Why the usual LinkedIn advice misses the point
When a B2B founder has been writing their own LinkedIn posts and getting nowhere, the advice they find first tends to focus on craft. Hooks, formats, posting times. Shreya Sapkota, founder of Datum Editorial, says that framing misses where the real problem usually sits.
"I think most of the advice focuses too much on the writing itself. Hooks, formats, posting times, and all that."
Her team looked at 9,128 founder posts, and the results pointed away from technique. "We looked at 9,128 founder posts, and how a post was written explained only about 17% of its performance with that founder's own audience."
What stood out instead was the person behind the post. "What stood out to me was how much the actual person behind the post mattered. Their decisions, things they'd learned from working with clients, numbers from their business, or even something a client said."
That gap between what founders know and what they publish is common. "A lot of founders have really interesting things to say. They just end up posting generic advice while the best stuff stays buried in their sales calls."
There is a second issue that has nothing to do with the writing at all. "Even if you write great posts, who's actually reading them? Most founders have networks full of peers and former colleagues, not necessarily the people who could hire them."
What ghostwriting pages leave out
Sapkota names two things that come up repeatedly with founders in this position, and that the LinkedIn ghostwriting pages they find first tend to skip.
The first is message clarity. "A good ghostwriter can make almost anything sound polished, but if the founder hasn't figured out what they stand for, the content will probably sound good without really saying much."
The second is audience. "I see so much focus on how many posts you're publishing every month, but not enough on whether the right people are actually seeing them."
Both points sit upstream of the writing itself. A ghostwriter can improve how a post reads, but cannot supply a point of view the founder has not settled on, or redirect a network that was never built around buyers.
The decision founders make too quickly
Asked what she would stop a founder from deciding too fast, Sapkota points to the build-or-buy question itself.
"Deciding whether to hire a ghostwriter before figuring out what you want to be known for."
Her reasoning is that the format question is downstream of a positioning question. "Founders often jump straight to whether they should write their own content or outsource it. But before that, they need to be clear on who they want to reach, what they believe that others in their industry don't, and what they've actually done to back those beliefs up."
Once that is settled, the rest gets simpler. "Once you have that clarity, figuring out how to turn it into content becomes a much easier problem to solve."
Practical takeaways
For founders weighing how to handle LinkedIn, the interview suggests a sequence rather than a tactic list.
- Separate the writing problem from the positioning problem. If posts are underperforming, the cause may not be the hook. In Datum Editorial's dataset, writing style accounted for roughly 17% of performance with a founder's own audience.
- Mine the material you already have. Sales calls, client conversations, and business numbers are the raw material that distinguishes a founder's posts from generic advice.
- Check who is actually in the audience. A network of peers and former colleagues will not convert the way a network of potential buyers does, regardless of post quality.
- Settle what you want to be known for first. Who you want to reach, what you believe that others in your industry do not, and what you have done to back it up.
- Only then choose the format. Whether you write it yourself or bring in help is a much easier call once the first four items are clear.
Sapkota's position is that the ghostwriting decision is often treated as the starting point when it is closer to the end of a shorter list. Founders who resolve the clarity questions first tend to find the production question answers itself.
Datum Editorial was included in a roundup of LinkedIn ghostwriting services for B2B founders alongside Nathan Ojaokomo and Moriah. For founders trying to work out where their own LinkedIn effort is stalling, the LinkedIn help center covers the mechanics, but not the positioning question Sapkota keeps returning to.