Hat Tip Social

Generating leads for B2B execs from their socials.

Founder

Clients include Our Future (acq. by Morning Brew) Laskie, Growletter, ProperExpression.

Writing compelling short and long-form copy for brand emails, social posts, and static Facebook/Instagram ads.

Scripting and editing Facebook/TikTok video ad creative.

Copywriter and Creative Strategist

Deebo

Business brokering influencer marketing brand deals between some of TikTok's top creators and kick ass brands.

Notable clients include:

Daniel MacDonald, Mark Tilbury, Frank Michael Smith, and more.

Notable brand campaigns include:
Honey x Mark Tilbury
Public x Daniel MacDonald
Wealthfront x Daniel MacDonald
Public x Frank Michael Smith
Gal Akbari x Mary Brown's
Momento NFT x TMT Racing

Neuro

Influencer Marketing Coordinator (Internship)

Get Leads From Your LinkedIn On Autopilot | Founder @ Hat Tip

If you:

→ Make social content
→ Want to make social content
→ Tried making social content but were unsuccessful

… you’re in the right place.

Truth is, publishing content you’re proud of on a consistent basis is tough.

You get busy. Things come up.

And for most founders, content takes a backseat to whatever fire they’re putting out at their company that day.

That said, its 2024.

Content is king — and the benefits for B2B founders are clear:

→ Drive low-cost brand awareness
→ Generate inbound leads from a new lead source
→ Become a “thought leader” in your space (even though you may hate that word)

And after meeting tons of founders while working in influencer marketing, starting Hat Tip felt like a no-brainer.

You can still benefit from publishing high-quality social content — without worrying about blocking out time to write, being inconsistent, or if you’re making content the “right way”.

Hat Tip handles that for you—while maintaining your voice—through:

→ Bi-weekly content interviews
→ Product and industry-specific thought-starters
→ The will to edit and revise until you’re proud of the content being published

If high-quality, consistent social content sounds like something you’re interested in, DM me or visit the link in my profile to book a call.

Thanks 👋

Christian

📧 christian@hattipagency.com
🐤 Twitter @dibratto

We're hiring again! The team is growing, and we're looking for 1-2 more Content Writers to support client accounts.

Facts about the role:

🌎 Fully remote (USA/Canada required)
💰$20-$35/hr (contract)
✍️ B2B social writing experience required

You'll be responsible for:

- Pulling post ideas from transcribed content interviews
- Drafting 5-8 LinkedIn posts per week, per client you're assigned
- Tracking client analytics weekly to adapt content strategy with data

This role is perfect for someone who:

- Spends way too much time on social media.
- Currently writes, or has written for LinkedIn accounts.
- Is a hungry copywriter looking for agency experience.

I'll put the full application in the comments. Any comments or tags for reach are much appreciated!

Christian Di Bratto

Get Leads From LinkedIn Before Christmas | Serving YC, M13, and Peter Thiel-backed Founders | Founder @ Hat Tip

Random things I've been doing to make remote work more enjoyable / healthier:

- Got a standing desk. I stand 3-4 hours/day, as opposed to sitting for 8-9.

- Got a walking pad to go with it. I'm ~11,000-15,000 steps/day without leaving my desk, which I find absurd.

- Got an adapter that lets me use my DSLR as a webcam. 3 clients noticed the quality difference in the first week. I feel like a podcaster.

- Turned all devices to night shift/increased Red on all screens. You're probably like me in that you spend way too much time looking at screens all day, so this has been huge.

- Changed work environment. When I'm not standing during the day, I bring my laptop to my couch and work there. I lose 2 monitors, but find myself fresher than sitting/standing at the same desk all day.

- Reduced caffeine intake. I'm down to 2 coffees and 1 espresso between 5:30am and 1:30pm. I know that's not zero—but it's lower than before, and I feel better as a result.

Bit of a different post, but these have made a huge difference to my day-to-day, so I thought I'd share.

Get Leads From LinkedIn Before December | Founder @ Hat Tip | Serving YC, M13, and Peter Thiel-backed Founders

If you're posting content but not getting leads, I'll bet $1,000 it's 1 of these 5 reasons:

(although you probably don't want to admit it)

(1) You haven't been doing it long enough.

If you haven't posted 4-5x/week for 90 days, you can stop reading this post. That's your issue.

Seriously, leads from LinkedIn don't happen overnight. It takes time – and you haven't put it in yet.

(2) Your funnel is out of whack.

- Post too much TOF content and nobody knows what you offer.
- Post too much BOF content and nobody sees it in the first place.

The "key" is a healthy balance. In a given week, I recommend:

A. 2 TOF / 2 MOF / 1 BOF post
B. 3 TOF / 1 MOF / 1 BOF post

(3) You're posting the wrong media.

The best post means 0 with the wrong media. Power Rankings to maximize performance:

- Short-form video w/ subtitles
- Real-life picture of you
- Carousel
- Infographic
- Fake tweet/notes app screenshot
- No media

(4) You're not engaging.

Posting is half the battle. Commit 20 mins per day to:

- Leave 5x thoughtful comments on posts who's account has your ICP.
- Responding to comments in the first 60 mins on your own post.
- Sending 5-10 connection requests to your ICP per day.

(5) Your hooks suck.

Bad hook + great post = bad post. 

You MUST become a great hook writer.

Check my past posts for more tactical hook-writing advice that will get your posts read and digested.

I hope this was valuable to you.

We're closing applications for our Freelance Writer role today at 5pm ET.

You're a great fit if you're USA/Canada-based and:

1. Write LinkedIn content for yourself.

2. Write/have written for Tech and Agency Founders.

3. Are "in the know" on Tech, Marketing, and SaaS trends/news.

4. Study top-performing content like it's your job.

5. Are willing to work on 2-3 Founder accounts at a time.

Pay is up to $50/hr for the right candidate.

DM me if that's you.

I hired 1 Content Writer from 1,000+ candidates. Being on the other side of the hiring table, here's what stood out to me:

1. I automatically gravitated towards people who actively posted vs people who didn't. Maybe I'm biased, but seeing that they posted content added a layer of trust I didn't have in others.

Lesson: Post. Post. Post.

2. The easiest way to stand out is to find the employer's contact info, and email them post-application. Of 1,000+ applicants, 3 did this. I hired 1 of them.

Lesson: Go the extra mile.

3. 500+ candidates simply just didn't have relevant experience. I'm sure they were great writers in their own right, but I noticed so many people claiming to have Founder content experience who obviously didn't. 

Lesson: Only apply if you can actually do the job.

TLDR:

1. Become a subject matter expert in whatever you work in.
2. Find the employer's email and send a 1-sentence pitch.
3. Only apply if you're relevant—you'll save everyone time.

How to choose media for posts to maximize reach (November 2024 LinkedIn Media Power Rankings):

1. Short-form video w/ subtitles
2. Real-life picture of you
3. Carousel
4. Infographic
5. Fake tweet/notes app screenshot
6. No media

To work through the Power Rankings, write your post then ask yourself:

- If the post has a strong hook + clear takeaway that isn't a large list of any sorts, record a short-form video and add subtitles.

- If the post is personal/team-related, include a picture of you with your face front and center, or use a team pic.

- If the post is a large list of any sorts, make a carousel ("10 best hooks I saw this week")

- If the post's learnings would be best-conveyed visually on one screen, make an infographic ("My workflow for writing LinkedIn posts")

- If the post is none of the above but has a strong hook, make a fake tweet or Notes app screenshot in Canva (check my profile for samples)

- If the post's learnings fit none of the above, post with no media.

This may seem a little confusing at first, but you'll build an intuition for it pretty quick.

If you don't talk about your offer, you don't get leads. I can prove it:

Before I started Hat Tip—my content agency—I brokered influencer marketing partnerships. 

Just a little freelance gig during high school/my first year of university.

Back then, I connected with my point of contact at my biggest advertiser on LinkedIn.

3 years later, now running Hat Tip, I made a post sharing:

1. What I do
2. The results we get
3. An offer of free value

And this person—who hasn't liked one of my 100+ posts—DM'd me saying:

"Nice to see what you're up to and would love to explore this for our CEO. Have time to chat next week?"

As it turns out, they're a CMO of a VC-backed company that fits our ICP.

I'm not special—you have this demand too. My advice:

- Write 2-3 BOF posts every 2 weeks
- Make a very clear offer w/ a clear CTA

You literally never know who's reading.

TLDR: There are buyers already in your network, at the bottom of your funnel, waiting for a slight push or prompt to book a call. You do that with BOF content.

If you want clients from LinkedIn without selling courses/coaching about growing on Linkedin,  ignore every guru. Do this instead:

The gurus will tell you all types of things.

- Comment 20-30x/day
- Only post your stories for TOF engagement
- Join engagement groups to boost posts

If you want dopamine, do what they say. I prefer money – if you do as well, do this:

1. Figure out one EXTREMELY specific ICP.
2. ONLY write things they'd find interesting.
3.  DO NOT deviate – even if performance sucks.

Do this for 180 days, and you'll notice a few things:

- Your likes, comments, and DMs are full of high-quality accounts.

- Your inbound lead flow is better than accounts who did the opposite.

- Your close rate from outbound will go up (ask me how I know).

TLDR: If LinkedIn had an Annual Revenue Per Follower (ARPF) metric, many big gurus would be at $2 or below. 

What I laid out above will get you past $50-$100, quite easily.

I talked to a Founder last week who went from getting 0 leads/month from his LinkedIn to 8-10. Here's what he did:

I got this person to walk me through their content program—from ideation to posting. What I found confirmed my suspicions.

Before, he:

- Posted 2-3x/week
- Rarely included any media
- Specifically chose broad topics
- Talked about his product 1x/month
- Did no outbound connections at all
- Literally never repeated a post topic
- Only commented on his friend's posts

This is (unfortunately) what so many Founders call "trying LinkedIn". It's a joke of a try at best.

After getting some expert help, things turned around quickly.  He:

- Posts 5x/week
- Carefully chooses media
- Writes for only ONE ICP
- Talks about his product 4-5x/month
- Sends 10 personalized connections/day
- Regularly repeats post topics w/new angles
- Strategically leaves 5-10 valuable comments/day

And, like magic, leads started rolling in. Crazy how that works!

If you want leads from LinkedIn, skip right to what he did AFTER he got help. It'll save you time.

My content signs me 1-2 inbound clients per month, and I rarely get more than 20 likes on a post.

It's because my content isn't junk food.

There are rarely "empty calories" in it. I make each post as valuable as possible to an extremely tight ICP I know we can sell to.

It's easy to get likes on posts. A selfie + sob story will do that for you.

But what actually makes you money is high-quality content that speaks specifically to your ICP on a job-title-level:

1. Case studies
2. FAQs you get on sales calls
3. Questions clients have about your service
4. Pro tips catered specifically to them
5. Answers to problems you know they face

Brace yourself for lower likes, and more leads.

Hope that helps.

PS - I've come around on selfies a bit...but please stop abusing them.

You need a LinkedIn post today that will help generate leads but have 0 ideas. Here's what to do:

1. Reflect on every client conversation you've had in the last 7 days. 

- What stood out? 
- What questions did they ask? 
- What problems did they mention?

These are all A+ content ideas.

2. Think back to your last sales call.

- What was the prospect's most pressing question?
- Did you notice any repeats from past calls?
- What objections did they have?

3. Break down how you deliver results for clients.

Start with a hook along the lines of: If I were [ICP], trying to [get results] [in time frame], here's what I'd do.

Write a step-by-step procedure your ICP can steal.

If you can't find something from those 3, I don't know what to tell you.

How anyone can get leads from LinkedIn in 6 months starting from 0 (in 8 sentences):

1. Start by choosing ONE ICP, and deciding to ONLY write for them.

2. Back into your content plan based on what your ICP—the people you sell to—want to see or have questions about.

3. Every weekday, make 1 post, write 10 thoughtful comments, and personalize 5 connection requests to your ICP.

4. Obsess over hook writing.

5. Spend as much time making/choosing media as you do writing the post you're pairing it with.

6. Optimize each content piece to be saved, bookmarked, and/or sent to a group chat of your ICP (this means making it as valuable as possible all the time).

7. Post about your offer 3-4 times per month minimum—people need to know what you sell for them to buy.

8. Do it for 180 days straight before complaining it "doesn't work".

If you want leads from LinkedIn but don't want to do all that – DM me.

I've talked to 20+ Seed-Series A stage Founders in the past 12 weeks who all say the same thing about founder-led social:

"We tried it but couldn't get it to work". I'd check their accounts. Every time, without fail:

- They posted less than 15 times
- There was no content funnel to be seen
- Their "Comments" tab was dry as a desert

Of course it didn't work—I can't make it work with those parameters either.

And saying you "tried" social while doing this is just unfair.

What I'd tell any Founder in the early stages of trying to "make social work":

- Commit for 90 days no matter what
- Post minimum 3x/week (ideally 5x)
- Leave 8-10 thoughtful comments per day
- Connect with 8-10 people from your ICP/day
- Map each post to TOF, MOF, and BOF
- Be very intentional about sharing results/your offer
- Do not be afraid to send DMs—they lead to revenue

You'll be shocked at how well it "works" when you do it the right way.

Accounts less interesting than you are 10xing your impressions with short-form video. Here's how you can, too:

For context, we used this exact workflow to get a client 194,543 impressions on one video last week. It works.

And it's not super complicated. All you need:

1. Riverside
2. Upwork/Capcut
3. Prompts

The workflow:

1. Draft a set of prompts/ideas you want to hit on—ideally that map to the top or middle of the funnel

2. Open Riverside and start yapping. If you're Marketer trying to get your Founder to do this, you create the prompts and ask them as an interview.

3. Hire an editor off Upwork ($10-14/video) for simple cuts/subtitling. I wouldn't go super crazy with this. Alternatively, you can just cut them yourself in Capcut.

4. Draft copy for each video. I'm finding longer copy yields better results—presumably because it keeps the viewer on your video longer.

5. Post 20x before claiming it doesn't work. Your first, second, or third video won't pop. But one will—and you'll be glad you didn't give up.

Let me know if you have any questions on how this works.

70% of Founders are scared of repeating themselves in content. They're wrong. Founders who drive the most leads repeat themselves regularly. 7 reasons you need to repeat yourself:

1. It only resonates after repetition

Unless you’re in the top 0.5% of storytellers, people don’t care about your idea the first time. Or the second. After hearing it 3-5+ times, though, they start to remember you for it—by force.

2. The algo is tricky

There isn’t a soul who doesn’t work at LinkedIn that fully understands the algorithm. All of your connections aren’t seeing all of your posts. Give all of them the chance to understand the concept you’re trying to share.

3. New people visit your profile daily

Literally nobody goes back through content past 3-5 posts. You get new profile visits, connections, and/or followers weekly. Repurpose those same content ideas so new readers understand them, too.

4. You become “the” person for that topic.

The end goal of any Founder-led content motion is being “known” for one concept or idea. If you sell SEO for B2B SaaS, you want anyone to automatically think of you when SEO for B2B SaaS comes to mind. The more you repeat yourself, the better chance you have.

5. It’s way more efficient.

Content ideas are infinite in theory, but finite in practice. It’s much more efficient to drive home a concept you need your audience to understand/know you for, then to come up with new ones all the time.

Takeaway: Repeating yourself isn’t bad. 

It’s great. It permanently associates you with a concept or idea in your audience’s brain—which is exactly what you want.

Repeat yourself – but change the format you do it in. Make one idea into a:

Carousel
Text-only post
Short-form video
Long-form video
Infographic/cheatsheet

Hope that’s helpful.

How to increase profile visits 40% in 1 week (15 mins/day):

Too many people think posting is enough. It's not. The accounts that print leads strategically comment so the right people visit their profile.

Here's how you can do the same:

1. Make a list of 10-15 creators

The list should be a rough 50/50 spit of accounts in your ICP, and accounts adjacent to yours. You want people who's audience is in your ICP.

Rule of thumb: They should be getting >75 likes, mainly coming from your ICP, per post for this to work.

2. Follow all + turn their post notifications on.

3. Leave LinkedIn open in another tab during the workday.

4. Notice when the number goes up (it may mean they posted).

5. If any of them post:

- Read and understand it
- Write a comment that adds value to the reader

Rule(s) of thumb:

- Each comment should be >3 sentences.
- They should add/supplement the post material.
- They should be good enough to work as a post itself.

6. Repeat daily.

DISCLAIMER

You WILL NOT catch every post. You'll miss some. You won't have a great comment for others. That's fine.

The point is you leave at least 5 comments per day for 7 days. 

If they're good enough, you'll notice your profile visits increase. 

If your profile visits don't increase, they're not good enough.

I hope that was helpful.

If Founder-led content isn't a part of your 2025 Marketing Plan, I don't know what to tell you.

- Cold outbound is plagued by new deliverability regulation seemingly monthly.

- Paid ads can be great – but you better be able to bankroll it.

- Referrals are awesome, but you can't rely on them.

- SEO is fantastic, but takes a while to see tangible return.

- Events/conferences are solid – but expensive

That leaves Founder-led content. Will it put 100 calls on your calendar before December? Probably not. Can it add 5-10 calls per month you didn't have otherwise? Yup.

...and the beauty of it is, Founder-led content doesn't have to replace any lead generation methods I just mentioned.

In fact, while it acts as its own lead gen source, it boosts all of the above as well. Pretty crazy if you ask me.

And if you want to see it in action:

Adam Robinson – used it to grow RB2B to $3.8M ARR (in <1 year).

Dave Gerhardt – used it to help grow Exit Five to 3,500+ members.

Tyler Denk 🐝 – used it to help grow beehiiv to >$12M ARR.

If you want more calls than last month, start posting content today. It's that simple.

We've driven 100+ leads from LinkedIn for 1 client with 0 outbound.  When you look at their account, it's obvious why:

- Clear headshot
- Banner with value prop/social proof
- About section with story + offer
- Featured section with case studies
- 6-8 posts/week for the last 18 months
- Healthy mix of video, carousels, infographics
- Every post made for one ICP
- They give 10x more than they ask
- Perfectly balanced content funnel
- Also active on YT, IG, X

(...and they trust Hat Tip to write their content, but that's besides the point).

I am not sure how much more clear on this I could be: 

If you do all of the above, you have a better chance of being struck by lightning than you do of this not working for you.

TLDR: If you want to maximize leads from LinkedIn,  view each part of your profile as a part of a bigger bucket.

Any part of your profile not being fully optimized is a leak in the bucket—which means you're losing leads.

Optimize each part, and never lose a lead again.

How to (predictably) book 1-2 calls per week on LinkedIn:

Yes, inbound is great—but it can be unpredictable. If you want lead flow you can count on no matter what, this post is for you.

For the record, this only really works if you're consistent with content—consider it an add-on to any inbound you get.

Every day, schedule 20-30 mins to:

1. Filter for your ICP as best you can with Sales Nav.

2. Record a personalized Loom / give something of free value for 5 connections.

For example, I've tested:

- Profile audits (3-4 minutes on what I'd change about their existing profile to help them convert more leads)

- 30-day content calendars: I tailor a list of prompts to their business via a Notion calendar.

Also testing a couple others I don't want to share yet. But I don't want you to copy me.

I want you to pick something your ICP would find valuable, and give it to them for free.

You can do something very similar with people who like your posts and/or view your profile. 

Sales Nav has a great feature that lets you filter for profile viewers who fit your ICP.

The prospect being a connection, Profile Viewer, or Post Liker means they have seen your profile at the very least. 

In other words, the Outbound isn't completely cold.

A churned client returned after realizing we generated them $65K from their Founder's LinkedIn in 8 weeks. Here's the November recap at @ Hat Tip:

1. We had a client churn in October because they weren't able to prove ROI from our service. They returned in November after realizing they closed $65K in LTV directly attributable to our LinkedIn work in 8 weeks. They didn't account for a 45-day sales cycle the first time around. Just thought this was funny.

2. We built a new video system for clients. We piloted this with myself and two other clients. Reach was up a minimum of 10%, all the way up to 50%. We're rolling this out further in December and I'm excited to see the results.

3. Hired a new Content Writer. I'm stoked. I love writing for Founders, but it becomes more clear month after month that revenue is capped when I'm in that seat. I'm (slowly) working on building the team + systems to handle it better than me.

4. Announcing something soon my Founder friends and networks got texts about last week. I've never done something like this before, but I have a great feeling about it. And if you think I'm not going to tease it to no end, you don't know me.  Keep your eyes peeled.

5. Random, but I booked a co-working office a couple of times in November and enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. For one, it got me out of my home office (~6 feet from my bed), but I also met with other Founders, which I found cool.

Hope everyone closes out the year strong 🙌 

PS - these Riverside screenshots are doubling as solid media right now. lol.

Taplio

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