# Audience Strategy

> Last updated: 2026-04

## The Fundamental Shift: Quality Over Quantity

1,000 precisely targeted followers who match your ideal customer profile
are worth more than 100,000 random followers. LinkedIn's embedding-based
ranking system rewards topical relevance — your content gets distributed
to people the algorithm determines are a good match based on your Topic DNA.

## Defining Your ICP (Ideal Customer/Connection Profile)

Before creating content or engaging, get crystal clear on who you're trying
to reach. Answer these questions:

1. **Job titles**: What roles does your ideal audience hold?
   (e.g., "VP of Engineering at Series B-D SaaS companies")
2. **Industry**: What industries or verticals?
3. **Company size**: Startup? Mid-market? Enterprise?
4. **Geography**: Local market? Regional? Global?
5. **Pain points**: What keeps them up at night?
6. **Where they are in their journey**: Are they problem-aware? Solution-aware?
   Already using a competitor?

**Write it as one sentence:**
"I create content for [job title] at [company type] in [industry] who
struggle with [pain point] and want to [desired outcome]."

This sentence should guide every content and engagement decision.

## The Three-Audience Framework

Don't just target your end customers. Build influence across three groups
simultaneously, each serving a different strategic purpose:

### 1. Peers (Your Circle)

**Who**: People at your level, in your industry, doing similar work.

**Why they matter**:
- Easiest to engage — they understand your language and context
- They "warm up" your posts with early engagement (critical for the
  Golden 60 Minutes)
- They share your content within their networks, extending your reach
- Peer relationships become collaboration opportunities

**How to engage**:
- Comment on their posts with genuine additions
- Share their work with your commentary
- Collaborate on content (co-authored posts, mutual interviews)
- Help them when they ask questions publicly

### 2. Opinion Leaders / KOLs (Above You)

**Who**: People with established authority and larger followings in your space.

**Why they matter**:
- Their audience overlaps with your target audience
- A thoughtful comment on their post gets seen by thousands
- Association with them builds your credibility
- They may eventually engage with your content, amplifying it

**How to engage**:
- Write substantive comments on their posts (3+ sentences, add value)
- Don't pitch, don't ask for anything — just consistently add value
- Reference their work in your own posts (with credit)
- Over time, you become a recognized name in their comment sections
- Weekly cadence: comment on 3 opinion leaders' posts, 5 minutes each

### 3. Target Audience / Potential Clients (Your Market)

**Who**: The people you ultimately want to reach — buyers, hiring managers,
potential partners, depending on your goal.

**Why they matter**:
- These are the people your LinkedIn presence is ultimately designed to attract
- They should see your content and think "this person understands my problems"

**How to engage**:
- Don't sell to them directly in comments or DMs
- Create content that addresses their specific pain points
- When they engage with your content, give exceptional replies
- Let the relationship develop naturally — when they're ready, they'll reach out

## Content Pillars Aligned to Audience

Your 3 content pillars should map to your audience's needs:

| Pillar | Serves | Example |
|--------|--------|---------|
| Expertise/How-to | Target audience (solves their problems) | "How to reduce churn by fixing your onboarding flow" |
| Behind-the-scenes | Peers (shared experiences) | "What I learned managing my first remote team" |
| Industry POV | Opinion leaders + audience (positions you as a thinker) | "Why the 'move fast and break things' era is over" |

## Building Your Engagement Target List

Create a spreadsheet with 20-30 accounts across all three audience segments:

| Name | Segment | Why | Posting frequency | Last engaged | Notes |
|------|---------|-----|-------------------|-------------|-------|
| [Name] | Peer | Same industry, active poster | 3x/week | [date] | Great discussions on product strategy |
| [Name] | KOL | 50K followers, my target reads them | Daily | [date] | Best time to comment: within 30 min of posting |
| [Name] | Target | VP Eng at [company], our ICP | Monthly | [date] | Commented on my carousel last week |

Review and update this list monthly:
- Remove accounts that stopped posting or aren't generating value
- Add new accounts you've discovered
- Track which accounts drive the most profile views when you engage

## Company Pages vs. Personal Profiles

Company pages have ~3-5% organic reach. Personal profiles dramatically
outperform them. Strategy:

- Use your personal profile as the primary growth channel
- Company page: share company news, job postings, and repost employee content
- Encourage team members to post from their personal profiles and tag the
  company page when relevant
- Employees' collective reach almost always exceeds the company page

## Newsletter and Events as Audience-Building Tools

### Newsletter (Strongest long-tail audience asset)

When you create a LinkedIn newsletter:
- All connections/followers get a one-time notification to subscribe
- Each new edition triggers email + in-app notifications to subscribers
- Articles are SEO-indexed (discoverable via Google and LinkedIn search)
- Set SEO title (<60 chars) and description (140-160 chars)

**Launch strategy:**
- Commit to a fixed cadence (bi-weekly or monthly)
- First edition should be your strongest, most actionable content
- Announce the newsletter in a regular post asking people to subscribe
- Each newsletter edition should also be a standalone post

### Events (Conversion-focused audience building)

LinkedIn Events are underutilized but effective for converting passive
followers into active relationships:
- Create events 2-4 weeks in advance
- LinkedIn auto-generates an event post in your feed
- You can send up to 1,000 event invitations per week
- After the event: share key takeaways as a post, repurpose recording

### Live (Advanced, requires qualification)

Requirements: 150+ followers/connections, account 30+ days old, compliance
with community policies. **Upcoming change (2026-06-22)**: all Live sessions
will require pre-scheduling (no more spontaneous broadcasts). Requires
third-party streaming tool.

Best used: quarterly industry discussions, Q&A sessions, product launches.
Cut recordings into short clips for repurposing.
