It Takes A Village: Why Your Team is Terrified to Post on LinkedIn (And How to Actually Fix It)

You are more than just you. You have employees, and colleagues, and contractors, and more working for you and with you.

And because of that, we need to talk about getting your team visible online.

I don’t mean just them arbitrarily liking all the company page posts.

You put the hard work into your posts and you put in the effort to make your company sound good. And so you should.
But if you have colleagues, peers, managers, and an entire team behind the scenes, then all of them should be posting. 

And you should encourage them. Encourage them to be their wonderful unique individual selves and grow on socials.
After all, you’re a team, right?

The Messy Reality. 

We often completely sabotage this with "best intentions" (even I’ve done it).
Sometimes we are a little too prescriptive on what someone can or can’t post. We made the wrong comment on their post.

Or worse, we just sit idly by and don’t help them.

All of which quietly kills the individual's desire to ever hit publish. 

This is a terrible lost opportunity. 

When your team goes silent, you lose hundreds if not thousands of eyes on your business and company.  You lose the trust of a team that wants to post and talk about the company they work for with pride.

So, let’s skip the fluff. 

Here is exactly why your team is scared to post, and how you can actually encourage them to show up without making it feel like a hideous chore.

Roadblock 1: They Haven’t Got a Clue

The most common issue is that most people simply don’t have a clue what to do on social media.
Passive users who are much more used to doomscrolling on the sofa in their PJs than they are to actually creating content (we’ve all done it, no judgement here).

So naturally, when you tell them they need to be active on LinkedIn, they haven’t the faintest idea what to post. Their minds just go blank.

And you can’t just demand that they post. You’re not that kind of orange coated leader.

What you need to do is guide your team, give them the nudges and inspiration they need to take that first leap. 
Give them a framework. 

Ask them questions. 

What did they learn this week? What is a common mistake they see clients making? Even something like What happened this week with you that you want to share with the world?

If you want them to speak up, you have to give them a conversation starter.

Roadblock 2: The Vulnerability Hangover

Let’s be real. Posting content online is actually, really rather hard. You’re putting something out there in the public eye, and it can leave people feeling incredibly vulnerable (even if the post itself isn’t all that personally vulnerable).  It’s a huge sense of impostor syndrome of worrying about sounding silly, making a typo, or accidentally saying the wrong thing.

Provide confidence to your team that their content is good and valuable. 

Because, especially in the beginning, their content will go through hits and misses. 

Nobody goes viral on day one (unless you’re super skilled or super lucky), and it takes time to find your feet and get comfortable with posting. 

Be their biggest cheerleader in the comments.

It’s worth it.

Give Them a Simple Structure

There is no “perfect” post. There is no single post or algorithmical magic that will make every post wonderful and "go viral".

Instead, keep things simple and give people a starting point to work with.

Use a photo: This really is not optional in today’s media-focused world. 

While yes, text posts do work wonders and some people are crazy successful with them alone, using a photo works SO MUCH BETTER on social media. 

The photo should preferably be a selfie or something where we can see your face.  We humans are hardwired to enjoy looking at faces, so get your face on a photo and post. 

Length doesn’t matter: 

Another question we get asked is how long a post should be. 

Some people write tons. Others, you can barely pry a sentence out of them. 

The truth is, either way is fine, as long as you make a point or a comment with what you say.

If you can say it in 10 words? Fantastic. If you want to talk about it a bit more, go for a bigger word count. 

Tell them to find that flow that suits them. 

Or, if they really are just starting out, encourage small posts and then gradually increase over time.

To hashtag or not to hashtag?: 

Hashtags are weird. On some platforms they are vital and on some they’re pointless.

Our recommendation is whatever platform you choose, look at who is getting quality engagement regularly. For example, we only use 3 hashtags MAXIMUM on LinkedIn as otherwise you’re going to get penalised. But on Instagram, a lot of people regularly use 10+. 

The point is, be specific to the platform. Also, make sure your hashtags are relevant to the post. There is no point in talking about construction and then hashtagging #accountancy.

Stop Lurking. Start Talking.

If you finally get your team to hit post, great. But then what? 🤷🏼‍♀️

If their strategy is “drop a post, then disappear” it’s no wonder their content feels like it’s landing in a black hole. 
LinkedIn's algorithm doesn't just care if you posted; it cares if you showed up, which means real, meaningful, non-robot engagement.

Encourage them to comment on their own and others posts, and make sure it’s meaningful not just “great post”.
Then again they don't need to write a 400-word essay under every post they see. 

But they do need to do more than mindlessly click “like” on someone’s inspirational quote about Mondays. 
Encourage thoughtful comments, follow-up questions, and the classic stick around for 30 to 60 minutes after their post goes live ton answer questions and comments on their post. 

Basically, act like a human who’s in the room, not a bot posting and scrolling on autopilot.

What Does “Good” Actually Look Like?

There is no one-size-fits-all thing for “good”.

You have to encourage your team to view social media as a consistent wheel of try, measure, improve, and experiment. 

After a few weeks or months of regular posting, then you can encourage varying up and trying new pieces of content.
A short video? A text-only post? What about a GIF? Or maybe a carousel they’ve created?

Whatever it is, support your team and let them know that it’s a constant case of testing new ideas out, and seeing if they work (through likes, comments, and conversations and maybe even purchases). 

Good (or more importantly, what is good for them) will become apparent in time. 

This will build their confidence over time and you will see their personal brand, their presence, shine and you and your company, by extension, shine.

Wrapping Up

When people know what is expected of them, they show up differently. 
If they’re given the space and the support to post, to become confident about things, and build on their own successes, that’s gold.

If you want your company to dominate the feed, you need to stop making social media feel like an intimidating chore and start making it a simple, supported system.

If social media has felt like hard work for far too long, you’re not failing. You just need a better strategy to get your team on board. That’s where we come in.