For most professional services firms, LinkedIn is the one social platform that is genuinely worth the time. Your clients, referral partners and future clients are already there, and they are in a work frame of mind when they scroll. The difficulty is that it is easy to either ignore LinkedIn entirely or to lose half an hour at a time without achieving much.
This routine is designed for busy owners and partners. It takes roughly an hour a week, spread across a few short sessions, and it focuses on the activities that tend to lead to real conversations rather than empty likes.
Get your profile in order first
Before you start posting, spend thirty minutes making sure your personal profile does its job. People who see your posts will often click through to your profile before deciding whether to follow you or get in touch.
- Headline. Replace your job title with a sentence about who you help, such as “Accountant for trade businesses in Western Sydney” or “Helping Canberra families plan for retirement”.
- About section. Write three short paragraphs in plain language: who you work with, the problems you solve and how people can contact you.
- Featured section. Add a link to your website and one or two of your most useful articles or service pages.
- Photo. Use a clear, recent photo where you look approachable.
Your personal profile matters more than your company page for most small firms, because people connect with people. Keep the company page tidy, but put most of your effort into your own profile.
The weekly routine at a glance
Here is the whole routine in one table. You can move the days around to suit your calendar.
| Day | Task | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Plan one post and jot down ideas | 10 minutes |
| Tuesday | Publish your main post and reply to comments | 15 minutes |
| Wednesday | Comment thoughtfully on other people’s posts | 10 minutes |
| Thursday | Connect with new people and follow up | 15 minutes |
| Friday | Check messages and note what worked | 10 minutes |
That adds up to about an hour. If a week is busy, do Tuesday and Thursday and skip the rest.
Monday: plan one post
Keep a running list of post ideas in your phone’s notes app. Every time a client asks a good question, or you notice something that surprised you in your work, add it to the list. By Monday you will usually have more ideas than you need.
Good topics for professional services firms include:
- A question a client asked this week and how you answered it (with no identifying details).
- A common mistake you see and how to avoid it.
- A change in rules or deadlines, explained in plain language.
- A short story about how you approach a certain kind of problem.
- Something you have learned from running your own practice.
Choose one idea and write a rough draft. A few short paragraphs is plenty.
Tuesday: publish and stay around
Publish your post in the morning and check back once or twice during the day to reply to any comments. Replying promptly and thoughtfully tends to keep the conversation going, and it shows people that you are approachable.
Write the way you speak to clients. Avoid jargon, and try to leave the reader with one useful idea they can act on. If you have written a longer article on your website, you can summarise it in the post and include the link, although many people find that posts without links start more conversations.
Wednesday: comment on other people’s posts
Spend ten minutes reading posts from clients, referral partners and people in your industry. Leave two or three comments that add something, such as a practical tip, a related experience or a thoughtful question.
A comment like “Great post!” does very little. A comment like “We see this a lot with new business owners, and the simplest fix is usually to set aside tax in a separate account each month” gives people a reason to look at your profile.
Thursday: grow your network with intent
Send a handful of personalised connection requests to people you have genuinely met or who work with the kinds of clients you want. That might include people you met at an event, referral partners you have not connected with yet, or clients you have recently started working with.
Include a short note with each request that explains why you are connecting. Then take a few minutes to follow up with anyone who has engaged with your posts recently, perhaps by thanking them or asking a question about their work.
A financial adviser in Hobart, for example, might use Thursday to connect with two accountants and a solicitor they met at a local business breakfast, with a friendly line about the conversation they had.
Friday: check in and learn
Clear your LinkedIn messages and reply to anything that needs a response. Then take a couple of minutes to note which post got the most thoughtful comments and which topics led to messages or enquiries. Over a few months, this simple habit shows you what your audience actually cares about.
Keep it sustainable
The most common reason LinkedIn does not work for professionals is that they stop after a few weeks. A modest routine you keep up for a year will do far more than an ambitious one you abandon. If you miss a week, simply pick up again the following Monday.
If you would like to know where LinkedIn fits into a wider plan, our guide to your first 90 days of marketing after launch shows how it works alongside reviews, referrals and your website.
Where your posts should lead
Every post you write sends a few curious people to your profile and, from there, to your website. That is where they decide whether to get in touch, so it helps to have a site that explains clearly who you help and how to take the next step. If yours is not quite there yet, you can see how we build websites for consultants and other professional firms in seven days.
