LinkedIn for Building Products Sales Professionals. Part 3 of 7.
Only about 1% of LinkedIn users post content consistently. The other 99% scroll, consume, and stay quiet.
If you're a salesperson in building products and you're posting anything at all, you're already ahead of almost everyone in your market. But that only counts if what you're posting is worth seeing.
82% of B2B buyers check a salesperson's LinkedIn profile before a meeting. 75% research vendors on LinkedIn before taking a call. What they find when they get there matters.
The question isn't whether you should be posting. It's whether what you're posting is building trust or just adding noise.
The content that actually works
I'll keep this simple. If you're a BDM, Account Manager, or Spec Manager selling building products, lighting, or anything into the construction supply chain, here's what's worth posting.
Project wins and site content. Photos from project sites, installations, completed builds. This is the easiest content to create and one of the most effective. You were there. You took a photo. You wrote two lines about the project and what your product did on it.
Why it works: it's real. It shows you're active, you're on sites, you're involved. And here's the practical bit. Someone in your network might be working on a similar project and need exactly what you supply. If they don't know you offer it, that's a missed opportunity. A site photo fixes that.
What problems your product solves. Not a product brochure post. Not a spec sheet. A short explanation of a real problem you helped a customer solve. "Architect needed a cladding system that met BAL-29 requirements for a coastal project in Torquay. Here's what we specified and why it worked." That's useful. That's the kind of post an architect saves or sends to a colleague.
Industry news and market updates. A new building code change. A material shortage. A major project approved in your territory. Anything that affects the people in your network. You don't need to write a research paper. Share the news, add a line about what it means for your market, and ask what others are seeing.
Events. Going to a trade show, an industry event, a CPD presentation? Post about it. Before, during, and after. Tag the event. Tag people you met. It's free visibility with the exact right audience.
Hiring posts. If your company is growing and you're hiring, post about it. With the right connections, you might find someone through your own network and save the business a recruitment fee. But this only works if your connections are relevant. If your network is full of random connections from outside your industry, you're shouting into the void. (See Part 1 of this series on cleaning up your network.)
The content that wastes everyone's time
Here's what to stop posting. Or better yet, never start.
Generic motivational quotes. "Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success." Posted over a stock photo of a sunset. Nobody in the building products industry is making a purchasing decision because you shared a quote from a dead philosopher. It adds nothing. It tells your network nothing about what you do or what you know.
Reposting company content with no added value. Your marketing team posts a product launch announcement. You hit repost. No commentary. No context. No opinion. What does that achieve?
The algorithm already penalises reposts compared to original content. Employee-shared company content can get 5 to 10 times more engagement than the brand page alone, but only when the employee adds something. A repost with nothing attached is just noise.
The better version: share the post and add your own take. "We've just launched this. Here's why I think it matters for commercial projects in Melbourne." or "Been getting questions about this from architects all month. Here's the short version of what it does differently." Now it's your voice, your credibility, your insight. That's worth reading.
Holiday and weekend content. Photos from your trip to Bali. Your Sunday morning coffee. Your kids at the beach. LinkedIn is not Instagram. Every time you post something irrelevant to your professional world, you're training the algorithm to show your content to the wrong people. And you're training your network to scroll past you.
Celebrating every minor achievement. "Thrilled to announce I've completed a LinkedIn Learning course on negotiation." Nobody cares. Save the posts for things that genuinely matter. A major project win. A promotion. A milestone that your network would find interesting or relevant.
For the specific case of announcing a new role, the LinkedIn checklist for after you accept a new sales role covers when to post, what to say, and what to avoid.
The posting vs commenting question
Here's something most salespeople don't think about. You don't always need to post to be visible.
Commenting on other people's content can be just as effective. Posts with comments get up to 60% more views. People who comment daily see 78% more profile views than those who don't.
Think about who's in your network. Architects. Builders. Specifiers. Developers. Project managers. When they post something, and you leave a thoughtful comment, their entire network sees your name, your headline, and your face. That's visibility you didn't have to create from scratch.
But there's a catch. It only works if the comment adds value. "Great post!" doesn't count. "Congrats!" doesn't count. A one-word reaction is invisible.
A good comment adds an opinion, shares a related experience, or asks a genuine question. "We've seen the same thing on projects in western Sydney. The compliance requirements are pushing specifiers toward [product category] much faster than expected." That's a comment that starts a conversation. That's a comment that makes someone click on your profile.
If posting feels like too much, start with commenting. Five thoughtful comments a week on posts from people in your industry will do more for your visibility than one generic post of your own.
How often should you post?
The data says 2 to 5 times per week is optimal for growth. People who post weekly get 5.6 times more followers than those who don't.
But here's the honest answer for a salesperson in building products. Post when you have something worth saying. Not for the sake of it.
If you've been on a site visit and took a good photo, post it. If there's a code change that affects your customers, share it. If you've won a project you're proud of, talk about it. If you've got nothing that week, don't force it.
One useful post a fortnight will do more for your reputation than three empty posts a week. Quality compounds. Noise doesn't.
Why most salespeople don't post (and why that's an opportunity)
I speak to salespeople every day. Most of them know they should be more active on LinkedIn. Most of them aren't.
The reasons are almost always the same. They don't know what to say. They feel like an imposter. They think their content will be cringe. They look at people who post constantly and think "that's not me."
I get it. I'm fairly introverted by nature. Posting publicly doesn't come naturally to most people in this industry. Building products salespeople are generally more comfortable on the phone or face to face than behind a keyboard.
But that's exactly why it's an opportunity. There are some good people in building products who post well on LinkedIn. Credit to them. But very few tick all the boxes. Consistency, relevance, personality, substance. Most people nail one or two of those and miss the rest.
The bar isn't underground, but it's low. You don't need to be a content creator. You don't need to go viral. You just need to show up occasionally with something useful and let the right people see it.
The professionals who dominate LinkedIn with daily posts and polished content strategies are playing a different game. You don't need to play that game. You just need to be visible enough that when someone in your network needs what you sell, you're the first person they think of.
The real test for every post
Before you hit publish, ask yourself one question.
Would this be useful or interesting to someone in my network who buys, specifies, or installs the products I sell?
If yes, post it. If no, don't.
It really is that simple.
Quick action checklist
1. Post project site photos with a short description of what your product did on the job.
2. Share how your product solved a real problem for a real customer.
3. Add your own commentary when sharing company content. Never just repost.
4. Comment thoughtfully on posts from architects, builders, and specifiers in your network. Five a week is a good target.
5. Stop posting motivational quotes, holiday photos, and content that has nothing to do with your market.
6. Don't force it. One good post a fortnight beats three empty ones a week.
7. If you're hiring, post about it. Your network is the cheapest recruitment channel you have.
I'm a specialist recruiter for the building products industry. James Bowesman runs Specified Select, a boutique recruitment consultancy based in Melbourne.
If you're a sales professional in building products thinking about your next move, or a hiring manager looking to build your team, get in touch at james@specifiedselect.com
This is Part 3 of a 7-part series on LinkedIn for Building Products Sales Professionals. Part 1: Clean Up Your Network | Part 2: Your Profile Should Sell You Twice | Part 3: What to Post and What to Stop Posting | Part 4: The Phone Still Wins | Part 5: Stop Broadcasting, Start Engaging | Part 6: When to Take It Offline | Part 7: LinkedIn for Job Seekers | Part 8: After You Accept a New Sales Role