If you want to increase your reach as a coach, learning how to go viral on LinkedIn is a good way to do it.
I really believe you can get some excellent new coaching clients there if you can create captivating content.
Take some examples from these real-life coaches and influencers on how they’ve managed to create a viral post – you might hit on that one thing that works perfectly for you.
Table of Contents
Write a great intro hook for a text post
Take a look at popular LinkedIn influencer and business coach James Altucher’s post, 10 Steps To Avoid Giving Up:
This is a fairly long text post, and it has a good balance of personal, very ‘human’ content mixed with steps that are actionable and practical. It’s the kind of post that causes you to stop and think about your own life.
Let’s talk about that first sentence: ‘I want to disappear. I want to move into an old apartment building in a place where I would never talk to anyone.’
This is an incredibly intriguing hook. LinkedIn text posts can sometimes become very familiar, and your gaze almost automatically drifts over them: a lot of posts start with something along the lines of ‘Here’s how I made my first $1 million’ or ‘Here’s how you can nail that promotion.’
While I’d argue that these are useful and interesting, there are many of them on LinkedIn already. It can be helpful to think of more compelling openers. Altucher’s post tells a compelling story that makes it very surprising, and it immediately makes you want to read on to find out more.
Learning to write a killer first line is an important part of any content strategy, and personal stories can help you grab people’s attention.
Key Takeaway: If you’re writing a text-based post, focus on that first line. Think of how you can make it surprising to keep people engaged and then hit them with some useful, actionable content with moving anecdotes. Potential clients will love to share posts that connect with them on an emotional level, too.
Use humor to make a point
This post, by the founder of HootSuite, Ryan Holmes, gained incredible traction on LinkedIn:
This post had over 23,000 reactions, hundreds of comments, and over a thousand reposts. All it took was a funny image – in this case, a humorous Netflix billboard – to create viral content.
You don’t even need to come up with funny posts yourself. Memes and billboards are easy to share, and you can add your own spin to the posts by linking them to a message that feels relatable if you can answer a pain point or a worry within your industry (in this case, shifting expectations and the need to change to keep up with changes in customer behavior), even better.
So while Ryan isn’t a coach, this is still applicable for your social media strategy. You can post inspirational and funny posts that will chime with your potential clients specifically and help you to reach a broader audience.
Key Takeaway: Snap that funny billboard or that piece of street art that made you smile, or even keep a collection of memes you can reshare later on. You can add your own spin on it and make it useful for people, and people love to share content that makes them laugh. Potential clients will enjoy seeing these posts on your feed, and it will increase your chances of going viral.
Celebrate milestones
People like to celebrate milestones, even if they’re not related to work. For example, LinkedIn influencer and executive coach Marshall Goldsmith celebrated his 75th birthday here:
This post gained nearly 2,000 comments and almost 4,000 reactions, as well as some reposts. People like to pay respect to influencers who have given them good advice over the years, and Marshall has obviously built enough of a community to want to celebrate a big birthday with him and join in his personal experience.
So don’t be afraid to be positive: people like to see happy moments on LinkedIn. It can be a surprisingly crucial part of your social media marketing strategy. Think birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, etc. Share these moments and be honest about how you’re feeling, and people may respond warmly, especially if it’s an important milestone.
Key Takeaway: Celebrate your milestones on LinkedIn. People like to comment their congratulations on posts like this, so don’t be afraid to share your personal posts.
Collaborate on a podcast
Alex Pirouz, business advisor and founder of Linkfluencer, collaborated on a podcast with Brandon Burns, and he posted a snippet on his LinkedIn, and it was a successful post:
This is a good post for a few reasons. It immediately allows any followers to find out more about Alex, as well as giving new followers a good grounding in who he is and what he does. Alex’s answers are fun, lighthearted, and relatable, and giving your opinions and preferences is a good way to start a conversation.
Alex’s post gained a good number of reactions, reposts, and comments. The best part is that Alex didn’t even have to go out of his way to make the post; instead, he just used a snippet of a podcast he had already recorded. It’s a great way to build a rapport with your potential clients so they can get to know you. You can use these podcast snippets on all social media platforms, too. Repurposing content like this is part of the secret sauce that will make your life so much easier when it comes to your growth strategy.
Key Takeaway: Collaborate with others on a podcast (you can find hosts and guests on Talks.co), and collect any funny, interesting, or useful moments so you can share them on LinkedIn.
Show passion for your causes
CEO and co-founder of Ellevest (a company that provides financial coaching for women) Sallie Krawcheck posts about topics that are both relevant to her niche and important issues that she feels passionately about, including equality, helping women to build their wealth and financial security, and how to be a female leader. This post did very well:
This is a clear infographic with the main message (Ellevest raises $53 million in Series B funding), and the text is powerful, passionate, and bold. People love to share content that makes them feel good, including when business owners go out of their way to make the world a better place, and they enjoy reading about success stories.
So if you’re doing something that helps others – charity events, fundraising, etc – celebrate the results. Share how much money you raised, talk about the people you helped. People like to boost and uplift these kinds of posts. It also shows clients that you really care, and can help them warm to you.
Key Takeaways: If you’re passionate about a specific cause, don’t be afraid to talk about it on LinkedIn, especially if you’re trying to raise money for a charity or gain attention for an event. It’s a great place to advertise and encourage donations, and these posts are very shareable: people love to share content they think helps others, and this can open up your audience to potential new clients.
Use infographics
Finance expert and career development coach Andrew Lokenauth creates shareable content about personal finances, and it performs really well on LinkedIn. Check out this post:
If you’ve got some hints, tips, or life hacks (I’m talking about anything from easy Photoshop shortcuts to daily routines to interview tips) why not switch things up by making an infographic? It’s an easy way for content creators to reach their target audience.
LinkedIn users like infographics. They’re easy to digest, you can download them onto your phone for future use, and they offer a lot of information in a short amount of screen time. These visual elements should form a crucial piece of your content creation strategy.
So, next time you’re thinking of writing a text post, head over to Canva instead. You can use Canva to easily create an attractive, simple infographic (and it’ll get easier the more you practice). This will quickly and easily showcase your expertise within your specific niche, and people will follow you for more high-quality content.
Key Takeaways: Infographics are useful and very ‘shareable’. If you’ve got a lot of information you want to convey in a short space of time, consider making it into an attractive infographic instead. This information is useful for your current and potential clients.
Creating industry-specific memes
Startup advisor and coach Hanna Larsson posts about the challenges of making start-ups work, sharing tips and advice, as well as directing people to her services.
I want to talk about this LinkedIn post:
This is a clever post for a few reasons. One, she’s sharing another person’s meme. This means she didn’t have to put effort into making her own meme. The good thing about the internet is that you can build upon other people’s stories and jokes, pushing it out to wider audiences and extending the conversation, which is what Hanna is doing here: she’s taking this meme and asking her audience to talk about it.
Plus, it’s a funny meme that makes sense in the context of US-based startups, which is Hanna’s primary audience. She will get some laughs out of this because they’ll understand what she’s talking about.
Lastly, it’s a good post because it’s a little bit controversial and could cause a debate, which is fantastic for engagement. Engagement will get more eyes on your posts, which is important when it comes to finding new clients, so a good discussion can be a powerful tool.
Key Takeaways: Create (or share) industry-specific memes. This will make your key audience smile and feel understood, which will make them want to share it. Plus, don’t be afraid to be a little cheekier with your sense of humor. Friendly debates are good for engagement, too.
Dive into hot topics
Daniel Goleman is a business consultant, but his specialist interest is emotional intelligence coaching. He coaches on emotional intelligence for business owners and leaders. Goleman focuses on human connection, which poses an interesting question: how does AI fit into this?
Goleman dives deep into this in his newsletter, and it has created an interesting discussion with many comments, shares, and reposts. AI is a hot topic, and Goleman has used his expertise to add an interesting new perspective, while opening up the conversation to his followers in this interesting LinkedIn post.
Note that Goleman has used hashtags effectively here: we can see #ai and #emotional intelligence, among others. This helps to push your posts out to people looking for a particular topic to increase your engagement rates. You can also use these as a jumping-off point for future posts to grow your digital community.
Key Takeaways: If you’ve got an interesting perspective on current affairs, don’t be afraid to share it and ask your audience for a discussion. This prompts tons of comments and reposts. Bonus tip – take the time to respond to as many comments as you can. This helps to build community and keeps the conversation going.
Use polls to start a discussion
Brigette Hyacinth is an author, business consultant, and keynote speaker. Her services are focused on management and leadership, so much of her content is directed towards them.
Brigette uses a lot of polls to start discussions on popular topics on her LinkedIn page:
Brigette often brings up topics that are relevant to both employees and management: in the above LinkedIn post, she’s talking about applying for jobs that don’t include the salary.
I like this for a few reasons. Firstly, it offers an insight into how employees think, which is really useful for Brigette’s potential clients – leaders and management will want to look at the results of this poll, and it may inform their choices in terms of how they lead.
Secondly, it’s a great way to drive engagement. People like to vote, but they also like to justify their choices, and some of these topics bring up a little debate, which is always good for more comments. It’s a great way to create meaningful connections with people, too.
Key Takeaways: Use polls to drive discussion among your potential clients. Polls take moments to create, but can create a ton of engagement.
Repurpose short clips from virtual summits
Ann Handley is a digital marketing coach, and she runs virtual summits on marketing and communication strategies. In this LinkedIn post, she has created a video about her upcoming summit:
This post itself has gained good traction, with a decent number of reactions, comments, and reposts. She has used a simple checklist to show potential attendees what they will see there, and includes a clear call-to-action in the form of a sign-up link.
However, I want to take this further.
Virtual summits are my passion, having launched over 15 summits myself, creating 5,000-25,000 new coaching leads each time. The next step I would take would be to take some short snippets from the summit containing some actionable advice, and post those on LinkedIn.
You’ve already put in the work of running the summit, and you can get even more use out of that work by reposting it on other platforms. I suggest only using a little of the summit because you want to respect your paying summit attendees.
Posting these clips will help to build your presence and brand authority as a coach on LinkedIn, and it’s even better if you can include a practical tip or advice. People love to share these nuggets of wisdom, and video content performs well. People will start to look to you for more valuable content in the future, too.
Key Takeaways: Advertise your summits on LinkedIn and then follow up with snippets from the summit itself. Make sure to include some actionable advice in a short video, and people will enjoy sharing it.
Ask thought-provoking questions
Speaker, author, and mentor Dave Kerpen often films short videos in which he directly asks a question on work-related topics. In this one, for example:
Dave is asking a fairly relatable question that people can answer easily and quickly. It doesn’t take much effort to join the conversation, and that means that a lot of people want to join in and respond. I’d say quality over quantity here, however: you don’t want to bombard people with questions, but instead pick the ones that will really resonate with them.
Asking questions that relate to your niche is a good way to go viral, especially if you can respond with your own thoughtful comments and keep the conversation going with your new potential connections.
Key Takeaway: Questions are great for engagement, so think of some key questions that are bound to get people talking. Suppose those questions are very divided, even better.
Key Takeaways
Patience is the key if you want to go viral on any platform. In my experience, it takes time and experimentation (and a little luck) to hit on that one viral LinkedIn post. However, there are definitely things you can do to create popular, high-performing posts on LinkedIn, and these posts can be a crucial first step in your sales funnel.
The best thing to consider is how this post will create engagement. You can focus on creating a conversation or providing useful information that people will love to share, and you’ll soon see viral success.
Before you go, be sure to watch our free training on how to get coaching clients.