# LinkedIn outreach Human Guide

## What This Is For
The LinkedIn counterpart to cold-email-outreach. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for social content: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the LinkedIn outreach agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for LinkedIn outreach.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the LinkedIn outreach guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- User says "LinkedIn outreach", "connect with these leads on LinkedIn", "send LinkedIn messages", "set up a LinkedIn campaign"
- An upstream skill connects with "create LinkedIn campaign" or "passes: supabase-eligible-leads" and user specifies LinkedIn
- User completes `lead-qualification` and wants to reach out via LinkedIn
- Ask user in Phase 0: "Which LinkedIn outreach tool do you use?"
- Generate tool-specific import CSV based on selection
- What's the objective? (book meetings, drive demo requests, get replies, build relationships, nurture)
- What's the outreach angle or hook? (hiring signal, competitor displacement, event-based, pain-based, cold database, KOL engagement, mutual connection)
- What should we name this campaign?
- Which LinkedIn outreach tool do you use? (Dripify / Botdog / Expandi / PhantomBuster / Other / Just give me a CSV)
- Which leads should we target? Options:
- All leads for a specific `client_name`
- Title patterns (e.g., "VP Operations", "Director of Sales")

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: When to Auto-Load, Supported Outreach Tools, Prerequisites, Supabase, LinkedIn Tool, Character Limits, Phase 0: Intake, Campaign Goal, Outreach Tool, Lead Selection.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- People must be stored in Supabase with the schema from `tools/supabase/schema.sql`. The `people` and `outreach_log` tables must exist. Run `python3 tools/supabase/setup_database.py` if setting up fresh.
- Just need CSV export — no API keys required. The user imports the CSV into their tool manually.
- LinkedIn enforces strict character limits. **All generated messages must respect these.**
- **Enforcement:** After generating any message, count characters. If over the limit, rewrite — do not truncate. Truncated messages look broken.
- Include InMail as a separate step for leads who don't accept the connection? (default: yes)
- **Critical:** For LinkedIn outreach, people MUST have a `linkedin_url`. Filter out people without one — they can't be contacted via LinkedIn.
- Connection request is the gatekeeper — it must earn the accept. No selling in the connection note.
- MUST be under 300 characters. Count every character.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the LinkedIn outreach human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the athina-ai/goose-skills skill entry for `linkedin-outreach`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# LinkedIn Outreach

The LinkedIn counterpart to `cold-email-outreach`. Takes qualified leads from Supabase, builds personalized LinkedIn message sequences, exports for the user's LinkedIn outreach tool, and logs everything back to Supabase.

**Tool-agnostic:** Asks the user which LinkedIn tool they use. All tools are CSV-import based — no API/MCP automation for LinkedIn tools (they're browser-based). Adapters handle column mapping and format differences per tool.

## When to Auto-Load

Load this skill when:
- User says "LinkedIn outreach", "connect with these leads on LinkedIn", "send LinkedIn messages", "set up a LinkedIn campaign"
- An upstream skill connects with "create LinkedIn campaign" or "passes: supabase-eligible-leads" and user specifies LinkedIn
- User completes `lead-qualification` and wants to reach out via LinkedIn

## Supported Outreach Tools

This skill does NOT assume a specific tool. It asks first, then adapts.

| Tool | Integration | How It Works |
|------|------------|--------------|
| **Dripify** | CSV import | Generate CSV matching Dripify's import format, user uploads manually |
| **Botdog** | CSV import | Generate CSV with Botdog-compatible columns |
| **Expandi** | CSV import | Generate CSV matching Expandi import format |
| **PhantomBuster** | CSV import | Generate CSV for PhantomBuster LinkedIn sequences |
| **Manual / Other** | CSV + instructions | Export leads + messages as generic CSV, provide setup instructions |

**Tool selection logic:**
1. Ask user in Phase 0: "Which LinkedIn outreach tool do you use?"
2. Generate tool-specific import CSV based on selection
3. If **Other or unknown** → generate generic CSV (`linkedin_url`, `first_name`, `last_name`, `company`, `title`, `connection_request`, `followup_1`, `followup_2`, `followup_3`, `inmail_subject`, `inmail_body`) and ask user for their tool's import requirements

## Prerequisites

### Supabase

People must be stored in Supabase with the schema from `tools/supabase/schema.sql`. The `people` and `outreach_log` tables must exist. Run `python3 tools/supabase/setup_database.py` if setting up fresh.

Environment variables in `.env`:
```
SUPABASE_URL=https://xxx.supabase.co
SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY=eyJ...
```

### LinkedIn Tool

Just need CSV export — no API keys required. The user imports the CSV into their tool manually.

## Character Limits

LinkedIn enforces strict character limits. **All generated messages must respect these.**

| Message Type | Limit | Notes |
|-------------|-------|-------|
| Connection request note | 300 characters | Hard limit. Every character counts. |
| Regular message | 8,000 characters | Sent after connection accepted |
| InMail subject | 200 characters | Only for InMail (premium feature) |
| InMail body | 1,900 characters | Only for InMail |

**Enforcement:** After generating any message, count characters. If over the limit, rewrite — do not truncate. Truncated messages look broken.

## Phase 0: Intake

Ask all questions at once. Organize by category. Skip any already answered by an upstream skill.

### Campaign Goal
1. What's the objective? (book meetings, drive demo requests, get replies, build relationships, nurture)
2. What's the outreach angle or hook? (hiring signal, competitor displacement, event-based, pain-based, cold database, KOL engagement, mutual connection)
3. What should we name this campaign?

### Outreach Tool
4. Which LinkedIn outreach tool do you use? (Dripify / Botdog / Expandi / PhantomBuster / Other / Just give me a CSV)

### Lead Selection
5. Which leads should we target? Options:
   - All leads for a specific `client_name`
   - Specific `icp_segment`
   - Title patterns (e.g., "VP Operations", "Director of Sales")
   - Industry or location filters
   - `qualification_score` above a threshold
   - Specific `source` (crustdata, apollo, linkedin, etc.)
   - Custom filter (describe what you want)