GLOSSARY · CONTENT CRAFT
Distribution
Distribution is everything done to put a piece of content in front of the people it was written for, beyond the act of publishing it. On LinkedIn that includes timing, replying to comments, commenting elsewhere to draw attention to the profile, sharing into relevant groups or messages, having colleagues add their own comments, cross-posting to a newsletter or email list, and turning posts into other formats for other channels. Distribution is often neglected because publishing feels like finishing, but a post with no distribution plan reaches whoever the feed happens to choose.
How it works in practice
Writing and distribution are separate jobs that get budgeted as one. Many people spend five hours on a post and five minutes on where it goes, then conclude that LinkedIn does not work. Distribution starts before publishing. Who is this for, and where do they already pay attention? If the answer is a particular set of people, timing the post for when they are online and sending it directly to three of them with a one-line note does more than any hashtag. After publishing, the first hour matters: reply to every comment with something substantive, because replies extend the conversation and bring the post back into feeds. Ask colleagues who genuinely have a view to comment with it, which is different from an engagement pod because the comments are real and the people are relevant.
Over the following days, use the post elsewhere: quote it in the newsletter, link it from the Featured section if it is a strong statement of position, use it as an answer when someone asks the question it addresses, adapt it for another channel. Measure distribution by who was reached and what they did, not by totals. A clear sign of good distribution is that the comments come from the audience the post was written for. A clear sign of poor distribution is that the only people engaging are peers and friends.
Example
A founder publishes a post on a pricing change at 9am in her buyers' time zone, sends it to four customers who had asked about pricing, replies to every comment within the hour, and includes it in Friday's newsletter with two more paragraphs of context.
Common mistake
Publishing and walking away. The post gets its first hour of feed distribution with no comments, no replies and no direct sends, and then it is gone.