Analyzing Audience Feedback on Posts

I analyzed my last 50 LinkedIn posts to understand two things: 1. What the algorithm is doing 2. What actually resonates with people Here’s what the data says. Across my last 50 posts: ◦ Average engagements: 141 ◦ Median: 85 ◦ Standard deviation: 152 (results vary widely) ◦ Range: 30 → 950 Breakdown of Last 50 posts: ◦ 300+ engagements: 3 posts ◦ 200–300: 8 posts ◦ 100–200: 11 posts ◦ 50–100: 21 posts ◦ <50: 7 posts 64% of posts sit in the 50–200 engagements range. Here are the key insights. 1. Posts that describe what people are feeling right now win most Top examples: ◦ Mental health / identity (“questioning everything”) → 551 ◦ Job market reality (“shouting into the void”) → 352 ◦ Social tension / anger → 275 These posts, more than anything, try to make people feel understood. 2. Hard truths, backed by data, outperform “nice” advice Examples: ◦ Advice to parents about games careers → 261 ◦ Game design job scarcity → 209 Clear, direct, sometimes uncomfortable = higher engagement. 3. Utility matters - but only when it’s obvious and quality Examples: ◦ Jobs workbook + data system → 226 and 950 ◦ Hiring gamers / talent pool → 256 If people can use it immediately, they engage. 4. Simple, relatable posts can break through too Examples: ◦ “Play SMB3 and you’ll feel better” → 227 ◦ “Peak of video games” nostalgia → 205 Low effort to consume, high identity match. 5. Most content underperforms for the same reasons Low performers were: ◦ Announcements (“we launched X”) ◦ Asks (donations, signups) ◦ Operational updates ◦ Link-first posts ◦ Reposts without added insight Even important content gets ignored if it doesn’t connect to a real, current experience. 6. Structure matters. Length doesn't. What worked: ◦ Strong opening line with tension ◦ Clear emotional or practical payoff ◦ Clean, scannable format What didn’t matter as much: ◦ Length (long and short both worked) ◦ Effort or completeness or even, necessarily, data 7. Pictures did NOT help Picture posts actually performed worse on average. A strong idea still works with a picture. A weak idea still fails with one. 8. Timing and frequency did NOT matter Posting time did not show meaningful impact. Posting more or less frequently in a day did not materially change outcomes.

Getting the right feedback will transform your job as a PM. More scalability, better user engagement, and growth. But most PMs don’t know how to do it right. Here’s the Feedback Engine I’ve used to ship highly engaging products at unicorns & large organizations: — Right feedback can literally transform your product and company. At Apollo, we launched a contact enrichment feature. Feedback showed users loved its accuracy, but... They needed bulk processing. We shipped it and had a 40% increase in user engagement. Here’s how to get it right: — 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝟭: 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 Most PMs get this wrong. They collect feedback randomly with no system or strategy. But remember: your output is only as good as your input. And if your input is messy, it will only lead you astray. Here’s how to collect feedback strategically: → Diversify your sources: customer interviews, support tickets, sales calls, social media & community forums, etc. → Be systematic: track feedback across channels consistently. → Close the loop: confirm your understanding with users to avoid misinterpretation. — 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝟮: 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘇𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 Analyzing feedback is like building the foundation of a skyscraper. If it’s shaky, your decisions will crumble. So don’t rush through it. Dive deep to identify patterns that will guide your actions in the right direction. Here’s how: Aggregate feedback → pull data from all sources into one place. Spot themes → look for recurring pain points, feature requests, or frustrations. Quantify impact → how often does an issue occur? Map risks → classify issues by severity and potential business impact. — 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝟯: 𝗔𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀 Now comes the exciting part: turning insights into action. Execution here can make or break everything. Do it right, and you’ll ship features users love. Mess it up, and you’ll waste time, effort, and resources. Here’s how to execute effectively: Prioritize ruthlessly → focus on high-impact, low-effort changes first. Assign ownership → make sure every action has a responsible owner. Set validation loops → build mechanisms to test and validate changes. Stay agile → be ready to pivot if feedback reveals new priorities. — 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝟰: 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 What can’t be measured, can’t be improved. If your metrics don’t move, something went wrong. Either the feedback was flawed, or your solution didn’t land. Here’s how to measure: → Set KPIs for success, like user engagement, adoption rates, or risk reduction. → Track metrics post-launch to catch issues early. → Iterate quickly and keep on improving on feedback. — In a nutshell... It creates a cycle that drives growth and reduces risk: → Collect feedback strategically. → Analyze it deeply for actionable insights. → Act on it with precision. → Measure its impact and iterate. — P.S. How do you collect and implement feedback?

Look at your last five LinkedIn posts. Who's commenting? Not the names. The roles. The industries. The seniority levels. Your comment section is a diagnostic tool most people completely ignore. It tells you, with brutal honesty, who your content is actually reaching. And in most cases, it's not who you think. The most common misalignment I see: A senior professional targeting institutional investors is getting comments almost exclusively from: — Other content creators — Junior professionals asking for advice — People from completely unrelated industries They interpret this as "my content is working, look at all the engagement." But engagement from the wrong audience is noise, not signal. It tells you that your content is broadly relatable. But broadly relatable is not the same as specifically compelling. Why does this happen? Because broadly relatable content gets broad distribution. But the right 47 people will read that and think: this person understands my world. How to use your comment section as a feedback loop: After each post, note three things: 1. Who engaged (role, industry, seniority)? 2. What did the substantive comments say — what specifically resonated? 3. Did any ideal client engage, even passively (a reaction, a "see more")? Over 8-10 posts, patterns emerge. The posts that attracted your ideal client — even one comment, even one reaction — are telling you something about what to double down on. The posts that generated lots of noise from the wrong audience are telling you something too. Here's what I track for myself and the executives I work with: → Not follower growth. Connection quality. → Not impression volume. Qualified profile views (who visited my profile after seeing my post?). → Not comment count. DM rate from target profiles. None of these numbers are visible on the front of your post. But they're the numbers that actually indicate whether your LinkedIn is becoming an asset, or an exercise. Your goal is not to be interesting to everyone. It's to be indispensable to someone. Check your comment section. It will tell you exactly how close you are. 💻 𝘋𝘔 𝘮𝘦 “𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗧” 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 1:1 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘥𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭. ♻️ 𝘐𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥, 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘦, Mariam Gogidze, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴.

We have been looking deeper at Creators and Brands using our Insights platform Tellagence. I wanted to share some take aways for those of you working with brands and creators from a report we recently ran using 100+ recent pieces of content from one creator and the reactions/comments from their audience. 🛑 The 100-Post Blind Spot: Why Your Creator Strategy is Only 10% Effective A challenge to all Creator Analysts & Strategists: We need to stop checking just the last 10 sponsored posts for risk. The real signal, whether good or bad, is buried in a creator's last 50-100 organic and cultural conversations. New data from the our Pulse Report confirms a vital truth: Creator success hinges on adjacent cultural traction and values alignment, not just reach. 1. Decoding True Audience Resonance (The Opportunity) Analyst Question: Does the audience react in line with the brand, or are they finding other things to discuss? The Data Answer: They are passionately discussing adjacent cultural topics. The biggest thematic conversation wasn't about a product, but "Culinary and Cultural Reflections" (a massive 19.3K record count) focused on debates like tamale quality and sushi etiquette. Strategic Takeaway: The debate is hotter than the pitch. Your brand's opportunity is not to interrupt, but to host this existing, high-passion conversation (e.g., launching a "Food Rules" debate series). 2. Quantifying Brand Risk (The Gap) Analyst Question: How do consumers react to non-brand, values-based topics? The Data Answer: High-intensity, value-based critique is the true risk signal. While 30% of the overall sentiment was negative, the critical volume tied to an entertainment brand's "Controversial Practices" (ethical failings, employee treatment) was small but potent: only 1.5K records. Strategic Takeaway: This small volume of high-intensity negativity is the true measure of brand risk. Deep analysis surfaces these values conflicts before a campaign, allowing you to proactively turn risk into a trust-building effort (e.g., a transparent "Brand Principles" content pillar). 3. Campaign Opportunities: Focus on Replicable Emotion When presenting this insight to a client, shift the focus from who to hire to what emotion to replicate. Opportunity A: Low-Friction Joy. A single viral piece (12.6K records) drove massive positive engagement purely on shared joy and humor. Actionable Idea: Don't chase the next topic; chase the next feeling. Replicate low-barrier success with UGC series (e.g., "Sounds of Joy") to tap into universal positive experiences. Continued in comments...

A SaaS founder recently shared their experience: "We post 5 times a week on LinkedIn. 18 months in. Still zero pipeline from it." After reviewing their last 20 posts, I identified the issue in under 4 minutes. The problem wasn’t the frequency, the algorithm, or even the quality of writing—it was the target audience. Every post was crafted for marketers, not for their actual buyers. The content included product launches, hiring announcements, team achievements, and industry insights that resonated with fellow founders but failed to engage their true audience—a VP of Operations at a mid-market company. None of the posts addressed the real challenges faced by this buyer. Here's a crucial insight many B2B LinkedIn content creators overlook: engagement on your feed does not always correlate with pipeline success. The posts that garner the most likes are often those that appeal to peers, while the content that truly attracts customers speaks directly to the buyer's pain points—often resulting in fewer likes, as these buyers may not be active on LinkedIn. We revamped their content strategy by focusing on three key questions: - What beliefs does our buyer hold that are costing them money? - What misconceptions do they have? - What outcomes are they secretly afraid they won't achieve? Each post now addresses one of these questions, targeting the individual who ultimately makes the purchasing decision. 6 weeks later, they received 9 inbound conversations from their ideal customer profile, maintaining the same posting frequency and team, but with a different audience focus. For founders posting consistently but struggling with pipeline growth, the issue is rarely about frequency. It's about understanding your audience. If your LinkedIn presence seems busy but your pipeline doesn't reflect that, I offer content assessments for B2B SaaS teams. Share your ideal customer profile with me, and I can provide honest feedback on whether your content is reaching them. #linkedin

This post got 1,712 impressions and 32 reactions in less than 24 hours. Most people would call that mid. But look at the two numbers that actually matter: 22 saves. 4 sends. Saves mean someone thought "I need this later." They're bookmarking it for a real situation. Not performing engagement. Using it. Sends mean someone thought "this person specifically needs to see this." That's trust. And it's reaching exactly the right people through exactly the right channel. Lurkers who save and send are often the actual buyers. The internal champions. The people who don't comment but do forward your post to their VP before a budget meeting. Here's how to create content that earns saves and sends: 1. Share the actual thing, not the idea of the thing. The ABM post that got these saves included the exact metrics to track weekly, monthly, and what to bring to leadership. Not "measurement matters." The actual scorecard. 2. Write from what you've done, not what you've read. Everything I post comes from 15 years of doing the work or something I'm actively running with a client. People can tell the difference between theory and experience. 3. Give it away. People tell me I'm silly for not charging for the stuff I share. But when I was coming up as a marketer, I wished someone would just share what actually worked. So that's what I do. If it's useful, it's free. How to use this data: I check every post about 24 hours after publishing. Not for likes. For saves and sends. That ratio tells me what my audience actually needs vs. what they'll publicly engage with. Those are two very different things. What's the last post you saved? PS: Go check out that post from yesterday. I thought it was good and very helpful!

We started working with a new client. In the first 50 days with us they generated 320,000 impressions. Here's a detailed data-backed analysis of the initial posts: 1. Hook Breakdown Top Hook by Avg Engagement: Opinion Shift at 2.50% avg engagement. Ranking by average engagement: 1. Opinion Shift — 2.50% 2. Story/Relatable — 2.37% 3. Value-Add / Stat — 2.03% 4. Tactical — 1.74% Observation: Hooks that challenge conventional wisdom or offer a new perspective consistently outperformed purely instructional or data-led hooks. 2. Formatting & Structure Top Format by Avg Engagement: Short Opinion at 2.54% avg engagement. Other high performers: Story (2.34%), Stat-Based (2.03%). Observation: Short, punchy opinion posts drive the highest overall engagement, while storytelling posts generate higher comment counts. 3. Themes Macro vs Micro: - Macro only (Industry truths) — 2.38% avg engagement - Both: Industry + Tactical — 2.16% - Micro only (Tactical/Niche) — 1.72% - Neither — 1.49% Observation: Macro themes tied to industry-wide truths attract the strongest engagement. Pairing them with tactical takeaways boosts performance further. 4. Final Lines & Comments Posts ending with a question averaged 7.0 comments/post vs 5.0 for non-questions. Posts with an explicit CTA saw higher comment ratios (27% vs 20%). Observation: Ending with a question or call-to-action is a reliable conversation driver. My take: Keep one eye on the performance data. But remember there are some things this doesn't capture: 1. Are you proud of what you're posting - does it demonstrate the depth of your expertise. 2. Are the content pieces aligned and working toward your overall goals and strategy. 3. Are you generating high-quality engagement (MQLs) and generating conversion to business conversations.

GOOD content + WRONG audience = 0 results. This is the silent LinkedIn TRAP no one talks about. Most creators audit their content. But when was the last time you audited your audience? When I started posting on LinkedIn back in 2021, I was writing what most creators start with: entrepreneurship tips and inspiring stories. Some of it did well. Got likes. Comments. Reposts. But, I wasn’t getting any leads. Because the people engaging with my posts weren't the people I actually wanted to work with. I was creating for the audience I HAD... Instead of the audience I actually WANTED. You might be: → Posting great content → Showing up consistently → Getting good engagement But if the wrong people are engaging, you're slowly building a brand that leads nowhere. 📍Do this 3-step LinkedIn Audience Audit today: (Takes 5 mins, could save you 5 months) 1. Check your top commenters. Are they your target audience… or other creators? 👉 If 80% of your engagement comes from peers, you’re not attracting buyers. 2. Look at your DMs. Are people asking about your offers, or just saying “love your content”? 👉 Great branding leads to real conversations. 3. Review your recent followers. Are they potential clients? Or random profiles? 👉 If the wrong people are following you, your message is misaligned. That’s it. Fix your positioning → your audience changes. Fix your audience → your results change. When was the last time you audited your audience? Let me know in the comments if you’re doing this today. :)

Here's a 10-minute audience research hack — no surveys, no fancy tools. 1) Export analytics on your highest-intent LinkedIn post. Click the three dots → Export. (Screenshot below.) 2) Open the spreadsheet and skim the Top Demographics tab. Yup — these are the people who engaged with that post! Note the leading job titles, seniority levels, industries, and locations. 3) Fill in the blank for yourself: “My next marketing email is going to [seniority]-level [job title] who typically work in [industry].” Example: “Senior-level founders and marketing directors in advertising.” 4) Let that sentence steer your copy. If you can, mirror the exact words your audience uses in subject lines, headers, CTAs. 5) Watch performance lift because the copy starts with audience reality. Not marketer guesswork. Audience research doesn’t have to begin with long interviews or parsing through survey data. Sometimes the insight is hiding in plain sight, buried in your own replies. 🚀 Bonus move, if you *do* want to use a fancy tool: Drop those bio phrases into SparkToro and see what else your "founders" read, watch, and listen to. Instant channel roadmap. Do you have a quick audience research shortcut? Drop it below. I’ll try it out this week!

LinkedIn now has a new feature! (I am just discovering this) Apparently, you can now see not just how many people viewed your profile from a post, but also how many followers you gained from it. If you’re trying to grow your audience intentionally, I think this new insight is gold. Because now, you can clearly track which types of posts are not just getting eyeballs, but actually converting into followers. The screenshot below shows a post that brought in 516 profile views and converted 292 of them into new followers. That’s over 50% conversion, a great signal that the post resonated and pulled people in. It’s time to stop guessing and start studying. 1. Study the post that gained the most followers Don’t just look at likes or impressions, ask: What made people click 'follow' after reading this? Was it the topic? The perspective? The tone? 2. Break it down What topic did you cover? What tone did you use? Casual, bold, professional? Was it a story, a lesson, or a list? Did it make your audience feel seen or called to action? 3. Replicate the essence, not just the format Use the same emotional trigger. Tap into similar themes or audience needs. Then test, tweak, and improve your delivery. Rinse and repeat, but better each time. If you’re focused on growing your follower count here, This new follower metric is your new best friend. Start using it already! Hey, don't use your real best friend like that lol Good morning!🔥🔥🔥 Were you aware of this feature? For how long?! If not, check your post analytics, and let me know which of your posts brought in the most followers.😜 #LinkedInTips #ContentStrategy #LinkedIn