week-opener observation or industry news, but engagement is typically lower than midweek.

7. Thirty-Day Content Plan

Deliver 5 posts per week across the personal profile and/or Company Page. Assign each post to the correct account (P = Personal profile, C = Company Page).

Week 1 — Establish Credibility

Week 2 — Demonstrate Expertise

Week 3 — Engage Decision-Makers

Week 4 — Convert and Grow

8. Connection Growth and Engagement Tactics

Who to connect with (Ideal Client Profile) Define the ICP before sending connection requests:

• Job titles: list 3–5 decision-maker titles (e.g. Chief Executive Officer, Head of Operations, Procurement Manager, Finance Director)
• Industries: list 2–3 industries where the service adds the most value
• Company size: define by employee count or annual revenue band
• Location: Kampala, Uganda; East Africa region; or specific countries if relevant

Search LinkedIn using the People filter with these criteria. Save the search to receive weekly alerts on new matching profiles.

Warm-up before connecting

• Follow the target profile (follow, not connect) and engage with their posts — a meaningful comment, not a generic "Great post!"
• Do this consistently for 2 weeks before sending a connection request
• When the target engages back or views the profile, send the connection request — they are now warm

Connection request message templates:

Cold outreach:

"Hello [Name], I came across your profile while researching [industry topic] in Uganda. I work with [type of business] on [outcome] and thought it would be valuable to connect. Looking forward to following your work."

Warm outreach (post engagement):

"Hello [Name], I appreciated your comment on [topic] — it aligned closely with what I'm seeing in the market too. I'd love to connect and continue the conversation."

InMail template (for reaching people outside the network):

"Hello [Name], I noticed [specific detail from their profile or recent post]. I help [their job title / company type] with [specific problem] — recently supported a similar business to [result]. Would it be worth a 20-minute conversation to see if there's a fit? Happy to work around your schedule."

Video and voice note DMs after connecting (Ingram contributors, 2020): After a target connection accepts, immediately send a personalised video (under 90 seconds) or voice note via the LinkedIn app. Introduce yourself, state that your goal is to provide value — not to pitch — and ask one specific question relevant to their work. Follow this immediately with a short text summary plus one free resource (article, checklist, short guide) that solves a problem they face. Video DMs doubled conversion rates vs text-only messages in controlled tests. Do NOT send a pitch in the first message under any circumstances — multiple contributors independently confirm that an immediate pitch after connecting causes instant removal.

Timing hack — accept connections after publishing: After publishing a post, accept any pending connection requests immediately. New connections see your most recent post on their feed — instant reach extension to fresh eyes who have never seen your content before (Pattar, 2022).

Rest and Revisit engagement sequence (Johnson, cited in Ingram, 2020):

1. When someone comments on your post, comment back immediately — do NOT like their comment yet.
2. Three days later, go back and like other commenters' comments — this triggers a new round of notifications, resurfacing the post.
3. One week later, like your own response comments — another notification wave, another feed re-entry. Three rounds of visibility from one post.

Event prospecting: Before any industry event or conference, search both the event keyword and its hashtag on LinkedIn. Anyone posting about it and confirming attendance is a warm connection request — you share context, which makes the request feel relevant and personal. Set meetings before the event, not at it.

Boolean search for precision prospecting (Shanks, 2016) LinkedIn's People search supports Boolean operators for targeted ICP identification:

• AND — narrows: Marketing Director AND Uganda
• OR — broadens: CEO OR Founder OR "Managing Director"
• NOT — excludes: Manager NOT "Social Media Manager"
• Quotation marks — exact phrase: "Head of Procurement"
• Parentheses — combined logic: (CEO OR Founder) AND (Uganda OR Kenya)

Save each search. LinkedIn sends weekly alerts when new profiles match — a passive prospecting system that surfaces warm leads automatically without daily manual searching.

Trigger-based prospecting (Shanks, 2016) Run three automated weekly searches:

1. Advocates search — past clients or champions who have changed companies. They already know and trust the brand; one message to the new role often opens a new account
2. New hires/appointed leaders search — filter by "Changed jobs in past 90 days" at target companies. New leaders make new buying decisions; early contact before they establish existing supplier relationships is the highest-probability outreach window
3. New opportunities search — contacts at companies that have recently announced expansion, funding, or new initiatives. These are trigger moments when procurement windows open

Grow by 3 daily (Shanks, 2016) Add 3 targeted new ICP-matched connections per day — not random connections. 3 per day × 250 working days = 750 new advocates per year, each compounding through their own networks.

Growing Company Page followers:

• Ask every employee to follow the Company Page (and to encourage their connections to follow)
• Promote the Company Page from the personal profile: "For company updates, follow [page link]"
• Cross-promote on other platforms (Instagram bio, Facebook Page About section, email signature)
• Tag the Company Page in personal posts when relevant — the Page's followers see the mention

9. LinkedIn-Specific KPIs

Track these metrics monthly. Company Page data is available in LinkedIn Analytics. Personal profile post data is visible under each post.

Review KPIs at the end of each month using the meta-reporting skill. If engagement rate drops below 2% for 4 consecutive weeks, audit the content mix: increase the ratio of opinion posts and case studies, which consistently outperform informational posts on LinkedIn.

10. Individual Brand Strategy — Artists, Politicians, and Creatives

LinkedIn's default framing is corporate. Non-business individuals must actively subvert this to make the platform work for them. The professional audience on LinkedIn (senior decision-makers, commissioners, institutional clients, journalists, event bookers) is exactly the audience that performing artists, politicians, and creatives cannot reach on Instagram or TikTok.

Performing artists and musicians

Headline formula: [Discipline] | [Genre/Style] ◆ [Notable Credential] ◆ Available for [work type] — [contact] Example: Session Musician | Jazz & Neo-Soul ◆ 15+ albums recorded ◆ Available for live work and studio sessions

About section: use a biographical narrative (first person, storytelling structure). Origin story → defining performances or projects → artistic philosophy → booking CTA. Contact details in the body — not just the Contact section (which only first-degree connections can see).

Featured section: pin the showreel, a press article, a streaming link, or an EPK (electronic press kit). Each Experience entry becomes a production credit — list credits, co-performers, venues, and critical reception; attach media.

Groups strategy: join groups for corporate event organisers, brand marketing teams, conference producers, venue operators, and arts funding bodies — not groups for fellow artists. Target the buyers, not the peers.

Key insight: corporate event organisers, brand marketers, and documentary commissioners hire entertainment through LinkedIn. Artists who ignore this audience leave commercial work on the table.

Politicians and public figures

Headline formula: [Title or Role] | [Constituency/Jurisdiction] ◆ [Key Policy Area or Mission] Example: Member of Parliament | Kampala Central ◆ Education Reform and Youth Employment

LinkedIn audience for politicians: journalists, NGO leaders, donors, international partners, civil servants, and institutional stakeholders — not the general voter base (which uses Facebook and WhatsApp). Write for this professional and institutional audience.

Content strategy: policy analyses and position papers as Articles (Google-indexed, searchable by researchers and journalists); polls to engage the professional community on policy questions; native video of speaking events; comments on content from government bodies and multilateral organisations.

Recommendations: endorsements from civil society leaders, academic experts, and international partners carry distinct credibility — different from political endorsements and valuable to this audience.

Creatives — designers, writers, photographers, filmmakers

Headline formula: [Discipline] ◆ [Specialisation for specific client type] ◆ Available for [work type] Example: Brand Designer ◆ Packaging & Identity for FMCG Brands ◆ Open to freelance commissions

About section: lead with the transformation you create for clients, not with tools or software. Buyers care about outcomes; tools are secondary.

Portfolio integration: Featured section pins 3–5 portfolio pieces; Experience entries include media attachments for each project; Skills list both the discipline (Photography, Brand Identity, Copywriting) and the tools (Figma, InDesign, Final Cut Pro) — buyers search by tool as well as by discipline.

Groups: join groups for marketing directors, creative directors, procurement managers, and CMOs — the buyers of creative services.

11. Blog Post Angles

Use with the blog-writer skill to generate client-attracting content.

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