Last updated: 13 January 2026
I read something a while ago about how useful it can be to audit social media posts – see what people respond to, how many likes and comments and so on:
Which topics got the most Views and Likes? This is usually a good indication of “popularity.”
Which topics got the most comments? This is usually a good indication of “resonance.”
Which topics got the most shares? This is usually a good indication of “status” (meaning people resonate with your writing so much they want to have it represent them too).
You don’t have to be a data scientist about it. Just look for broad trends: what’s working, what’s not, and where do you see a topic that readers are clearly engaging with (even if it’s “small signals”) that can be expanded into a longer asset?
Better to start with some data than no data.
So I did that for a while, copying the link to each LinkedIn post and making a note of the numbers as I went along. I did it for roughly a year, saving it to Notes on my iCloud account.
But I’m trying, in 2026, to do things a little differently:
- Use my own website as much as possible, rather than social media or newsletters or anything else tbh.
- Take existing work off social media, or at least copy it here.
- Be radically transparent1, sharing openly things that may have been buried in my Notes, so that others can see what I’m doing and learn from it – or perhaps help me to avoid mistakes in what I’m doing.
So I thought I would share here what I saved to my Notes. Over time, I intend to create duplicates of (some of?) these LinkedIn posts here on my website.
(You may have seen that I am doing something similar with another social media platform, taking what was previously on Instagram and putting it here with the label Outstagram. There’s a LOT still to do.)
The list below covers quite a few LinkedIn posts over the last year (or so ?). It’s absolutely not comprehensive: I never did bother to add to my Notes the posts that got little traction.
| Post | Link | Views | Likes | Comments | Shares |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Idea for a Book? Write a Proposal | Link | 1669 | 49 | 10 | 1 |
| Recently I Phoned A Friend | Link | 1344 | 41 | 17 | 3 |
| Save Your Work! | Link | 1290 | 43 | 9 | 2 |
| HTCTW in Sofia (LinkedIn) | Link | 1055 | 53 | 21 | |
| Therapist and inner clown / shadow | Link | 1584 | 27 | 36 | 1 |
| Wanted to be an artist (LinkedIn) | Link | 1979 | 89 | 39 | 3 |
| Next year I’ll meet people IRL | Link | 1573 | 87 | 34 | 1 |
| AI and Speechwriting (Brian Jenner pic) | Link | 1626 | 45 | 12 | 1 |
| Inner Critic, Inner Child | Link | 1106 | 30 | 7 | 2 |
| How to Engage an Audience (Kheron Gilpin) | Link | 1113 | 43 | 10 | 4 |
| Digital Commonplace Book (LinkedIn) | 880 | 20 | 8 | ||
| Pleasure of Print Newspapers | Link | 1204 | 16 | 40 | |
| Speechwriter’s Conference, The Hague | 2459 | 51 | 10 | ||
| On this iMac I wrote… | Link | 1048 | 38 | 13 | 2 |
| CHECK Whitwham teachers post in Jan2 | |||||
| The Editor asked me to ghostwrite his wife’s story | Link | 827 | 23 | 7 | |
| In interviews the best material spills out (at the end) | Link | 790 | 12 | 12 | 1 |
| Writers to be bestseller on Amazon don’t need to sell 1000s | Link | 1002 | 21 | 11 | 2 |
| Exhilarating to read complaints about AI | Link | 790 | 17 | 10 | |
| A Book Proposal Is… | Link | 1082 | 26 | 7 | 3 |
| Ask Someone To Read Your Writing Aloud | Link | 1781 | 16 | 3 | |
| Stuff around you as you work (Hunter Davies) | Link | 1803 | 20 | 4 | 1 |
| Burgh House Day 3 | Link | 1063 | 62 | 18 | |
| A copywriting course that isn’t about AI (Ogilvy sketch) | Link | 389 | 18 | 5 | 2 |
| Bought the copywriting course | Link | ||||
| Unless you know the subject AI output is 💩 | Link | 2076 | 50 | 10 | 1 |
| Asking how I have helped writers | Link | 1607 | 11 | 14 | |
| Ilma Hungarian childhood bedroom exercise | Link | 702 | 25 | 10 | |
| Holey man | Link | 4626 | 155 | 51 | 6 |
| Keep working (PLF promo) | Link | 4192 | 83 | 47 | |
| Ray Bradbury says “don’t think!” | Link | 1870 | 38 | 6 | 4 |
| AI in the paper shredder | Link | 8946 | 37 | 46 | |
| Tempting to make career path seem designed | Link | 2297 | 38 | 55 | |
| Autumn in Lancashire | Link | 1633 | 79 | 21 | 1 |
| Writing about AI | Link | 3690 | 25 | 11 | |
| Five years making and selling art | Link | 859 | 36 | 6 | 2 |
| Document your obsessions | Link | 1854 | 30 | 5 | |
| Writers have stopped writing | Link | 6473 | 86 | 28 | 3 |
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-If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it by email or on social media. Here's the link. Thanks, JPF.
1 I mean, people are losing trust in online stuff VERY quickly.
2 Oops, forgot to include the link here. May add it later.