Content 101: planning, writing and publishing

LinkedIn was my platform of choice last year. I published several dozen articles and had varying success. Some articles had over 10k impressions, others less. I was writing for a month and was quite productive at that time.

However, I didn't have any system in place. I started writing on LinkedIn or in a post-scheduler app. All the articles that I've written and published were limited to LinkedIn. While this gave me reach to a broad audience, and some articles got good engagement, I was only partially content.

What I needed was a system that most content creators have. Using a system is what leads to consistency and quality.

Planning

Instead of planning content up-front, I depended on inspiration. Most articles were scheduled, while others were written directly in LinkedIn. But I needed to put more thought into the topics that I covered. There was a mix-up of various topics that I covered during the week.

Writing

Social post scheduler apps or LinkedIn were places where I wrote my content. Nothing fancy, but it was good enough at the time. At least, that's what I thought.

The content and articles I've written were limited to platforms and apps I didn't have control over. I couldn't repurpose a LinkedIn post and publish it on a blog or Medium.

I have a task in Todoist to copy all LinkedIn posts and Twitter threads to Notion. That's where I keep all my content now. Creating content directly on a platform you don't control is your worst mistake. Own your content and be in control of it. Make sure to create backups regularly.

Publishing

LinkedIn was my primary distribution channel. Sometimes I could repurpose shorter posts for Twitter, but that was about it.

One of the best ideas is to publish content on your blog first. Then cross-post to various social media platforms - LinkedIn, Twitter, Medium, and others.

What is my system now?

Since starting on LinkedIn, I've come up with a system. It still needs to be 100% done, but it is way better than not having a system at all!

Planning

Notion is where I keep all ideas. Usually, I write the title and a couple of bullet points to remind me later what it was about. The important part is - to write down your idea while it's still fresh. That's what I do now.

You can use a similar approach as I do.

Writing

I wrote this article in Notion. It's a place where all my content lives. I request regular export of the Notion content and back it up to the cloud and external drive. This way, I'm sure I wouldn't lose it.

When I'm done writing, I transfer it to the Hemingway app and edit it there. You can see some suggestions from Hemingway in the previous paragraph.

Basic spell-checking is done in Notion, but I use Grammarly Premium to fix everything else. Let's see how that works.

To ensure I don't lose original content, I have at least two versions: the original one and the one with fixes suggested by Grammarly.

Cover images

Adobe Express is the tool of my choice. I have a template which I then update with a title and a background picture (usually from Unsplash or Adobe). You could use Canva or a similar tool.

Before uploading the cover image to the blog and other social networks, I run it thru TinyPNG to reduce the file size.

Publishing

Publishing s is a multi-step process. The original article is first published on my blog (powered by Ghost at this time) and then cross-posted or shared on social media platforms. I cross-post identical content to Medium and Hashnode.

When it comes to LinkedIn, I might shorten the article or write a teaser (that's what I'm going to do for this one. It's too long for LinkedIn) to the original blog post.

On Twitter, I share the article or give a short intro. I suggest repurposing shorter articles to threads. Same with Mastodon.

Conclusion

A system is way better long-term than writing directly on any social media platform. That is not to say you shouldn't use them to reach and engage your audience. However, start with your blog first and then work from there. You never know what might happen in the future. This way, you are future-proofing your content and staying in control.