LinkedIn Content Strategy for Cybersecurity Founders | Netwarm
LinkedIn playbook · Case study
LinkedIn content strategy for cybersecurity founders: how a Paris managed IT and security CEO reached 86 CTOs, CISOs and founders in one month
We read every reaction on 19 posts from a Paris founder of a managed IT and security company. 504 people, 86 CTOs, CISOs and founders. Here is what brings buyers, what brings peers, and the 5 posts we'd publish next.
Max Sawyer · Netwarm··11 min read
The creator in this case studyA Paris founder of a managed IT and security company
Followers35,807
Posts~4 a week
Sells
These numbers are from 5 November. Your audience has already moved.
New CTOs, CISOs and founders turn Hot every week and others go quiet. Run your free scan to see today’s version, with the names.
Security and IT operations for mid-market companies, run in Slack and Teams and priced per employee, plus an incident response retainer
PeriodOct 6 – Nov 5
Ideal client: CTOs, CISOs, heads of IT and founders at mid-market companies that have outgrown reactive, hourly IT.The challenge: The founder posts the week in security: patch alerts, breach reports, company news. Security researchers and engineers react first. Which posts reach the leaders who'd hand IT and security to one operator?
Key takeaways
86 CTOs, CISOs and founders reacted.17.1% of the 504 people who reacted in a month. Security researchers, engineers and analysts were the larger group: 167.
Patch alerts bring 2x more buyers than breach reports.16.3% against 7.9% of the people who reacted. Company news did best of all: 21.5% over 2 posts.
3 buyers came back 3 times or more.One of them reacted to 5 of the 19 posts.
01
Who actually reads you, and what the LinkedIn algorithm changed
The founder posts the week in security: patch alerts, breach and incident reports, company news, an exploit breakdown and the odd meme. 19 posts between 6 October and 5 November 2026, with a peak on 21 October, the day PHP and Node.js both shipped critical fixes.
The LinkedIn algorithm shows a post to the people who reacted to the last ones, then to people like them. In security, the first to react are other practitioners: researchers, engineers and analysts. They push reach, and they rarely buy managed IT. We looked at every person who reacted and sorted them by role.
19posts in a month
504people reacted
86CTOs, CISOs & founders
3came back 3+ times
Audience by roleThe 504 people who reacted, by roleFree
Peers are the largest group: 167 security researchers, engineers, analysts and people at security vendors and cloud providers. They read every alert, and they are not the ones who hire an operator.
86 buyers is about 1 in 6 readers. Some of them run security companies of their own, so a Netwarm scan matched to the founder's own ideal client would narrow the list further.
SeniorityAll people who reactedFree
Founder, owner, C-level16.7%
Director, VP8.3%
Manager13.9%
Independent4.6%
Other56.5%
IndustriesCTOs, CISOs and founders onlyNetwarm
Software, cloud and AI39.5%
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See all industries and company sizes in your free scan.
Core audience3 CTOs, CISOs and founders engaged 3+ times · 1 engaged 5+ timesNetwarm
3 CTOs, CISOs and founders keep coming back. One of them reacted to 5 of the 19 posts.See your regulars
Engager company sizeEveryone who reacted, by company sizeNetwarm
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See which company sizes your CTOs, CISOs and founders work at.See company sizes
02
What to post on LinkedIn to reach CTOs, CISOs and founders
Most founders judge a post by its reactions. A founder who sells should judge it by who reacted.
We tagged each of the 19 posts by topic, then measured the share of CTOs, CISOs and founders among the people who reacted.
Your topicsWhat your 19 posts were aboutFree
19posts
Patch alerts8
Breach and incident reports6
Company news2
Community and FOSDEM1
Exploit breakdowns1
Security humour1
Topics that attract CTOs, CISOs and foundersShare of each topic’s reactions from CTOs, CISOs and foundersNetwarm
Company news21.5%
Community and FOSDEM20.0%
Patch alerts16.3%
Exploit breakdowns15.0%
Security humour10.0%
Breach and incident reports7.9%
One topic brings 2x more buyers than another. See which.See which topics
Patch alerts bring 2x more CTOs, CISOs and founders than breach and incident reports: 16.3% against 7.9%. Company news did best, 21.5%, over 2 posts.
Posts that brought the most CTOs, CISOs and foundersShare of CTOs, CISOs and founders in each post’s reactions1 of 5 open
#1Node.js security release pre-alert: watch this out26.7%
#2More than $10M raised to run IT and security for mid-market companies24%
#3Read this before today's PHP patch22.2%
#4A new Operations Devroom at FOSDEM 202720%
#5Busy with PHP today? Add Node.js to the list17.9%
For comparison, the meme post drew 1,033 reactions, the most on the profile, and 10% buyers. The post on compromised CA keys reached 6.1%, the lowest share.
6 rules for LinkedIn engagement from CTOs, CISOs and founders
These rules come from what worked on the founder's own profile, and from the best-performing security posts on LinkedIn over the last 3 months, many of them about the same October patch wave.
1
Turn the alert into a to-do. Patch alerts that say who is at risk and which version fixes it beat news about someone else's breach. Lead with the reader's exposure, end with the fixed versions.On this profile: patch alerts reached 16.3% buyers, breach and incident reports 7.9%.
Write the leader's version next to the engineer's. A CEO reading about a CVE wants the questions to ask the team, not the bug. Say what to ask, and by when.Across the niche: a networking CEO told leaders to treat the PHP flaws as “a decision about how fast your organization can change, not as an IT ticket”: 1,951 likes, 47 comments.
Explain the score in plain words. Most buyers can't read a CVSS vector. One line on what 9.2 means (anyone on the internet, no password, the whole server) turns an alert into a reason to act.Across the niche: a PHP breakdown that explained CVSS from 0 to 10 before the bug got 2,262 likes and 126 comments, more comments than any other PHP post we found.
Make company news about the problem you solve. The funding post brought the most buyers because it named a problem leaders have: plenty of tools, nobody orchestrating them. Every company update can carry that line.On this profile: company news reached 21.5% buyers over 2 posts, the highest of any topic. The funding post alone brought 24.
Sell the operator, not the tool. Buyers know tools are easy to buy. What they lack is someone who runs them at 2 a.m. Show the person, the response time and the thread.Across the niche: the founder of a managed detection and response company wrote “The platform is the easy part”: 1,010 likes, 65 comments.
Invite people in. A call for talks gives leaders a role, not just a read. The devroom post brought one of the highest buyer shares, from people who run production systems.On this profile: the Operations Devroom post reached 20 buyers, 20% of its first 100 reactors.
When CTOs, CISOs and founders read: the best time to post on LinkedIn for cybersecurity founders
We compared the share of CTOs, CISOs and founders by the day and the hour each post went out, Paris time. The founder posted on 5 days of the week, never on a Monday or a Sunday.
Share of CTOs, CISOs and founders by posting dayAmong the people who reacted to each postFree
24.0%
Tue
11.6%
Wed
18.2%
Thu
11.3%
Fri
19.1%
Sat
Best time to post, by hourShare of CTOs, CISOs and founders among people who reactedFree
10.3%
12:00
14.6%
14:00
17.1%
16:00
16.7%
22:00
Wednesday carried 8 of the 19 posts, most of them on the 21 October patch day, and brought 11.6% buyers. Tuesday (1 post, the funding news), Thursday and Saturday did better, from 18.2% to 24%, on fewer posts: treat them as leads, not rules.
Late afternoon worked best: posts at 16:00 brought 17.1% buyers, at 22:00 16.7%, at noon 10.3%. Keep urgent alerts for when the fix ships, and put the posts written for leaders on Tuesday or Thursday around 16:00.
05
5 posts ready to publish to target CTOs, CISOs and founders
Each post follows the rules above, in the founder's voice. Swap in your own details before posting: the real incident or client story is what makes it land.
1Ready to postOperator story
What happens in the first 14 minutesRule 5: sell the operator, not the tool. Modelled on Kevin Nejad's “The platform is the easy part”.
Hook
Companies don't need another dashboard.They need someone who picks up.A Tuesday night. A finance lead writes in the company Slack: “I clicked a link in an invoice email. Now my laptop is asking for my password again.”No ticket portal. No form. No hourly rate to approve.The message lands in the thread. A named operator answers.Within minutes:
→ the session is revoked
→ the password is reset
→ the laptop is isolated and checked
→ the mailbox rules are reviewed, because that's where attackers hideThe finance lead goes back to dinner.That's the job we built for. Our incident response retainer runs a median response time under 14 minutes, across thousands of tickets.Most mid-market companies have plenty of tools. What they don't have is someone who owns the response when one of them fires.Who owns that Tuesday night in your company?
Visual · Single imageA redacted Slack thread: the first message, the operator's reply, and the timestamps.Check before postingUse a real incident from the retainer, anonymised, with the steps your operators actually took. The 14-minute median comes from the funding post: check it is still current.
3 questions after this week's Node.js releaseRule 2: write the leader's version next to the engineer's. Modelled on Chuck Robbins' post on the PHP flaws.
Hook
Watch this out! Node.js has shipped its security releases for the 22, 24 and 26 lines.If you write the code, you know what to do.If you run the company, here are 3 questions to ask your team today:1. Where do we run Node.js? Not only our apps: the build servers, the internal tools, the vendor appliances.
2. Which of those are on an end-of-life line? Those get no fix at all.
3. When will the rest be updated, and who confirms it's done?October showed how fast this moves. PHP and Node.js shipped critical fixes on the same day, and the PHP bugs had sat in the code since 2012.A patch is not an IT ticket anymore. It's a test of how fast your company can change.🔗 Release notes in the comments.
Visual · Text onlyNo image. The three numbered questions carry the post.Check before postingPost once the release is out (planned on or shortly after 11 November) and add the real severity and fixed versions from the release notes.
Your worst outage is a talkRule 6: invite people in. Modelled on the Operations Devroom announcement, 20% buyers.
Hook
Your worst outage is a talk.The Operations Devroom at FOSDEM 2027 is looking for stories from the machine room, and the Call for Proposals closes on Friday, November 27th.We want the messy, real-world side of running systems:
→ the outage post-mortem you still think about
→ the security incident that changed how you deploy
→ the patch weekend that went wrong, and what you fixed after
→ the small setup that runs key infrastructure on a tiny budgetSolo administrators and big platform teams are equally welcome. If you keep the lights on, this track is for you.📅 Submission deadline: Friday, November 27th
📬 Acceptance notifications: Monday, December 7th👇 Submission form and full CfP in the comments.
Visual · Single imageThe devroom name and the two dates on a plain background.Check before postingConfirm the dates against the CfP page and put the link in the first comment.
October in one listRule 1: turn the alert into a to-do, then offer the list. Modelled on the “Busy with PHP today?” post and on Denny Roger's comment-a-keyword tools.
Hook
Busy with patches? Here's October in one list.21 October alone brought critical fixes for PHP and Node.js. If you run a mid-market stack, this is what mattered:→ PHP: two unauthenticated RCEs. Fixed in 8.5.12, 8.4.27, 8.3.36 and 8.2.35.
→ Node.js: an OOB write in Brotli decompression (CVE-2026-111497). Fixed in 26.12.1, 24.22.1 and 22.23.4. EOL lines get no patch.
→ BeyondTrust Remote Support: CVE-2026-102764, exploited as a zero-day before the disclosure.
→ Ivanti Connect Secure VPN: an unauthenticated RCE chain exploited in the wild. Upgrade, then check for signs of compromise.
→ Magento and Adobe Commerce: BlockStrap (CVE-2026-103849), CVSS 10.0, and the fix is a manual patch.Most teams didn't miss these because they were careless. They missed them because nobody owns the list.So I'm making one. Every Monday: the week's critical fixes, who is exposed, and the version that closes it. One page, no vendor pitch.Comment PATCH and I'll send you the first one.
Visual · Single imageThe five fixes as a table: product, what's exposed, fixed version.Check before postingDouble-check each version number against the advisories. Put your Netwarm Reveal link in the reply you send, so you can see which CTOs and CISOs open the list.
Who removes a leaver's access on Friday at 6 p.m.?Rule 4: make the post about the problem you solve. Modelled on Bipul Sinha's three questions for every CEO.
Hook
Who removes a leaver's access at 6 p.m. on a Friday?Ask that in a mid-market company and you get three answers.HR thinks IT does it. IT thinks the manager raised a ticket. The manager thinks it happens automatically.Meanwhile the account still opens:
→ email and the shared drive
→ the CRM and the finance tool
→ the SaaS apps nobody listed
→ the VPNThis is the high-volume work that falls through the cracks: onboarding and offboarding, SaaS and access sprawl, patching, audit evidence. None of it is hard. All of it needs an owner.Three questions for the CEO, not the IT team:
1. Who owns a leaver's access, by name?
2. How long does removal take today, in hours?
3. Could you show an auditor the proof?If one answer is “I'm not sure”, that's the place to start.
Visual · Text onlyNo image. The three questions do the work.Check before postingAdd a real offboarding you fixed for a client, anonymised, with the time it took before and after.
Free forever: unlimited scheduling through LinkedIn’s official API, with images, video and PDF carousels.
06
LinkedIn lead generation: lead magnets that work to target CTOs, CISOs and founders
Reactions show interest. A download shows intent. The fastest way to find out which CTOs and CISOs are serious is to give them something useful and see who takes it.
In security, these formats get the most requests:
Format 1The audit toolA ready-to-use tool for one audit leaders have to run, sent to anyone who comments a keyword.
Format 2The resource libraryFrameworks, templates and policies for one field, sorted in one place.
Format 3The readiness checkA short self-assessment with a score, then a post on what the answers showed.
Format 4The budget simulatorA spreadsheet that answers a board question: how many people, what it costs, what automation changes.
Our pick for you: “The Monday patch list”Built from the alerts the founder already writes: every Monday, the week's critical fixes on one page, with who is exposed and the version that closes it, for a mid-market stack. Offer it at the end of post 4, the October round-up, with a comment keyword.With a Reveal link, every person who downloads it is shown by name, with their role and how warm they are. Your first Reveal link is free.Create your free Reveal link
07
From reactions to clients
Content brings CTOs and CISOs to the profile. It doesn't say when to reach out. Most never comment, so they stay invisible, and a head of IT reading every patch alert in October may have signed with another provider by January.
On LinkedIn, the right moment to start a conversation is when someone keeps coming back. We call that Hot: 5 or more points over 90 days, where a reaction counts 1, a repost 2, a download or a reply 4.
Hot right now1 CTOs, CISOs and founders · not contacted yetNetwarm
1 CTOs, CISOs and founders are Hot. See who to message first.See who’s Hot
First messageAn opener for each Hot person, based on the posts they readNetwarm
Hi Alex, you've reacted to a few of my patch alerts this month. Is patching still handled in-house on your side?Hi Sam, saw you read the October round-up. Did the PHP fix land on your web servers in time?
A first line for each of them, ready to send.See the openers
Netwarm sends nothing for you. It tells you who and when, and you write the message. It also works inside Claude and ChatGPT: ask “Who's Hot today?” and get the list.
08
FAQ
On this profile, patch alerts that say who is exposed and which version fixes it brought twice the share of CTOs, CISOs and founders that breach reports did (16.3% against 7.9%). Company news that names the problem you solve did best, 21.5%. Write the leader's version next to the engineer's.
For this founder, Tuesday brought the highest share of buyers (24%, one post), then Saturday (19.1%) and Thursday (18.2%). Wednesday, with 8 posts, brought 11.6%. Put the posts written for leaders on Tuesday or Thursday around 16:00 Paris time.
This founder posted 19 times in a month, about 4 a week, with 5 posts on the busiest patch day. Volume can follow the news; keep at least one post a week written for the people who buy, not only for the people who patch.
Look at who reacts, not how many. Group reactions by role, measure the share of your ideal clients per post, and follow the people who keep coming back. A free Netwarm scan does this for you.
Yes. Netwarm only reads public reactions to your own posts. It never logs in as you, never asks for your password, and never messages anyone for you.
How we made this playbook
We read the public reactions on 19 posts published between 6 October and 5 November 2026, up to the first 100 people per post, and sorted the 504 people by role. Comments were not counted, so engagement figures are a floor. Posts written by other people that tag the founder were left out.
Niche rules come from top security posts on LinkedIn over the last 3 months. Role groups are approximate, and some founders and CTOs run security companies that sell to the same buyers; a Netwarm scan matches people to your own ideal client.
