LinkedIn Content Strategy for Social Media Agency Directors | Netwarm
LinkedIn playbook · Case study
LinkedIn content strategy for social media agency directors: how a Toronto agency director reached 31 brand marketing leaders in 8 posts
We read every reaction on 8 posts from a Toronto social media agency director. 205 people, 31 brand marketing leaders. Here is what brings buyers, what brings peers, and the 5 posts we’d publish next.
Max Sawyer · Netwarm··10 min read
The creator in this case studyA Toronto social media agency director
Followers15,792
Posts~1 to 2 a week
SellsSocial strategy, creator partnerships, paid social and PR programs for consumer and travel brands, through the agency
These numbers are from 3 November. Your audience has already moved.
New brand marketing leaders turn Hot every week and others go quiet. Run your free scan to see today’s version, with the names.
Ideal client: marketing, social and communications leaders at consumer and travel brands who want social to work as a business function, not the last stop in the campaign.The challenge: The director writes for the people who brief agencies: senior leaders, brand teams, the person with the final call. Most of the people who react are other social media pros. Which posts reach the brand side?
Key takeaways
About 1 in 7 readers is a brand-side leader.31 heads of social, marketing directors and brand leaders reacted to 8 posts: 15.1% of the 205 people who reacted. 95 others are social media peers.
5 brand leaders came back for a second post.None has reacted 3 times yet: at 1 to 2 posts a week, nobody has had the time to turn Hot.
01
Who actually reads you, and what the LinkedIn algorithm changed
The director posts about the job of running social for brands: what makes content worth stopping for, why social belongs early in the campaign, how senior people should give feedback, and the daily absurdities of Meta. 8 posts between 28 September and 3 November, all at 6 a.m. Eastern.
The LinkedIn algorithm shows a post to the people who reacted to the last ones, then to people like them. Social media is a crowded feed: brand leaders who hire agencies read it, and so do thousands of social media managers, freelancers and consultants. Reach can’t tell them apart. Who reacted can. We sorted every person who reacted by role.
8posts in 6 weeks
205people reacted
31brand marketing leaders
5came back twice
Audience by roleThe 205 people who reacted, by roleFree
Heads of social, marketing directors & brand leaders31 · 15.1%
Social media managers, specialists, freelancers & consultants95 · 46.3%
Everyone else79 · 38.5%
Peers are the largest group: 95 people who do the same job, many of them freelancers and consultants who sell to the same brands. They push reach, and they rarely hire an agency.
The 31 brand leaders are the people an agency director wants in the room: directors of social and heads of social at consumer brands, marketing directors, VPs of content at banks and tech companies. Some brand-side social managers in the “everyone else” group will be the ones who brief the agency in a year.
SeniorityAll people who reactedFree
Founder, owner, C-level8.3%
Director, VP11.2%
Manager22.9%
Independent8.8%
Other48.8%
IndustriesBrand marketing leaders onlyNetwarm
Consumer, food and travel brands25.8%
Hidden in preview00%
Hidden in preview00%
Hidden in preview00%
See all industries and company sizes in your free scan.
5 brand marketing leaders came back for a second post. None has reached 3 yet.See your regulars
Engager company sizeEveryone who reacted, by company sizeNetwarm
Hidden in preview00%
Hidden in preview00%
Hidden in preview00%
Hidden in preview00%
Hidden in preview00%
See which company sizes your brand marketing leaders work at.See company sizes
02
What to post on LinkedIn to reach brand marketing leaders
Most agency leaders judge a post by its reactions. An agency that sells should judge it by who reacted.
We tagged each of the 8 posts by topic, then measured the share of brand marketing leaders among the people who reacted. Two posts per topic is a small sample: read the gaps as a direction, not a law.
Your topicsWhat your 8 posts were aboutFree
8posts
Content that earns attention2
Social as a business function2
Social media humour2
Leading teams and feedback2
Topics that attract brand marketing leadersShare of each topic’s reactions from brand marketing leadersNetwarm
Content that earns attention17.5%
Social as a business function17.1%
Social media humour10.9%
Leading teams and feedback5.0%
One topic brings 1.6x more brand marketing leaders than another. See which.See which topics
Posts about what makes brand content worth stopping for bring 1.6x more brand marketing leaders per reaction than social media humour.
Posts that brought the most brand marketing leadersShare of brand marketing leaders in each post’s reactions1 of 5 open
#1Brands assume people are waiting for their announcement19.1%
#2Social shouldn’t be the last stop in the campaign19%
#3Would someone who doesn’t work here care about this?12.5%
#4Things that haunt me: Meta edition11.6%
#5Pause before you leave feedback9.1%
For comparison, the post on connecting social, PR and partnerships early reached no brand marketing leaders among its 11 reactions.
5 rules for LinkedIn engagement from brand marketing leaders
These rules come from what worked on the director’s own profile, and from the best-performing posts by social media strategists and leaders on LinkedIn over the last 3 months.
1
Name the mistake brands make, not the one teams make. Brand leaders react when they see their own launch in the first line. A post about giving feedback to a team speaks to managers; a post about the brand’s announcement speaks to the person who signs the brief.On this profile: the brand-mistake post had the highest share of brand marketing leaders, 19.1%. The two posts on leading teams and feedback brought 1 brand marketing leader in 20 reactions.
Say the stance in one line they’d repeat in a meeting. “Social shouldn’t be the last stop” is a sentence a head of social can paste into a planning deck. Short, firm, and about how the brand works, not how social works.On this profile: the two-line “last stop” post reached 19 brand marketing leaders in its first 100 reactions, the most of any post.
Turn your opinions into a list of hills. One opinion per line lets every reader pick the one they agree with. The director’s featured “Hills I will die on as a director of social media” post already proves the format.On this profile: the featured “Hills I will die on” post has 2,799 reactions and 131 comments. Across the niche: Kellyn McMullan’s list drew 2,765 likes.
Argue for fewer, better posts. Brand leaders own the content calendar and the budget behind it. A post that questions volume speaks to the decision they make every quarter, and shows how the agency thinks.Across the niche: Jack Appleby’s “stop posting daily” post drew 1,997 likes and 225 comments.
Show the work that never reaches the calendar. Reading comments, spotting a confused customer, deciding not to jump on a trend: the invisible work is what a brand pays an agency director for. Name it, with one real example.Across the niche: Kellyn McMullan’s post on the work behind the calendar drew 1,519 likes and 141 comments.
When brand marketing leaders read: the best time to post on LinkedIn for social media agency directors
We compared the share of brand marketing leaders by the day each post was published. All 8 posts went out at 6 a.m. Eastern, so there is no hour to compare, and each day has only 2 posts.
Share of brand marketing leaders by posting dayAmong the people who reacted to each postFree
0.0%
Mon
18.4%
Tue
17.5%
Wed
11.1%
Fri
Tuesday and Wednesday brought the highest share: 18.4% and 17.5%. The two Monday posts brought none, on 20 reactions in total: too few to rule the day out, but a reason to keep the posts that sell the work for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Keep the 6 a.m. Eastern slot. Moving from 1 to 2 posts a week to 3 (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday) gives brand leaders a reason to come back, and gives Netwarm enough posts to spot who keeps returning.
05
5 posts ready to publish to target brand marketing leaders
Each post follows the rules above, in the director’s voice. Swap in your own details before posting: the real client moment is what makes it land.
1Ready to postOne-line stance
The brief is where social startsRule 2: one stance a head of social would repeat. Modelled on the director’s “last stop” post, the post that reached the most brand marketing leaders.
Hook
Say it with me: if social sees the campaign for the first time at the asset handoff, the campaign was built without social.The brief is where social starts.Not the shoot. Not the approval round. Not the folder of finals that lands on a Thursday afternoon.
Visual · Text onlyNo image. Three short lines, like the original “last stop” post.Check before postingKeep it short. Resist adding a list: the original worked because it was two lines.
“Can we make it go viral?”Rule 1: a brand mistake in the first line. Modelled on Jack Barrow’s “everyone has an opinion” post and the director’s announcement post.
Hook
One of the biggest mistakes brands make is asking social to make something go viral after everything else is approved.By then, the idea is locked. The visuals are locked. The message has been through legal, PR and three rounds of feedback.Social gets a 30-second cut and a deadline.And a request to make it travel.The posts that travel usually start somewhere else:→ a real thing people are already talking about
→ a format the audience actually uses
→ a reason someone who doesn’t work here would careThat can’t be added at the end. It has to be in the idea.If you want something people share, bring social in when there is still something to shape.
Visual · Text onlyNo image, or one screenshot of a real (anonymised) request message.Check before postingIf you use a real request from a client, make sure nobody can recognise the brand.
Hills I will die on, agency editionRule 3: one opinion per line. Modelled on Kellyn McMullan’s list and the director’s featured “Hills I will die on” post.
Hook
Hills I will die on after 10+ years running social on the agency side:→ The best brief is one page. If it needs ten, the decision hasn’t been made yet.→ Social belongs in the first meeting, not the last one.→ One person should have the final call. “Everyone weighs in” is not an approval process.→ Creators are not a distribution channel. They are a creative partner.→ PR and social should share one plan, not two decks.→ A report should say what to do next month, not only what happened last month.→ The strongest edit is usually moving the customer benefit into the first line.Which one would you add?
Visual · Text onlyNo image. The arrows carry the post, like the featured original.Check before postingKeep only the hills you’d defend in a client meeting. Cut or swap any that don’t sound like you.
We cut the calendar in halfRule 4: fewer, better posts. Modelled on Jack Appleby’s “stop posting daily” post.
Hook
We cut a client’s content calendar in half. Nobody missed the other half.The brand was posting every weekday. The team was tired, the approvals were rushed, and most posts looked like they were made to fill a slot.So we asked one question about every post on the calendar:Would someone who doesn’t work here care about this?About half didn’t pass.We kept the ones that did, and spent the time we saved on the ideas, the creators and the comments.Fewer posts. Better briefs. Faster approvals. And a team that had time to reply to people.Posting every day for the algorithm is not a strategy. Showing up with something worth saying is.What would your brand cut first?
Visual · ImageTwo calendar screenshots side by side, before and after, with the brand blurred.Check before postingUse a real client example and its real numbers, or write it as a recommendation if there isn’t one. Keep the client anonymous.
The social review cardLead magnet built from the director’s own review question, offered at the end. Modelled on the director’s October 21 post.
Hook
The question I ask in every social review: would someone who doesn’t work here care about this?It has saved more launches than any edit.So I put it on one card, with the 4 questions I ask right after it:1. Would someone who doesn’t work here care about this?
2. Is the customer benefit in the first line?
3. Does this change make the work clearer, or is it just how I’d have done it?
4. Is it clear what’s required and what’s a suggestion?
5. Who has the final call?It fits next to any creative review, and it makes the feedback round shorter for everyone.Comment “REVIEW” and I’ll send it to you.
Visual · ImageA clean one-page card with the 5 questions, in the agency’s colours.Check before postingMake the card before posting, and reply to every comment the same day.
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 brand marketing leaders
Reactions show interest. A request shows intent. The fastest way to find out which brand leaders are serious is to give them something useful and see who asks for it.
In social, paid and agency marketing, these formats get the most requests:
Format 1The monthly “what worked” fileWhat the agency’s own review found this month, turned into patterns a brand team can use.
Format 2The swipe fileReal examples sorted by the job each format does, so a brand team can pick one for its next brief.
Format 3The brand teardownHow a handful of known brands ran one campaign, with the tactics worth stealing.
Our pick for you: “The Social Review Card”Built from the question the director already asks in every social review (“Would someone who doesn’t work here care about this?”) and the feedback checklist from the October 23 post. One page, five questions. Offer it in post 5.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 brand leaders to the profile. It doesn’t say when to reach out. Most never comment, so they stay invisible, and a head of social reading every post this month may brief another agency by spring.
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. At 8 posts in 6 weeks, no brand leader has reached it yet: 5 came back for a second post. Posting 3 times a week is what turns them Hot.
Hot right now0 brand marketing leaders · not contacted yetNetwarm
0 brand marketing leaders 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 Jordan, you reacted to my post on social being the last stop. Is your team in the brief from day one yet?Hi Sam, I saw the review question post landed with you. Are feedback rounds a problem on your side too?
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
Here, posts on brand mistakes and on social’s place in the campaign brought the most brand marketing leaders (17 to 18% of reactions). Name the mistake brands make, say the stance in one line, and offer a tool like a review card.
For this director, Tuesday brought the highest share of brand marketing leaders (18.4%), then Wednesday (17.5%). Each day had only 2 posts, so the topic mattered at least as much as the day.
This director posted 8 times in 6 weeks, and 5 brand leaders came back for a second post. Three posts a week gives them a reason to come back, and shows who is warming up.
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 8 posts published between 28 September and 3 November 2026 (up to the first 100 reactions per post), and sorted the 205 people by role. Comments were not counted, so engagement figures are a floor. The 3 November post was too recent to count as an example.
Niche rules come from top posts by social media strategists and agency founders over the last 3 months. Role groups are approximate: some brand-side managers will become buyers, and some leaders sell to the same brands. A Netwarm scan matches people to your own ideal client.
Mercedes BarnesContent that earns attention · 30 Sep 202619.1% brand leaders
Kellyn McMullanSocial media strategist and creator · 15.6k followersRule 3
Jack ApplebySocial strategy founder · 91.6k followersRule 4
Olly HudsonCreative-led paid acquisition specialist · 37.9k followersFormat 1
Joe MarstonE-commerce growth strategist and agency founder · 30.3k followersFormat 2
Will EvansEmail marketing strategist and agency founder · 24.8k followersFormat 3
