Thought Leadership on LinkedIn: Things You Should Know to Succeed

In a world where around 85% of people meet us online, establishing oneself as a thought leader has become a non-negotiable for professional success. And what better place to do that than LinkedIn.

LinkedIn offers great opportunities for people to showcase their expertise, share insights, and build connections. Of course, becoming a thought leader on the platform requires more than just posting content. It requires strategic thinking, consistency, and understanding of your audience.

In this blog post, we'll discuss important tips and tactics for succeeding as a thought leader on LinkedIn. Plus, we'll share a conversation with Dennis Teichmann, Founder & CEO at Hints and Bont.ai and Partner at BT Venture.

Craft a compelling personal brand

First things first! Let's make sure your profile truly reflects what you have to offer as a professional.

Start by identifying your unique value proposition – what makes you different from others in your field?

Think about the skills, experiences, and viewpoints that define your professional identity. Consider how your way of solving problems or your fresh ideas make you different from others.

Once you have that figured out, optimize your LinkedIn profile to showcase your accomplishments as well as your character and interests. Use industry-specific keywords to enhance your profile's visibility in search.

💡 Quick tip: need a step-by-step guide on optimizing your profile? We've got you covered! Find all the tips in this blog post.

When creating content for thought leadership, prioritize quality over quantity. Align your content strategy with your expertise and your audience's interests. Whether you're writing articles, making posts, or producing multimedia content, aim to provide valuable insights, actionable advice, and thought-provoking perspectives relevant to your industry.

Consistency is crucial, so put time and effort into establishing a regular posting schedule while ensuring your content remains relevant and authentic.

To ensure regular posting, use the blocking technique. Block specific times in your calendar for content creation and batch-write all the posts for the upcoming 2-4 weeks.

Lastly, don't leave your posts lonely. Engage with your audience by responding to comments, sparking discussions, and utilizing LinkedIn's interactive features like polls and live videos.

Algorithm insight: check and reply to the comments under your posts in these timeframes:

• First hour for 60% more reach.

• After 6 hours for 25% more reach.

• After 25 hours for 25% more reach.

Content strategy – focus on quality over quantity

Picture this: you're a startup with a fantastic product, but without a clear brand strategy, you're just another fish in the sea.

If your company has an employee advocacy program in place, give Thought Leader ads a try!

With them, you can boost the posts of selected employees to position them as industry experts and ambassadors of your business.

Curious to learn a secret? To this day, not that many businesses are taking full advantage of this feature; hence, you have plenty of opportunities to stand out.

Just like for all the ads, make sure to pay extra attention to the copy and the visuals, as your content will be shown to a wide audience who can potentially convert to your clients or partners.

Need an extra boost? Try Thought Leader ads!

The best part of LinkedIn? An opportunity to build valuable professional connections!

Make sure you engage with other thought leaders, industry peers, and potential partners or clients in your field. Join relevant LinkedIn Groups, take part in discussions, and share your expertise to grow your network.

Remember, networking goes both ways – be generous with your knowledge and support others.

💡Quick tip: if you want to take your networking opportunities to the next level, consider organizing LinkedIn Lives and Audio events for even more community-building opportunities.

Build meaningful connections

LinkedIn is generous with features to boost your thought leadership game! Make sure you use them to the full advantage.

Contribute to the Collaborative Articles by providing valuable comments related to your industry and receive a Top Voice badge that will be added to your profile.

Contribute to the articles at least once or twice a month, as the Top Voice badges are re-evaluated every eight weeks.

💡Quick tip: don't have time to contribute to the collaborative articles yourself? No worries! Reach out to our team and we'll help you get the Top Voice badge!

Contribute to Collaborative Articles and become a Top Voice in your industry

Once we are done with the theory, let's hear some thoughts from someone who's already established a solid personal brand.

We talked to Dennis Teichmann, Founder & CEO at Hints and Bont.ai, Partner at BT Venture.

Dennis, could you share what strategies you have found most effective in establishing yourself as a thought leader on LinkedIn?
I focused on providing valuable insights for my audience. This means major content around entrepreneurial challenges, HR and digitalisation, and sales / go-to-market strategies. All those insights need to be made available in an easy way, so that the learnings can be digested easily.

Dennis Teichmann on Thought Leadership

How do you maintain consistency and relevance in your LinkedIn content to keep your audience engaged?
One of the key learnings is to communicate in a consistent way, meaning: talking about the same topics, at similar or, ideally, the same weekdays and times. In parallel, I see huge benefits of keeping up the discipline to post in the same rhythms for months.

Could you share a specific situation where your thought leadership content on LinkedIn has paid off for you and led you to tangible opportunities or recognition?
Sure! When I am sharing insights about, how to build a tech product in a smart way (hints), I could prove to my later co-founder Nik Peric, that I have a decent understanding, what is happening technically to run a software application.

Anything else you would like to add regarding thought leadership and your personal brand?
Most importantly, personal branding is partly work, but should also be some kind of fun. So if you at any cost want to talk about a topic, do it. Don't think too much about the timing of the post or the headline or how it could be perceived. So generally, enjoy what you do – which is true for everything in life.

Like many other good things, building thought leadership takes time, but the results are rewarding! Follow the tips provided in this blog post, and your skills and expertise will shine through on LinkedIn!

Need some support along the way?

Get our freshly updated Personal Branding course for curated tips on rocking your LinkedIn game!

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