by Stephen T. Messenger
As a U.S. Army officer, I never had much need nor desire to interact on LinkedIn. After all, it’s for people job hunting, not military professionals, right? I understood it to be like any other social media platform, only less interesting. Yet in 2025, I went all-in on LinkedIn, and it significantly upped my leadership game in knowledge, writing, and connections, and it can help you as well.
From Passive to Active
For years, I’ve been passively engaging on LinkedIn. Every other week or so, I’d log in to see one of my 300 connections post something averagely interesting and thumbs-up two things before returning underground. I found it mildly engaging but used LinkedIn more to support a few people I knew on the platform than for me to benefit personally.
But in 2022, I listened to a senior military leader at the Brigade Pre-command Course launch into a narrative on the benefits of growing the profession through LinkedIn. This gentleman talked about the few minutes per day he spent posting on LinkedIn to reach a broader audience, tell the Army story, and engage in a fun way. I was intrigued.
I slowly played with the platform until January 1, 2025, when I decided to go all in. Over the course of this one-year journey, I harnessed the power of LinkedIn to broaden and deepen my knowledge base, become a better writer, and dialogue with professionals I would never have otherwise met.
Knowledge Through Microlearning
In the beginning, I had no idea the breadth and depth of knowledge being published on LinkedIn. The amazing part is that we get to choose what our feed looks like based on who we connect with and the content we engage with.
When I first started, I was into drones. I started meeting people working in drone warfare and the most recent activity going on in Ukraine. I then connected with people printing 3D drones and began my own experimentation with additive manufacturing and drone usage. People were more than happy to give me tips and tricks to experiment with this hobby.
Over time, I moved towards my true love, leadership development. Suddenly, I found myself reading the experts’ (or at least their ghost writers) professional writing on leadership. Most LinkedIn posts are short and quippy, with just enough info to quickly educate and whet an appetite to research more if desired. They provide breadth or depth of information with the ability to go shallow or deep based on interest.
I then began connecting with military influencers, commanders and senior enlisted leaders, authors, educators, and experts. Many are putting out incredible content that linked me to stories, lessons, and anecdotes that I would have never stumbled upon without it. LinkedIn content is microlearning that makes military leaders more educated and interested in professional conversation.
The content is reason enough to be more engaged on LinkedIn, but personal growth in writing is a strong second.
Improved Writing by Repetition
On January 1, 2025, I decided to post every single day. My original intent was to boost my engagement levels, which I quickly found was an irrelevant goal. A more productive goal was to build quality content on leadership development, focusing not on the number of views but on the value of my work.
I started experimenting with long and short posts, graphic representations, and balancing serious, reflective ideas with humorous weekend ones. One of the most significant benefits was that my mind automatically defaulted to considering the audience before I even started typing, a key skill in writing.
Practicing daily, I learned to frame the post’s thesis up front with a “hook” and tighten content as much as possible to keep the reader’s attention. Writing for LinkedIn develops a number of skill sets, such as organizing paragraphs, developing roadmaps, and leaving the reader with a takeaway.
While I began the posting journey to gain viewership, I ended with the benefit of being a better writer. This adventure bore fruit in my professional writing, including emails, memorandums, point papers, and thank you notes. Writing skills on LinkedIn easily translate to work requiring brevity, getting to the point, and understanding the audience.
Routinely writing for LinkedIn is less about impressing other people than growing the literary skills we need as military professionals. Furthermore, by expanding our knowledge base and writing better, these skills open doors to engage with more people.
Dialogue with Experts
One significant advantage of LinkedIn engagement is having conversations with people we may never otherwise meet. Last year, I connected with senior military professionals, commanders, leading experts, educators, and authors. Previously, I was reading about leadership. Now, I was interacting on a scale impossible without social media connections… and everyone was more than happy to engage.
At one point, I read a book and contacted the author. After a few back-and-forth conversations, he offered to send me his newest book, which I received in the mail a few days later. I’ve spoken with flag officers about mentorship, an NFL player the day after he made a game-winning play, someone I commissioned with at college and haven’t seen in 25 years, and up-and-coming leaders like service academy cadets and young civilian professionals.
To close the loop on my LinkedIn journey, I’m now in semi-casual contact with the same leader who keyed me into this platform, and we now routinely comment on each other’s posts and interact. I’m connected with my university alumni president, the author of my favorite book, and peers at other organizations ready to share ideas, many of whom I’ve had Teams calls with to dig in even deeper.
I even have a standing connection request to Arnold Schwarzenegger, but he hasn’t accepted yet…
The quality of conversation and openness of people to chat is beyond compare. It’s more than a window into other people’s experiences; it is an opportunity to be invited into their house and grow and learn well beyond books, speeches, and simply knowing of people.
A Few Admin Notes
First, LinkedIn wants military professionals to be on their platform. They offer one year of free Premium Membership for service members in all components, veterans, and military spouses. While this membership isn’t needed by any means, it does provide the ability to connect more with others through messaging and profile views.
Second, everything wedo if weare still serving must be in accordance with military social media standards. There’s a whole Department of Defense Instruction that talks about personal social media by DoD personnel starting on page 25. Beyond that, be positive and encouraging on the platform.
Third, having a professional profile picture, a solid “about” section, and a detailed background with job experience and education is important. That’s how people find us and want to interact. I recommend having a civilian headshot and no uniform, as we are not representing the military in any way on this platform.
Finally, the more we post, the more people engage with us. Consider a plan to post on a regular basis and produce content that is interesting to people in our desired circles.
LinkedIn Is a Combat Multiplier
We’re all busy. LinkedIn gives military professionals an opportunity to dip our toes in the water and expand our knowledge, improve our writing, and meet people outside our local area. These experiences create a better military leader by broadening our thinking, practicing our communication, and leveraging the skills and experiences of other leaders.
Moreover, once we start posting, people begin to know us. The higher the rank we earn, the smaller the military is. By meeting people on the periphery through LinkedIn, it becomes easier to connect personally when paths cross. In the Army War College halls, I ran into a LinkedIn connection visiting from Kansas whom I had never met in person. Within minutes, what would have been two strangers walking past each other became an incredible conversation of support and encouragement about the profession.
I highly encourage you to jump on LinkedIn and play around. You will not be disappointed, and I’d be glad to be your new connection. Come find me and start engaging with others!
Your first assignment: write a post about a topic you’re passionate about. My first one was terrible, and many still are. But every LinkedIn journey starts with a first post.
Stephen Messenger is a 26-year Army officer, Doctor of Strategic Leadership, founder of The Maximum Standard leadership website, and dabbles in board sports on the snow and water (not land). Connect with him on LinkedIn, where he’s been posting about military and leadership every day since January 1, 2025.
