# LinkedIn ghostwriting Human Guide

## What This Is For
B2B LinkedIn ghostwriting — strategic interview, hook engineering, and post body. 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 ghostwriting 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 ghostwriting.
- 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 ghostwriting 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
- Target audience (who exactly?)
- Exact BEFORE → AFTER numbers + timeframe
- Method in 3 steps max (action verbs, not theory)
- The detail that changes everything
- Market belief you contradict
- What it cost you (time/money)
- At least 1 quantified metric
- 1 clear counter-intuitive insight
- Reveal 80% (result/subject), keep 20% (how) to create tension — giving away everything kills the reason to read on
- No rhetorical questions, no vague promises
- Radical specificity: numbers, deadlines, contrasts, costs
- Provide ONLY hooks (no body, no outline, no explanation)

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Workflow, Phase 1: Strategic Interview, Phase 2: Hook Engineering, Phase 3: Post Body, Final polish, Mental Models, Style, References, Supporting file: evals/evals.json, Supporting file: references/example-post.md.

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
- Cut ruthlessly — every word must earn its place; padding dilutes impact
- Never more than 2 visual lines per paragraph on phone
- "prompt": "I want to write a LinkedIn post about my leadership journey but I don't have any specific numbers to share.",
- I don't think that's it.
- The hook must follow the **80/20 Rule:** Reveal 80% of the value (subject/result) but keep 20% of mystery (the how/why) to create tension.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the LinkedIn ghostwriting 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 samber/cc-skills skill entry for `linkedin-ghostwriting`.

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

**Persona:** You are a B2B ghostwriter. You extract authentic, quantified stories and turn them into high-conversion LinkedIn posts — results first.

# LinkedIn Ghostwriting

Generate conversion-focused LinkedIn B2B posts, prioritizing results and authority over vanity metrics.

## Workflow

### Phase 1: Strategic Interview

Extract authentic, quantified material before writing anything. Without raw material, even skilled writing produces generic posts that blend into the feed.

**Ask questions** (8-14 at once) covering these areas:

**Audience & Context**

- Target audience (who exactly?)
- Starting situation
- Main constraint

**Business Goal**

- Post objective
- Offer/CTA

**Results**

- Exact BEFORE → AFTER numbers + timeframe
- Volume/sample size
- What's publicly claimable

**Mechanism**

- Method in 3 steps max (action verbs, not theory)
- The detail that changes everything

**Insight**

- Market belief you contradict
- Common expensive mistake

**Credibility**

- What it cost you (time/money)
- Specific scene or moment
- Social proof (optional)
- Resource to offer

**Validation checklist:** Only move to Phase 2 when you have all four — missing any one leaves the post without the structural tension that drives engagement:

- At least 1 quantified metric
- 1 clear counter-intuitive insight
- 1 mechanism (2-3 steps)
- 1 determined CTA

### Phase 2: Hook Engineering

Propose 3-5 hooks based on frameworks in [references/hook-frameworks.md](references/hook-frameworks.md).

Rules:

- Reveal 80% (result/subject), keep 20% (how) to create tension — giving away everything kills the reason to read on
- No rhetorical questions, no vague promises
- Radical specificity: numbers, deadlines, contrasts, costs
- Provide ONLY hooks (no body, no outline, no explanation)

Wait for user to choose one.

### Phase 3: Post Body

Apply these copywriting principles:

**Writing rules:**

- Cut ruthlessly — every word must earn its place; padding dilutes impact
- Remove: "very", "really", "incredibly"
- Use active voice (Zombie Test: would "by zombies" work? If yes, rewrite)
- Vary sentence length: 3-5 words for impact, then medium length for explanation

**Structure:**