How to Ghostwrite LinkedIn Posts for Executives

Ghostwriting has been common for centuries, and it's not a shocker to say that it's alive and well today. Any time there's someone who can benefit from having content with their name on it, but who lacks either the expertise or the time to create that content themselves, ghostwriting is the answer.

There aren't really any reliable statistics, since ghostwriting is by definition mostly invisible, but large swaths of online content are often ghostwritten. This ranges from small-scale blogs and websites all the way up to Fortune 500 blogs and CEO insights pages, and especially social media.

And that was before AI. Some statistics today say anywhere between 50-60% of online content is AI-generated, which is effectively ghostwriting with a non-human writer.

Suffice to say that ghostwriting is still quite common, and it's a form of career that many writers and marketers are exploring. 

One niche that attracts a lot of interest is social media posts from executives, particularly on LinkedIn. It's lucrative, it's creative, and it's popular, so how do you do it?

Who This Post is For

First, I just want to set the stage for this post. I'm writing today mostly to content creators, writers, ghostwriters, marketers, and other creative specialists; those of us who would be doing the writing for executives.

Executives, this can be a good post for you to read to get insight into how your ghostwriter is going to view the process of creating content for you. But if you've come here for a detailed analysis of your concerns as an exec, you aren't going to find it. That said, I'll answer a few questions at the end of the post that might be relevant to you, so feel free to skip to that if you prefer.

Finding Executives to Write For

Probably the hardest part of ghostwriting for LinkedIn executives is finding those execs in the first place. No doubt, there are thousands of them out there who would love to have a good ghostwriter handle their posting. But they aren't often actively looking. You need to be proactive, identify executives and reach out to them.

That means, among other things:

• You need a strong grasp of the niches you have expertise in and can write deeply about. Don't try to pitch yourself to master chefs if you don't know anything about food. Caveat: if you're very good at learning and faking it until you make it, you can get away with it, but don't cold-open to CEOs when you can't even speak the same language.
• You need to build your own LinkedIn presence. What exec is going to have you do the work if you haven't done it for yourself?
• Be prepared to spend a lot of time on outreach. Many professionals are sending out 10-20 DMs every day to prospective execs, and maybe getting 10 responses per month. It's a long, grindy road, so you need to keep at it.

If you're going to make a career out of posting for execs on LinkedIn, you need to become the closest thing to a LinkedIn native you can.

Ghostwriting LinkedIn Posts for Executives

Once you have an executive or two willing to work with you, you need to get to work. Here are the tips I've found most useful.

Understand the Unique Facets of LinkedIn

LinkedIn is surprisingly unique compared to most other social networks, and the things that work best on it might not be intuitive.

The best posts tend to be under 300 words. Yes, longer posts can gain good traction. But shorter posts have a better hit rate. If one in 10 short posts makes it, while 1 in 15 long posts makes it, it's a much better time and effort ratio for the shorter posts.

I've seen some people say the sweet spot is 150-200 words, and others push as high as 300. Too short and you don't have room to say anything, but too long and people lose interest. Don't be afraid to test for your specific exec's niche!

Scheduling posts for mid-morning is ideal. Think about when the audience reading your exec's posts will be most likely to check. Figure they're getting into work, they've done their morning meetings, and now they're checking their socials before getting to work. Or, they've done their morning work and are checking before knocking off to lunch. Figure posting somewhere in the 9-10 am range gets your posts up and visible, but not so far down the feed that the scrollers don't reach them.

Posting 3x per week works best. This can vary depending on your executive's preferences. I've known some that want daily posts, even on weekends. I've known a few that want multiple posts per day, though this tends not to be effective in the long run. Usually, 3x per week is the sweet spot; enough to always be there in the feed, but not so much that the algorithms start suppressing you for spam.

It can be helpful to go out commenting for ~15 minutes prior to posting. Now, disclaimer here: I'm not sure if this is actual algorithmic influence or just superstition. But I've heard a lot of people say that being active as a commenter, rather than just a poster, helps with reach, impressions, and engagement.

A strong hook makes or breaks a post. People browsing social media, especially during the work day, and especially on LinkedIn, aren't doing it to deeply read everything they come across. They'll read the first few dozen words, and if the post doesn't catch them, they'll go to the next one. Your hook is critical.

Learn and Understand Your Executive's Voice

The key to good social media posting is having a good voice. Your exec probably has a voice of their own, even if they don't realize it. It's made up of their mannerisms, their communication style, their preferences, and more.

There's no shortcut to understanding this voice. You're going to need a solid onboarding call, a discussion, and possibly even a Q&A for them to fill out that gives you information on how they should sound.

You'll also need to do your homework. Watch presentations, webinars, Q&As, interviews, and other media they've produced. Read past LinkedIn posts, as long as you can verify they're actually the exec's and not just AI-generated or from another, now-fired writer. 

Take feedback, and adjust. Every bit of feedback, every edit request, every change, is something that contributes to voice.

Outline the Creative Relationship

Understanding who is doing what, and who has what responsibilities, is important for any creative partnership. Execs who treat ghostwriters no better than AI aren't going to get good results, but ghostwriters who disregard their execs won't have clients for long.

Consider some of these questions:

• Who generates the initial ideas? Generally, you want the exec to be playing a key part here. The core idea is the majority of the post, so if it doesn't sync with the exec's goals, it won't work at all.
• How much creative control does your executive need? Some just want to give the idea and be hands-off after. Others will nitpick every word. Ideally, you want somewhere in the middle.
• Who handles multimedia, publishing, comments, and other details? There's no wrong answer here, so sort this out with each client, or just have a consistent service.

I will say that, from reports I've seen over the last 6-12 months, all-text posts without any media at all (not even an image) are doing the best. Plus, that saves both time and budget that would be spent on images everyone is just scrolling past anyway.

Foster a Specialization in Storytelling

Storytelling can be very difficult, especially in a constrained format like a 200-word social media post. But it's pretty much essential if you want to be able to engage people in a short amount of time. Obviously, you don't have space for anything complex, but you can work to build up a more overarching story over time. 

There's a lot of nuance to social media storytelling, and you'll need to get a lot of the key details from your exec, because it will be very customized and very personal to them. Don't neglect this part; this is what separates a good ghostwriter from "why am I not just using ChatGPT?"

Be Very Careful with AI Use

For the same reason, using AI is tricky these days. Particularly on LinkedIn, tons of people are using it to generate their posts, but that means tons of background noise all blends together. None of it has true personalization, a real voice, or any real connection to the exec you're representing.

I'll be blunt: doing nothing more than generating posts with AI and lightly editing them is a great way to have clients last a month or two and then drop you.

Now, I'm not saying you can't use AI. Use it for secondary ideas, use it for outlining, use it for research. Just don't generate and post text as-is. Use your skills as a ghostwriter for that.

Be Prepared to Generate Performance Reports

Many executives are metrics-driven, which means you're going to need to prove yourself as you do the work. The key data points you want to gather are post impressions, account followers, comments and engagement numbers, and (potentially) leads.

Take a benchmark when you first take over as ghostwriter. Then, each month, compare. How have the metrics improved, and what posts are coming out on top? It's fairly easy to generate these kinds of reports, and as long as you can show some improvement (or have a good justification, like seasonality, for why there isn't any), you can keep your execs hooked.

Disregard Anything Here When Necessary

Finally, remember that everything I'm saying here is just the best advice I've been given or experienced myself. Different industries, different executives, different geographic regions, even updates to LinkedIn's algorithm over time will change all of this.

Basically, don't be afraid to step outside of the comfort zone and test things with a few posts each month, and iterate on what works. Don't get overly locked into one framework.

Avoid the Common Mistakes

There are a couple of major mistakes you want to avoid when ghostwriting for executives on LinkedIn. I'm not talking things like "not proofreading" here; these are more significant.

Creating overly generic or voiceless content.

The cardinal sin of ghostwriting when you're conveying a specific personality for a specific individual is lacking that voice. There's a reason I keep mentioning it; you need that voice.

If your content is generic, or worse, reads like AI, it's almost worse than nothing at all.

Asking for or accepting direct access to the executive's account.

This is a more technical mistake, but I've seen novice ghostwriters (and novice execs) fall into the trap, and that trap is liability.

Yes, it's easy for your exec to give you account access, and you can just publish when you need to. But this has a lot of problems.

• It skips the exec review stage. You want your exec to read and sign off on what's being written in their name.
• It opens you up to liability if anything happens to the account. Exec gets phished? You face legal action.
• It encourages hands-off behavior, which hurts the relationship and makes it harder for the exec to feel the value they're getting.

I generally find the best option is to just hand text over to the exec via a Google Doc or files in a Dropbox, though I've known some ghostwriters that set up bespoke OAuth-accessed apps or other systems. I think it's not necessary, but you do what works for you.

Being Too Isolated

When you get down to it, LinkedIn is one of many communications channels, and a ghostwriting relationship with an exec is a good foot in the door. Start there, but bring up the possibility of something more. 

If you can ghostwrite posts for LinkedIn, you can do it for Facebook. You can probably handle longer-form content and write posts for a blog. You could consider shifting to scripts to manage a TikTok or YouTube Shorts. You could even get to work on a longer-term project like writing a book for them. There are a lot of possibilities if you shoot your shot.

A Quick Q&A For Executives

As promised, here are a few things aimed at the exec side of this equation.

How do you find a good ghostwriter?

One, check your DMs. There's a decent chance a few have reached out to you already. 

Freelancer marketplaces are full of people offering services like this, and some of the top ghostwriters have their own websites as well.

You can also message other execs and see if they're ghostwriting, and if so, if they recommend their writer. You might be surprised.

Should you hire an individual, an agency, or an in-house salaried staff member?

Individuals are strong options in the middle ground. A good individual ghostwriter can be very good and surprisingly cheap. Others might cost a premium but deliver real results. The downside is you just have one person doing the work. If they have to take a sick week, you might be out of luck.

Agencies are more reliable and less likely to have sporadic issues. They might also have a more established process and a firm set of guidelines and contracts. On the other hand, they're pretty much guaranteed to be the most expensive option.

In-house can be great if you already have a content team, and especially if they already do social media content for the business. But make sure you can use them for "personal" uses, and be prepared to offer a raise for the added workload. Be aware, too, that you can lose some voice here, since in-house teams might not be as familiar with writing for a personal brand like this.

What kind of price range should you expect to pay?

It really varies. I've seen lower-end freelancers charging just $200-300 per month. I wouldn't recommend going with them, since the lower price point means they're going to have to either work side jobs or have a lot more clients, which means less attention and care going into your posts.

Mid-range freelancers might be in the $500 to $1,000 per month range. Some are even higher; I know a few who charge as much as $4,000 per month. They're really good at their jobs, and worth the cost, but the equation can be flipped; you might be seeking their availability, not the other way around.

High-tier freelancers and low- to mid-range agencies tend to be on par, around $2,500 up to as much as $10,000 per month. You can get a lot more out of the services at this price point, but it's a tall ask for some clients.

Why hire a ghostwriter when you can just use an AI tool?

Have you read LinkedIn recently? There's so much AI trash going around that just adding yours to the pile will do absolutely nothing for you, and that's assuming it doesn't actively hurt you. 

The big issue with using AI for something like this is that it will require a lot of customization and editing, and that means a lot of knowledge and experience in using the tools, as well as the time to do it. By the time you've gotten it where it needs to be, you've spent more time and possibly more money than hiring a freelancer in the first place.

Any other questions? Feel free to give me a call!