How to repurpose a blog post into LinkedIn posts

To repurpose a blog post for LinkedIn, pull four or five separate pieces out of it, the number, the framework, the mistake, the quote, and write each as its own post that makes sense without the article. The link to the original is optional and goes at the end, or in a comment. Many readers will never click it, so every post has to give them the value in the feed.

What this rules out is the summary post: 'New on the blog: five lessons from our pricing change. Read it here.' That post asks the reader to leave LinkedIn before giving them anything, and most of them will not.

Why one article makes several posts

A good article has more than one idea in it. It has a main argument, the evidence for it, a method, a story of something that went wrong, and a few lines worth quoting. On a blog those sit together because the reader chose to read the whole thing. In a feed, each reader gives you a few seconds, so each post can carry one of those pieces, and one strong article becomes a week of posts.

What to pull out

Read the article with a highlighter and mark these five things. Not every article has all five. Three is enough.

• The number. The most specific figure in the article: a before and after, a count, a cost. This becomes a receipt post.
• The framework. Any method with steps or parts. This becomes a framework post, with the steps written out in full.
• The mistake. Whatever went wrong on the way to the conclusion. This becomes a finding: what you expected, what happened, what changed.
• The quote. One sentence from the article, yours or a client's, that says the whole idea in a line. This becomes a short post built around it.
• The argument. The article's main point, stated plainly. This is usually the weakest post alone, so save it for last and support it with the evidence.

An example

Say Northside Studio, a two-person web design studio, published an article about moving from hourly billing to fixed packages. Here is how it breaks down:

• Receipt: proposals used to take three days and now take one, because a fixed menu of packages turned each proposal into a choice.
• Framework: the four questions the studio uses to decide which package a client needs.
• Finding: the studio expected clients to push back on fixed prices. Most asked fewer questions about price, not more.
• Quote: a client's line from the article, 'I knew what I was paying before the first call,' with two sentences on why that matters.
• Argument: fixed packages suit small studios better than hourly billing, with the three reasons from the article.

Five posts, each readable by someone who never sees the article. Spread over two weeks, with other posts between them, they do not read as a series.

Each post must stand without the link

This is the rule that decides whether repurposing works. Read each draft and ask: if the link disappeared, would the reader still learn something? If the answer is no, the post is an advert for the article.

1. Write each post from scratch, using the article as notes. Copying paragraphs across rarely works, because blog paragraphs lean on what came before them.
2. Give each post its own opening line with the specific detail first.
3. Include the whole of the piece you pulled. If it is a framework, list every step. Holding back a step to push a click feels like a trick to the reader.
4. Cut every reference to the article from the body. 'As I wrote last week' makes the post depend on something the reader has not seen.
5. Read it on a phone, as someone who follows you but has never visited your blog.

Where the link goes

LinkedIn does not publish how its feed treats links, and claims about it are guesses. You have three options, each with a cost.

• At the end of the post, as a plain line: 'The full write-up, with the numbers per client, is on the Northside blog.' Clear, and readers who want more can find it.
• In the first comment. Keeps the post clean, but many readers never open comments and it can look like a workaround.
• Nowhere. The post stands alone and the article is there for anyone who looks at your profile or website.

A reasonable mix is a link on one of the five posts, the one where the article adds the most, and none on the rest. Whatever you choose, tell the reader what they get by clicking as well as where the link is.

How to space them

• Do not post them on consecutive days. Put other posts between them so the feed does not become one topic.
• Lead with the strongest piece, usually the number or the framework.
• Leave the argument post for last, when readers have already seen the evidence in earlier posts.
• If one post does well, write a follow up on that piece rather than reposting the article.

Going the other way

The same idea works in reverse. A run of LinkedIn posts on one theme is often the outline of a blog post you have not written yet. When three or four posts on the same subject have landed, collect them, fill the gaps, and you have an article.

How GoodSocials handles this

On the GoodSocials board you can add your own idea in a sentence or two and pick which of your four themes it belongs to. Add each piece you pulled from the article as a separate idea, with the number or the steps written into it, and each becomes its own card. When approved, the agent drafts it in your voice principle, and the quality check reads it for invented numbers and claims with nothing behind them before it can be scheduled.