Category: General

General

Freelancing 2025: A year of variety and challenge

Another year of freelancing draws to a close, and I think this has been my toughest yet, in some respects.

There are always quieter periods, but the quieter periods have been just that bit quieter than usual.

It’s also been a year of slow starts to projects. The time between landing a job and actually starting the work has, in some instances, stretched out. This has made planning workflow tricky.

Periods when I expected to be busy have turned into waiting games.

Saying all that, the work I’ve been getting has been interesting and fun.

Demand for writing training returned with one set of sessions focused on writing research reports and another on general business writing.

I had the opportunity to coach a business leader on moderating a panel, as they had never chaired one before.

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General

Content marketing 2025: What’s worked for me and what hasn’t

From the type of content to the different platforms, timing and reader behaviour, creating and publishing content is a constant learning curve, isn’t it?

Here’s what I’ve learned from my own content marketing this year, what’s worked, what hasn’t…

LINKEDIN

Despite it feeling harder to get traction, my overall post impressions for the year were up by 15.5% on the previous year. 

I’ve had a post clock up more than 25k impressions and others that have barely scraped 150, and I’d like to say I fully understand why, but I don’t. (Anyone who says they know exactly how social media algorithms work is fibbing.)

Looking at my best-performing posts of the year, they are the ones with personal stories or a personal angle to a topic. Analogies and cultural references also seem to do well – my top-performing post was content lessons learned from the TV show Celebrity Traitors.

I have some go-to themes that generally perform well relative to previous posts. Outside of that, it’s difficult to glean many trends.

That said, impressions are a fairly hollow metric if I’m not reaching the right audience, building connections and generating opportunities, so commenting has been a big part of my strategy.

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General

Guide to sharing an opinion in B2B content

An old typewriter with a piece of paper in it on which is written opinion.

Sharing an opinion in a LinkedIn post or in a web article can understandably be nerve-wracking, but in the sea of vanilla B2B content, it’s important.

Not only does it set you apart, but it helps your audience to get to know what you stand for – and get to know you. It can also help position you as a thought leader within your industry.

Here is a guide to how to share an opinion through your B2B content without being deliberately or unnecessarily provocative, and steps you can take to feel comfortable and confident putting your thoughts out into the world.

(NB: All property-related examples are made up for illustration only.)

Getting started with sharing an opinion

Start small. You don’t have to dive straight into big industry-wide topics; focus on smaller areas of influence. It might be a particular process or way of working. Or something that happens in the workplace.

And if even that seems daunting, try sharing your views in comments (in a non-troll-like way, obviously).

What is your friendly take on the topic shared in a LinkedIn post? Can you add to the discussion based on something you’ve experienced or seen in a short comment?

Got more to say? Maybe you are ready to share it in your own post.

Choosing the right tone for opinion-led content

How you express your opinion is critical. Think of it more as sharing a perspective than handing down a decree. Language choice is important.

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General

To maximise content impact you need a strategy

B2B content without a strategy is like a car without wheels: it ain’t going to get you very far.

You need to be clear on what you are trying to achieve with your content, so you can create the right sort of content, in the right places to deliver.

A good starting point is to review your existing content, as building on something is easier than starting from scratch.

Which types of content and which platforms are generating the best results? This isn’t just about vanity metrics like impressions and plays but about the results that move you closer to your goals.

Some questions to ask in a content review:

• Are the right people engaging and commenting?

• Do people you meet mention particular pieces of content?

• Has certain content or a content theme led to DMs or off-platform conversations?

• Have business leads come from some platforms more than others or some content types more than others?

• What is the quality of those leads?

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General

Mistakes I’ve made moderating panel discussions

Some of the mistakes I made when I first started moderating panels:

🙄 Reading the panellist intros straight from my notes without looking up, not realising they were sat in a different order, so mixed up names and gender.

🙄 No watch. No clock in the room. No clue how long the panel had been going for.

🙄 Not listening properly and asking a question that had just been answered.

What did I do next?

🎤 The panellist who’d been mixed up made a joke, and I laughed along with everyone while feeling mortified.

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