What to Post on Social When You're Afraid to Post Anything

If posting on LinkedIn feels risky, this short episode is for you.

Allison Lane breaks down what to share when you don’t want to repost company news, sound self-congratulatory, or get an awkward call from your boss, comms team, or the provost.

In this episode, Allison explains a simple, safe shift: strong content doesn’t have to stay inside your industry.

Some of the most valuable posts come from applying outside ideas to your world in a thoughtful way.

Get Allison's free resource "7 Shifts to Build Real Authority: Without Living on Social Media" https://www.lanelit.com/authority

You’ll learn 3 practical ways to post without setting off alarm bells:

1. Share an article, book, or talk from outside your industry and add your perspective
2. Comment on the original LinkedIn post to get seen by a wider audience
3. Re-share the source post with your own commentary to expand reach

If you want to show up as insightful and relevant without going rogue, hit play.

Timestamps: 

• 00:00 Welcome to the Author's Edge
• 00:28 Breaking the Social Media Posting Dilemma
• 01:00 Think Outside Your Industry
• 02:37 Real-World Examples of Cross-Industry Insights
• 04:03 Practical Tips for Sharing on Social Media
• 06:04 Final Encouragement and Call to Action

Get Allison's free guide 7 Shifts to Build Real Authority - and get recognized for your expertise (not your follower count): https://lanelit.com/authority   

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Transcript

1:02

Welcome back to the Author's Edge. I'm your host, Allison Lane, and I'm here for this shorty episode just for you. Now, if you're lurking on social because you don't know what to post. This episode is for you. And let me guess, you don't want to post company news and you don't wanna sound self-congratulatory, and you definitely don't want a call from the university provost or your boss or the communications team, or ugh, even a friend who's gonna say, what was that? Totally fair. Here's some good news. You can actually post smart, interesting content without going rogue. The mistake people make is assuming that their social content has to stay within their industry. It doesn't, it doesn't have to stay within your genre or your industry or your role within your industry. In fact, that's why most social posts and most social profiles are painfully boring. Everyone's reposting the same trade articles and the same announcements from your company. The same"i'm thrilled to share updates" that no one is actually thrilled about. I've never used the, I'm thrilled about phrasing about anything other than, well, I don't, I don't even know. I mean, I'm thrilled to be here with you, but I'm also super jazzed, which is sounds like me. When I ran communications for Sodexo, which is the 13th largest employer on Earth. My job was to help senior leaders show up as thoughtful and relevant and not like corporate robots. I am a media junkie, so I curated content that they wouldn't normally see. Books, Ted Talks, speakers, ideas outside the industry, because I have worked in so many industries, men's fashion, beauty, software development, analytics, real estate development. Ideas outside of your industry are interesting to people inside of your industry. And here's one example. When Ingrid Fetell Lee's book on joy and Color came out, her examples ranged from public schools to senior living communities, and that book wasn't circulating in education circles. It wasn't being discussed in retirement home circles. It was instantly relatable, and that's what made the content a must read, especially for ownership groups of major senior living communities that were nationwide. They wanted to know how to innovate, but they couldn't look to how to innovate within the industry. If your industry is struggling with something, you should stop looking at only your industry for answers and ideas. Because it's limited. If your student onboarding and enrollment is broken. Don't just study universities. Look at who does onboarding exceptionally well. Kimpton hotels possibly, or a Marriott. If your customer experience is weak, stop reading the same internal playbook. Because it's not working. Look at other sectors that have solved that better, and that's where insight lives and that's that insight is safe. That insight doesn't get you in trouble. It makes you valuable because you are so here is how to share on LinkedIn and all the other socials without setting off alarm bells and getting, you know, a call from your boss. First option, find an article, a book, a talk, an idea from outside your industry. Drop the link, and add your perspective in an original post, not a hot take. that's super jargony. A thoughtful connection, an observation. That's what you can do. What does the idea make you think about? Where could this insight be applied? What opportunity does it reveal? Second option, if that media source has already posted on LinkedIn, comment directly on that post. Smart comments, get read boring comments, get scrolled past. Comments get read often more times than original posts because now you're visible to people who don't already follow you, but who do follow that source. The third option, share that source's LinkedIn posts to your feed with your commentary. So don't just choose one of these options. Choose all three when it makes sense, because people who follow the media source, perhaps like the Ted Talks source on LinkedIn, they might not follow you. The people who follow you might not be following them, and that's how you expand your reach without chasing it and without lamenting, people aren't sharing my posts. Because your posts are boring or they're non-existent'cause you are frozen'cause you don't know what to share that's not gonna get you in trouble. This is how you do it. And one last reminder, you are insightful. You are a big effing deal. Your perspective is what people are looking for. For the love of Pete. People are leaning in when you talk, so don't stop talking. If you pause on something and think, huh, this could really apply to my industry, my role, my sector, my business idea, that's your signal. Trust your gut. Grab the link, share the idea, add your thinking. That's not risky. That's leadership, and that's exactly what people want to see from you on social, especially on LinkedIn. I can't wait to see what you share. Do me a favor. After you share it, send me a DM so I can comment on your post. My dms are always open and I'm super active on LinkedIn every single day.