Hiring a ghostwriter is a smart move if you want to show up more consistently and more strategically on LinkedIn.
But hiring the right person is only half the equation. The other half is how you work with them.
Even the best ghostwriter can’t do their job in a vacuum. They need your perspective: your ideas, your voice, your view of the industry.
The strongest ghostwriting relationships are collaborative. They build over time, as your writer gets to know you and begins to think the way you do. But that only happens if you set the partnership up for success from the beginning.
Here’s how to do that.
1. Start Strong: Invest in the Onboarding Phase
The first few weeks set the tone for everything that follows.
This is when your ghostwriter is learning how you think, how you speak, what you care about, and what to avoid. If you give them shallow inputs, your posts won’t be as strong as they could be. But if you spend time helping them understand your business, your goals, and your mindset, their writing will reflect that.
- You’ll want to start with a kickoff call to talk through your goals for LinkedIn: what you’re trying to accomplish, what audiences matter, what topics you care about.
- Share 2–3 unscripted videos or podcasts where you’re speaking naturally. These are invaluable for capturing your voice.
- Send a few posts you’ve written yourself, even if they’re old, so your ghostwriter can see how you frame things. If you don’t have many posts, provide a few writing samples from other sources.
- Walk them through your calendar. What conferences are you attending? Do you have an upcoming launch? What is coming up that you want to incorporate?
The more you share early on, the faster they’ll start writing in a way that feels right.
2. Establish a Cadence for Conversation
The best content comes from real conversations, not from emailing bullet points or sending articles with “Can you write something about this?”
Ideally, you and your ghostwriter should meet monthly. These sessions aren’t about reviewing drafts, they’re for sourcing ideas. Your job is to show up and talk. Their job is to listen for what will make a good post, and figure out how to say it well.
- Talk about what’s happening in your world: trends you’re seeing, challenges you’re thinking about, conversations you’re having.
- Don’t worry about drafting anything. Just talk. Your ghostwriter will shape the story.
- Let them follow up with questions. If they’re good, they’ll draw out nuances you didn’t realize were important.
You’ll be surprised how often a throwaway comment becomes a great post. But that only happens if you make time to talk.
For what it’s worth, when you have worked together for some time and they know how you think, you can just email a few bullet points and get great posts. But give them more to work with in the beginning.
3. Give Direct, Actionable Feedback
No matter how experienced your ghostwriter is, they’re not going to be perfect on day one. They don’t have your depth of industry knowledge, they don’t have a history of knowing what you think, they haven’t mastered the nuances of your tone. They need your feedback.
Is it too formal? Too salesy? Too surface-level? Be specific. You don’t need to rewrite, just be as concrete as possible. A short Loom or a few quick comments are usually enough.
- Explain why something doesn’t work, not just what doesn’t work.
- Point out the tone or phrasing that does feel like you, in addition to the parts that are off.
- Don’t default to “I’ll just rewrite it.” That saves time now, and they can learn from watching what you change, but they will improve faster if you provide meaningful explanations.
Your ghostwriter wants to get better with every post. The more feedback you give, the faster they can do that.
4. Trust the Process
Especially at the beginning, you’ll want to review every post, and you’ll have a lot of changes. But over time, your ghostwriter will learn what you like, and what you don’t want to talk about. They’ll use your phrasing. They’ll internalize your preferences. You will get to a point where you’ll find yourself approving drafts with minimal edits.
- Help them build an informal style guide or list of dos and don’ts.
- Let them know what phrases you never use, topics to avoid, and specific language preferences.
- As trust grows, you can shift to reviewing batches of content instead of every individual post.
The goal is educate your writer and build trust, so you can spend less time editing and more time focusing on what only you can do.
5. Keep Them in the Loop
Your ghostwriter needs to know when your situation changes, so they can reflect that in your posts. If you’re stepping into a new role, launching an initiative, preparing for a board seat, or shifting focus, they need to know.
Think of them like a behind-the-scenes comms partner. What you tell them will be kept confidential.
- Check in at least quarterly with key updates, shifts in strategy, and messaging priorities.
- Forward articles, internal decks, or materials that reflect your current thinking.
- Let them know if there’s a message you want to send subtly. Good ghostwriters know how to layer nuance without spelling it out.
The more you treat them as part of your team, the more valuable they become.
A Strong Ghostwriting Relationship Grows Over Time
You don’t need to manage your ghostwriter as much as collaborate with them. When you invest in the relationship, the return is exponential.
Soon enough, they’ll start bringing you post drafts that feel like you could have written them. Your feed becomes a strategic asset. You’ll be getting comments from people who say “That post of yours a couple months ago really hit me.”
And you won’t have done it alone.