Every LinkedIn guru has the same advice: post consistently, engage authentically, and the leads will come. They usually share this advice in a post that gets 50,000 impressions and generates exactly zero revenue for anyone who follows it.
Here's what actually works. No course to sell you at the end.
Why Most LinkedIn Advice Is Bad
The people teaching LinkedIn strategy have a fundamental conflict of interest: their business model *is* LinkedIn. They need you to believe that posting every day and commenting on 30 posts before breakfast is a viable business strategy — because that's what keeps you engaged on the platform where they monetize attention.
For actual B2B founders with actual businesses to run, this advice is a time trap. You don't have two hours a day to "build your personal brand." You have a company to build.
The question isn't "How do I get more LinkedIn impressions?" It's "How do I use LinkedIn to generate real business opportunities in minimal time?"
Different question. Completely different playbook.
The Actual Playbook
Step 1: Fix Your Profile (Once)
Your profile isn't a resume. It's a landing page. Most founder profiles read like a career history when they should read like a value proposition.
The formula that works:
- Headline: What you do + for whom + the result. Not your title. "Helping B2B SaaS founders build brands that close enterprise deals" beats "CEO at Company" every time.
- About section: First two lines are everything (that's all that shows before "see more"). Lead with the problem you solve. Write in first person. Be specific about outcomes, not services.
- Featured section: Pin your single best piece of content or your most compelling case study. Not five things. One.
This takes an afternoon. Do it once. Update it quarterly.
Step 2: Content That Converts (Not Just Engages)
Here's the uncomfortable truth about viral LinkedIn posts: they attract the wrong audience. Your "I got fired and it was the best thing that ever happened to me" story gets 10,000 likes from other content creators. Your ideal client — the VP of Marketing at a $50M SaaS company — scrolled right past it.
Content that actually generates business opportunities follows a different pattern:
- Share specific expertise, not motivational fluff. "Here's exactly how we repositioned a fintech brand that was losing deals to a competitor with an inferior product" beats "5 Branding Lessons I Learned the Hard Way" every single time.
- Teach from your engagements. Anonymize client work and share the strategic thinking. This demonstrates competence directly to the people who might hire you. It's a free sample of your actual work product.
- Disagree with conventional wisdom in your space. Contrarian takes attract the exact right audience: people who think critically about the topic you specialize in. Those are your buyers.
- Keep it text-only. LinkedIn's algorithm currently favors text posts and carousels over links and videos. Don't fight the algorithm. Work with it.
Post 2-3 times per week. That's enough. The gurus posting daily are in the content business. You're not.
Step 3: The DM Strategy That Isn't Sleazy
LinkedIn DMs have a terrible reputation because 95% of them are automated garbage. "Hey [FIRST_NAME], I noticed we're both in [INDUSTRY]..." Delete.
But DMs, done manually and genuinely, are the highest-converting channel on the platform. Here's the approach:
- Only message people who've engaged with your content. Someone who liked or commented on your post has given you an opening. Use it.
- Lead with value, not a pitch. "Saw your comment about X. We actually ran into the same challenge with a client — here's what worked." Share a genuine insight. No call-to-action.
- Let the conversation develop naturally. If there's a fit, it'll become obvious. If there isn't, you've built a relationship with someone in your industry. Both outcomes are good.
- Never, ever automate this. The moment it feels scripted, you've lost. Ten genuine conversations per week beat 1,000 automated messages.
Step 4: The Comment Strategy
This is the highest-ROI activity on LinkedIn and the one founders skip. Leaving thoughtful comments on posts by people in your target market puts you directly in front of their audience — for free.
But "Great post!" is not a comment. A real comment adds a perspective, shares a relevant experience, or respectfully challenges a point. It takes 60 seconds to write and puts you in front of hundreds or thousands of the right people.
Spend 15 minutes per day commenting on posts from 5-10 people in your target market. That's it. No more, no less.
What to Ignore
- Pods and engagement groups. Fake engagement attracts fake audience. It's vanity metrics wrapped in a mutual back-scratching agreement.
- Hashtags. LinkedIn's hashtag functionality is essentially broken. Nobody browses hashtags. Skip them.
- LinkedIn Live and Audio Events. Unless you already have a substantial following, these features reach almost nobody. Build the audience first.
- Posting frequency beyond 3x/week. Diminishing returns kick in fast. Your fourth post of the week cannibalizes your third.
The Takeaway
LinkedIn works for B2B founders. But it works through specificity, genuine expertise, and real conversations — not through content volume and engagement hacks.
Spend 30 minutes a day, max. Post three times a week. Comment thoughtfully. DM people who engage. That's the whole playbook. It's not complicated. It's just not easy to sell as a course.