Turning Authenticity Into Pipeline with Irina Novoselsky
Irina Novoselsky’s LinkedIn profile reads like a corporate thriller: Wall Street analyst, private-equity dealmaker, youngest-ever CEO of CareerBuilder, and now the boss steering Hootsuite’s 1,500-person ship into the social-selling future.
Scroll a little deeper and the numbers get louder—10 million impressions in a single quarter and direct influence on 37 percent of all new leads.
But what you wouldn’t know from that glossy résumé is that she grew up a latchkey kid in a refugee household, pouring her own cereal at age five and figuring life out solo.
“I am a latchkey kid… my parents left for work at six and came home at six. From age five I was kind of just left alone—and that self-reliance shaped everything I do now.”
That same steel is what pushed her to post on LinkedIn even though, by her own admission, public sharing was “not the culture” she came from.
What follows is the six-step playbook she’s refined on her way to becoming LinkedIn famous.
Getting over the fear of posting
Novoselsky arrived at Hootsuite with a private-equity mindset: every public word felt like risk.
“My leaning into social was not natural… I came with a lot of fear, and as a CEO you’re so focused on protecting the brand. It was training wheels at first, but once I saw the benefit it became infectious.”
The data flipped her mindset.
Posts that once crawled at a few thousand views suddenly leapt into six-figure territory, and the self-fulfilling loop of feedback and confidence took over.
Today she writes in real time, convinced that speed and sincerity beat board-room polish.
Build for Gen Z
Irina’s social-listening surfaced a simple truth. Tomorrow’s budget holders do not open cold emails, they discover brands through unfiltered feeds.
“They grow up with a phone in their pocket and will do anything to not use it to talk to you… 84 percent of Gen Z buyers have already decided before they ever pick up the phone.”
Gen Z starts relationships online and expects the same candor in business that it gets from friends.
Novoselsky answers in first-person stories, avoids jargon, and treats every comment thread as a micro-focus group to shape the next post.
Brands that leave social to the intern, she warns, “will be the ones that slowly die” while authentic voices capture the upside.
Drop the propaganda
Early on, she mimicked classic CEO updates: product launches, award shout-outs, sanitized press-release copy.
“I started talking about the products we were launching… then realized it’s the same as walking into a cocktail party and pitching everyone. People walk away. So I stopped.”
Hootsuite’s analytics had long proved those formats flop, and her numbers confirmed it.
She pivoted to lessons and open questions, rarely mentioning a feature, and impressions jumped tenfold.
The takeaway: no one enters a party to hear a pitch, so do not turn your feed into one.
Give nine times before you ask
Inside Hootsuite the rule is simple: nine helpful posts for every direct ask.
Now, you’ll rarely find me talking about a product launch. It’s usually lessons I can share or questions I have.”
Novoselsky shares frameworks, spotlights other founders, and admits missteps long before linking a demo page.
Generosity turns lurkers into champions who happily respond when the single ask finally appears.
Forget the follower count
A stubborn myth says reach scales only with audience size.
“You could have a hundred followers and still get millions of impressions. The myth that you need a huge audience is busted.”
Novoselsky laughs at it.
LinkedIn favors relevance, not raw numbers, and a creator with a hundred followers can still rack up millions of impressions if the idea lands.
Research inside Hootsuite proves it, and she cites post-level data to quiet any doubters.
Influence is earned with ideas, not vanity metrics.
Video is shortcut for busy leaders
English is her second language and writing slows her down, so Novoselsky records one-take videos on a phone, adds a quick caption, and moves on.
“Video has been freedom… I speak my thoughts in one take, then write the post after. It tripled the content I can publish.”
The freedom to speak rather than craft perfect prose multiplied her content volume and kept her voice unmistakably human.
For every CEO who claims there is no time to post, she offers a challenge: try 60 seconds of honest video and watch how fast the right people listen.
Until next time, let’s stay connected
Irina Novoselsky’s path from refugee latchkey kid to LinkedIn growth icon compresses the modern playbook into three principles.
First, take ownership: whether five years old or running a global SaaS, no one will publish for you.
Second, give first and often: nine acts of value buy the right to one invitation.
Third, speak like a human: Gen Z is listening, algorithms reward honesty, and video lets a busy leader scale sincerity.
Follow those cues, and the impressions, the pipeline, and the friendships will follow—just ask the CEO whose posts now greet ten million sets of eyes every quarter.
If this episode resonated with you, follow Irina on LinkedIn. And don’t forget to check out Hootsuite too.
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