Matt Swain's Linkedin Analytics

What you see: big smiles visiting LinkedIn HQ.  What you don’t see: - A new client that we spent a month closing - started strong and loved the work, but paused 6 weeks in due to market uncertainty. - $130,000 in deals that made it to contract stage… but didn’t close for a variety of reasons - timing was wrong; change in circumstances; creating our system but in-house. - We ran a bunch of experiments for growth with external support, big promises were made but none of them really worked. - A new team member didn’t pass their probation so we had to let them go. - A client delayed an invoice saying they had ‘cash flow issues,’ then ghosted us entirely without paying. - Parting ways with a long-term partner after realising we were no longer aligned. - Plus having a bunch of health challenges including a throat infection that came back (despite antibiotics!) This is the reality of entrepreneurship. These last 3 months have tested me.  Doubt crept in. I questioned myself. But today, as I walked through the doors of LinkedIn HQ, something shifted. I paused and looked around. In that moment, I realised how far I've come. Because sometimes the biggest wins are invisible:  The resilience to keep going. The clarity to let go. Maybe that’s why showing up matters. Even when it’s hard. Especially when it’s hard. Today reminded me perseverance pays off. Growth is always waiting on the other side of challenge. --- Always a pleasure catching up with David Walsh - hearing what’s ahead for LinkedIn, sharing what we’re seeing work for our clients and getting validation on Triangle’s frameworks, and also checking out the very cool new Experience Centre!

Here are the 4 ways we’re using LinkedIn that’s unlocked $500k of pipeline in the past 2 months: (1) Profile - following the 'Anti-Playbook Approach'. While everyone is following an identical approach to profile overhauls with clever-sounding one-liners, banners rammed with logos and about sections that sound like sales scripts. We’re doing the opposite. Saying what we do clearly. Visually stripped back but premium. Appealing to our specific decision-maker. (2) Content - Idea over format. We don’t get caught up in trending visuals or generic, templated structures. What matters is sharing original, thought-provoking insights that cut through the noise and make people think or change their views. Real Thought Leadership is saying something different that makes people pause & reflect. (3) Content - Sharing the lows. At the heart of a great personal brand is trust, and you don’t get that by showcasing perfection. Your buyers know business is messy. I’m being more vulnerable about the challenges of running an agency and candid in the mistakes we’ve made. Prospects have reached out saying they resonate with the content and feel the authenticity. (4) Lead Targeting - Refining who we speak to. We've honed our in-house ability using a bunch of new tech tools (post on these coming soon) to identify decision makers who are in the buying cycle - getting more targeted in who we reach, when we reach out and what message. We're seeing connection acceptance, message response rates, and booked calls in the diary jump. No hacks or gimmicks. A long-term systemised play to build brand & generate booked revenue. Now we're implementing this all for clients.

What makes great LinkedIn Thought Leadership in the tech industry? 1/ Share insights, not actionable takeaways. Imagine you’re giving a big Keynote talk about your industry. Focus on sharing the big idea/belief/prediction. Insights > learnings. 2/ Talk from experience. Your context & story make your knowledge valuable. Bring in real projects, launches, and decisions. Specificity gets attention. 3/ Leverage your own data. What unique data points do you have? Use that data to generate insights no one else can offer. 4/ Change people's minds. Information isn’t enough. The people who shift your perspective or give you that “aha moment” are the ones you remember and then buy from. 5/ Embed clear messaging. When people see your name & business - they should be able to associate you with opinions, ideas, unique differentiators and what you do. Stay on topic. 6/ Become your industry's spokesperson. You don’t need to share all the answers - it's can be just as important to start a discussion & conversation that centers around your original content. True authority is built when others start referencing you. 7/ Your content needs nuance. You need to capture the 10+ years of industry experience and the language & specific details your customers care about. 8/ Create content designed to be saved, shared & implemented. The goal isn’t likes, comments, or reach. It’s to get shared in your prospects Slack channel and discussed in meetings. – At Triangle we've created high-performing custom LinkedIn Thought Leadership for global leaders at IBM to fast-scaling AI-tech companies. Building industry-leading personal brands for CEO’s & Founders. Interested to hear more? Drop me a DM.

You're not getting your ideal decision-maker to engage? It's because you're writing content for everyone. For the algorithm. For your peers. For your old colleagues. Not the person who can impact your pipeline & growth. These last couple weeks, I've been on countless calls with prospects struggling to create content that will impact their business. So here's how you do it: 1. Speak to their specific pain. Make it sound like you're speaking to their current situation and No.1 Business Issue. 2. Show them you get their world better than they do. Talk about the fire they're putting out behind closed doors. 3. Share ideas that solve their problems. If you can solve some of their mini-problems, you'll have earned trust & credibility to solve their bigger ones. 4. Focus on insight over inspiration. “Motivation Monday” won’t get you a meeting but an insight into why their growth is stalling will. 5. Package your thinking like a product. You need to share your internal IP, frameworks, models - the kind of content they screenshot, save, and bring to meetings. 6. Design your content around one person. Think of the last great prospect you spoke to or your no.1 customer - imagine them as you write & speak directly to them. If your content isn’t bringing the right people into your inbox, it’s not a visibility problem - it’s a positioning one. Fix the focus. Talk to the people you actually want to reach. And that’s how content becomes pipeline. -- I'm trying out these new visuals to represent our ideas & work at Triangle - would love to hear what you think...

Have you seen more employee-posted sponsored content by big brands on your feed? Within a 30-minute scroll over the weekend, I saw employee posts promoted by Microsoft, Adobe, Virgin, Blackrock, Lenevo and more. This has started taking off in the last couple of months. I spent 2024 delivering keynotes sharing how brands that put real people - employees, customers, founders etc - at the forefront will be the organisations that build trust in the AI world we live in. The smartest brands are no longer hiding behind their official channels; they're putting real people at the forefront. Because that's what resonates and builds genuine trust. Powerful move. What do you think? Have you noticed this trend too?

Last One Laughing is No.1 on Prime Video and there's something we can all learn from its messaging. In my first few weeks working for Steven Bartlett, one of his philosophies he shared: "You need a phrase that you can turn to your friend and say in the back of a taxi that is simple & compelling." It's always stuck with me. And this weekend, I saw it in action. A friend told me about the show saying: "It's 10 famous comedians in a room, but they're not allowed to laugh." I was intrigued - and watched (it was great!) I’ve since repeated that exact phrase to three people. Simple - yes. Compelling - yes. Great content, products & brands have very clear messaging that makes people want to go check your offer out. That are simple & compelling and can be shared in a single sentence.

This single idea changed how I approach our B2B content strategy with NYSE-listed billion dollar companies, to leaders at IBM, and fast-scaling US tech start-ups: People don’t buy when they understand.  They buy when they feel understood. The instinct in B2B, especially with technical, complex, or high-ticket offers, is to educate. To flood people with more information. More features. More slides. More posts. But buyers aren’t lacking information. They’re lacking confidence. Confidence that:  - You actually get the nuance of their situation  - You’ve solved this problem before - for someone like them - You have the capability and conviction in what you do So, forget proving how much you know. What they really want is: “This person gets it. This person gets me.” Because the best marketing doesn’t just inform.  It resonates. --- If this idea resonated with you - this is exactly the kind of work we do with founders and execs. We build insight-driven Thought Leadership content that positions you as the expert, attracts 6-8 figure decision-makers, and then start conversations with those ideal buyers to fill your pipeline.

Yesterday I delivered a $750 power hour strategy session on: Thought Leadership content, demand gen, DM flows and more. These are 6 insights I shared: 1. Don’t over-optimise your content. The more time you spend formatting, tweaking, and obsessing, the further you drift from what actually matters: the idea. Your content needs to be, look & feel - human. Clarity & Idea > Formatting. 2. Link your offer to big-topic news. The 100k+ impression content will come from inserting your offer/business/idea within a bigger industry topic - a great content strategist is always paying attention to culture, news events & wider narratives. 3. Internal IP is wasted if it stays internal. Your frameworks are your secret magic — but they’re also your best marketing asset. Put them front & centre in your content. Name them, package them, share them, visualise them. 4. Hooks: “Last week a client said...” beats "Here’s a list of 7 things." Hooks need to be grounded in reality. Anchor your content in moments that showcase your ideas & insights in relevant ways. Not something generic that ChatGPT could have written. 5. You need Authority, Trust, and Credibility content to become the go-to. Authority shows you have industry-specific ability. Trust makes you feel familiar. Credibility shows you have actual results. I rarely see anyone hit all 3 with their content. 6. A cold DM isn’t meant to sell — it’s meant to get a reply. Your outreach has one job: start the conversation. When done right, your profile & content will do the selling for you. The outreach just activates it. At the end, they said “I’ve paid multiple people for sessions like this - yours was easily the most valuable” - and they’re now exploring a longer-term coaching package. If you’re looking for one-off support & advice - drop me a message and we can get you booked in for a Power Hour session.

We started working with a client who had 24k followers, posting 8-10 times a month but generating no demand through LinkedIn. The problem was, they were posting:  - Quotes unrelated to their business  - Sales-based posts with no value or insight  - Random thoughts and pics that didn’t build trust Sure, they were getting half decent impressions, but no revenue growth or business interest. Because content alone (especially where generic and not targeted), doesn’t drive results. They hired us and we did the following: (1) Found compelling angles to share the success of their offer and product through strategic storytelling. (2) Built a premium, custom visual identity that presented their offer visually, strengthening the association between them and their business. (3) Shared more personal anecdotes that conveyed their mindset designed to build trust at scale with their target audience. (4) Started conversations with their ideal buyer at scale through outbound automation. Sending 800 requests monthly. Increasing the number of profile views, targeted network growth, leading to booked in-person sales meetings. (5) Put in place system where it could run on auto-pilot without the client’s input. Our results in the first 3 months: 301k impressions  83 interested people in conversations.  £350k inbound leads. The harsh truth is: You need the right content and holistic strategy that actually gets people excited about your offer. That builds trust; demonstrates your expertise; alongside outbound activities. Yet most people will still post content that might feel good, but prevents them from reaching their true end goal.

This is your reminder to celebrate the people behind your business. Tom joined me in August last year as an Account Manager, and over the last 9 months, he’s delivered strategy for NYSE-listed clients, generated 50mil+ views on content and played a key role in maintaining our industry-leading client retention rate. I’ve just promoted him to Head of Client Services. In a business like Triangle, delivery is everything—and Tom’s been making sure our clients feel supported, understood, and excited to keep growing with us. It’s been such a pleasure watching him grow in the role, and I’m excited for everything to come over the rest of 2025. We have big plans! So if you’ve got someone like Tom on your team - take a moment to shout them out. They deserve it.

Want to grow faster this year? Start by upgrading who you learn from. Most people try to figure it all out themselves. But the smartest founders, execs, and creators I know do one thing differently: They surround themselves with people operating 5–10 steps ahead. That’s been the biggest unlock for me. Every week, I get to sit down with some of the sharpest minds in business — our clients. And every conversation is a masterclass. Here are 7 of our clients I've learned a ton from so far in 2025: One of them is directly connected to the Japanese Head of State — operating at the highest level of diplomacy and influence. Who's worked across law, banking and now corporate governance. Another was in a leadership position at Palantir and is now a pioneer in emerging tech — think drones, defence, flying cars, bioengineering, and frontier innovation. One helped build Virgin Media’s marketing strategy back in the early 2000s, working alongside Richard Branson to shape what became one of the UK’s biggest communications brands. And has since worked with Coinbase, Adidas, Mazda and more. Another is a lead partner at IBM, focused on life sciences, clinical research, patient care access and lots more important healthcare-related topics. Understanding how the biggest Pharma companies operate. In constant contact with the marketing team of NYSE-listed billion-dollar company - so interesting to hear their wider comms strategy, CMO initiatives and how much they value content. CEO & Founder of largest Amazon ad agency who drives ecommerce growth for Calvin Klein, Samsung and pretty much all the household names. Learning RFP pitches, billion-dollar exec relationships and more. Wim Hof - hearing more about his own personal journey; his shift into energetic music. As someone who practices the Wim Hof breathing working directly with his team was pretty cool! When you surround yourself with people who think at this level — You start thinking differently. Big ideas feel normal. Complex problems feel solvable. And your own ceiling lifts. Grateful for the chance to learn from the best — and even more excited for who becomes a Triangle client next.

2 weeks ago, we started with a leader from IBM. He said in our Deep Dive session: “You’re the only agency I’d trust with my brand.” He’s a former surgeon, health economist, and global partner for IBM. (Side note: he negotiated healthcare policy with Barack Obama!) But when it came to LinkedIn, he felt stuck. He struggled to stay consistent. He knew he had bold opinions -  but couldn’t find the tone to say them. He had an incredible story - but wasn’t sure how to share it. Most importantly, he didn’t want to come across as cringey. He just wanted his content to have depth & sound like him. And that’s exactly why he reached out. Because he saw the content on my page and our existing client work. → Insight-led & data-backed  → Professional without being pretentious → No gimmicks, no mass-market fluff → Just real substance, in your voice Most agencies create either incredibly boring academic-style content that no one reads. Or recycled, templated content for the masses that doesn’t convey their expertise. We’re in the middle - custom, insight-led, data-backed content designed to build genuine authority & trust through our proven Triangle frameworks. So, if you're trying to find your voice — and want someone who can bring the insight and the edge — we work with 7 & 8-figure leaders to share their stories & insights to do just that.  — We launched his first post this week - he previously struggled to get more than 3 to 8 likes a post. Our one hit 200+ likes, 10,000 views, and sparked conversations with clients, partners, and colleagues. Many of them heard his origin story for the first time. That’s the power of great content.

For five years, I followed the path that was laid out for me. KPMG’s youngest employee. A first-class degree from Durham. Leading projects, managing teams, working with global clients — all before I turned 23. From the outside, it looked like success. But inside, something didn't feel right. Every day I stared at four white walls and spreadsheets, wondering if this was really it — if I was going to spend the next 40 years in meetings, climbing a ladder I wasn’t sure I wanted to be on. So I started writing. Not with a plan. Just with curiosity. Sharing small reflections online —  about work, identity, and what success really means. That decision changed everything. It caught the attention of Steven Bartlett, who invited me to join his personal team. For six months, I got a behind-the-scenes look at how influence is really built. It was intense. Eye-opening. And exactly the push I needed. From there, doors opened fast — a role advising a $40M startup, leading creator campaigns, building go-to-market strategies. At the same time, my own content was starting to gain traction: 16 million views, LinkedIn Creator Programme, Keynote gigs and my debut book. But none of that was the plan. It was the byproduct of sharing what I was actually thinking. Showing up consistently. Sharing my stories & ideas online. In 2024, I launched Triangle — a Thought Leadership agency for CEOs and Founders. To help leaders do the same. We’ve helped our clients raise over $100M, land deals with Sony, Nvidia, Virgin — by turning their ideas into influence. But here’s the real lesson: You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to be brave enough to start sharing your ideas with the world.

Here’s how we help our clients land meetings with Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Sony, Virgin & more. We call it: The Right Hook Framework™ - Here’s the breakdown: Most people are sending the same message in the same way. It gets lost in their inbox. It doesn’t compel people to reply. You look salesy. This is our framework that predictably books clients 10 to 20 qualified prospects on a monthly basis:   1. Right Person We go deep on their ICP and find lists of these individuals through targeted Sales Nav searches - we then go through these lists looking at each person, hand-selecting the very best prospects. This then gets run through our proprietary outbound software. 2. Right Moment Funding rounds. Product launches. Change in role. Hiring surges. We track real-time signals that tell us now is the time to reach out. Because timing is everything. 3. Right Hook Due to the fact we build brand and create incredibly value-adding Thought Leadership for our clients - the message doesn’t have to “sell” - their profile & content do the selling. The message is simply designed to start a conversation. It’s not “let me sell you this.” But “have you seen this?” 4. Right Format Short. Human. Zero jargon. Every word feels like it was written by a real person — because it was. And we match tone to seniority. A message that lands with a VP at Microsoft won’t work on a startup founder, and vice versa. – Most outreach fails because it tries too hard to sell. Your first message’s job is to get a response. Your DM flow is to book a call. Your discovery call is to then do the selling. (Side note: Our approach only works because we turn clients into high-trust profiles, posting targeted, value-led content.) Want to hear more about our strategy - drop me a DM and happy to share more.

They told me I had it all. But deep down, I felt nothing. I spent 5 years climbing the ladder into the role I once dreamed of. A respected firm. Good salary. Promotions. Recognition. All the things you’re told to chase. But something didn’t feel right. Each week blurred into the next— Meetings, spreadsheets, performance reviews. A quiet voice kept whispering: Is this really it? So I did the scariest thing I’ve ever done: I quit. No grand plan. Just a gut feeling. I started sharing my ideas online. One post led to another. This turned into an opportunity with Steven Bartlett. I then realised I could turn what I knew into something of my own. So I became a strategic consultant for a $40mil tech start-up & worked on a couple of special projects for Wim Hof. I could feel it was the start of something. And slowly, piece by piece, it evolved into Triangle— A global Thought Leadership agency focused on insight-rich, data-backed content. We work with fast-growing California-based AI companies. To global law firms. To NYSE-listed 9-figure revenue clients. Leaders at IBM. And so many more. And none of that would’ve happened If I hadn’t listened to the part of me that said: “Be brave enough to pursue what feels right to you.”

Your best content won’t go viral. But it’ll quietly get screenshotted, emailed, and mentioned on calls. That’s Thought Leadership. It’ll show up when a buyer’s deciding who to trust. It’ll be the post someone reads before recommending you to their board. It’ll sit in a WhatsApp group of execs — with the message: “Worth a read.” We’ve worked with founders whose content gets 5 likes… And still generates conversations to discuss 6-7 figure deals. Why? Because the right people are watching. And when the right content lands — it lands hard. Good content gets people to like & comment. Great content gets your ICP to pause & reflect.