How to Create Thought Leadership Content on LinkedIn
Build You Marketing- Apr 30
- 7 min read
So you're interested in sharing thought leadership content on LinkedIn? Well... you're in the right place! Today, we're taking you through the secret sauce that will make your LinkedIn thought leadership content stand out above the rest of the posts trickling across your feed.
Buckle up. We're rolling...
What is Thought Leadership?
If you want to get technical, our friends over at West Governors University define 'Thought Leadership' as, "[T]he expression of ideas that demonstrate you have expertise in a particular field, area, or topic."
Basically, thought leadership establishes you as THE authority figure in your topic/industry.
Why post thought leadership content?
As simple as it sounds, you need to share thought leader ideas to even be considered one.
Which is why LinkedIn is a great platform to establish thought leadership. Through your LinkedIn content, you're able to share unique insights and actionable advice about your industry that helps your target audience. It provides them REAL value that incentivizes them to come back to your content each time you post. This education creates a positive association with your name and brand, leading to trust.
And the best part? People work with people that they trust.
Plus, as alluded to earlier in this article, you begin to become a figure of authority in the field. Similar to a teacher, people are more likely to ask you industry/topic related questions, trust your advice, and ultimately, hire you to take care of/help on work for them.
What makes Great Thought Leadership Content on LinkedIn?
Alrighty, now that you understand why establishing thought leadership is important, let's teach you how to use LinkedIn as a means to share your expertise, build authority, and get customers.
General Thought Leadership Content Best Practices
Share information you can’t find on Google / ChatGPT
Do NOT share the same advice you've Googled, prompted ChatGPT with, or seen on social media ~20 times. Even if it is ‘valuable’ content, people could have found it anywhere. Your LinkedIn content needs a ‘competitive advantage.’ For most people, their competitive advantage are the lessons they've learned through experiences. If you’re just regurgitating ChatGPT or information you found on Google, you’re adding minimal value, yet if you create original content, you won’t have any ‘competitors.’
Great content has information you cannot find anywhere else. That way, people always NEED to come back to your future posts.
Have a point of relevancy
People connect with stories. If you provide context on what sparked this post idea for you, it creates a more engaging post (story) and plays into your 'experiences' competitive advantage. As we just discussed above, every great post shares content you can't find anywhere else, so show people you're unique by telling people them where you learned the concept.
For example, this particular blog post idea was sparked when our founder was scrolling his LinkedIn feed and saw the same advice given across a few different posts in his feed.
Not only does sharing a point of relevancy help you establish your competitive advantage, but it provides credibility. You want people to say, "Ah... this is where they learned this." If you simply share an insight with no context, people may establish it's credibility.
3. Include actionable advice / direction
Great posts teach people something useful. Your goal is to have readers walking away from your post having learned something they can now use and will be helpful in their future endeavors. This way, they're more likely to return to your content to learn more. If you're teaching people something actionable every time you post, then you force them to never scroll past your post because they may miss out on information that helps them.
State a credibility point (𝘈𝘒𝘈 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶?)
Yes, you need to reestablish your credibility every single post. Now you may ask, "Well, if I just explain the story that triggered this post idea, doesn't that establish credibility?" Which we would say, "Yes, of course, but not enough."
Keep in mind, you may have people reading your content for the first time ever. They have no idea who you are, what you do, and how long you've been doing it. SO TELL THEM! Clearly state why someone should trust you on the topic. The best credibility points come out of frustration. Think to yourself, "why should someone trust me?" We almost want you get angry and reply, "Well I've been freaking doing this for 25 years!"
Boom. There's your credibility point! In your post, include that you've been in your field for 25 years. People are now more likely to trust you.
How to Write Thought Leadership Content on LinkedIn
Now that you're following our general best practices, let's go through a thought leadership post example to dissect how you can organize the information above in an easy-to-understand format for your target audience.
Hook / Sub Hook
Hook: First sentence of your LinkedIn post
Sub-Hook: Second sentence of your LinkedIn post
The hook and sub-hook of your post are the only 2 sentences a reader can view before clicking 'read more' on your post, which is why it is incredibly important to nail these. If people don't love these 2 sentences, they may scroll past your post. There is a 2 step formula that works really well:
Hook
Hook people to your post. This first sentence captures their attention.
Your 'Thought Leadership' content is too boring.
In this example, I am directly speaking to my target audience (people that already write thought leader content, but want to make it better). This calls them out and anchors their attention. It can spark a "Woah what are you talking about reaction?!"
Sub-Hook
Now that we have the scrollers attention, we now need to get them to act.
After 1.4M+ LinkedIn impressions, here’s my advice👇
After calling them out, we now share an impressive stat that builds our credibility, and makes people say, "wow. That's better than me. Let me give this post a quick read."
Now, they've clicked 'read more.' That's just step 1.
Story
Now that the hardest part is over (someone actually reading your post), your goal is to keep their attention. That said, people LOVE stories. It helps them understand concepts and connect to the topic at hand. They can see themselves as the main character of the story you're sharing. A great story for thought leadership is sharing what made you think of / where you learned the concept at hand.
I was scrolling my feed yesterday and clicked on a post that had an amazing ‘hook,’ but as I began reading the content, I simply rolled my eyes.
I’ve read the same advice ~20 times.
Even if it was ‘valuable’ content, I could have found it anywhere.
That experience sparked the motivation for me to write this post …
This way, they understand where the topic stemmed from and establishes even more credibility. They understand a bit more about why they can trust you on this topic. In this specific example, our founder is pitching the problem he's about to solve. Too many people share 'bad' thought leadership content, and he has advice to fix it.
What
You've established credibility and the problem at hand. Now it's time to explain the concept.
→ Stop sharing obvious insights.
Your LinkedIn content needs a ‘competitive advantage.’
For most of us, that’s the lessons we've learned through our experiences.
If you’re just regurgitating ChatGPT or info you found on Google, you’re adding minimal value.
But if you create original content, you won’t have any ‘competitors.’
This puts the concept in very simple terms for readers. It's easy enough for anyone to understand the concept because it's placed into their jargon. Since this post is targeting founders, words such as 'competitive advantage' allows the post to be easily comprehended by the target audience.
Why
It's great that people now understand the concept, but you need to tell them 'why' it should even matter to them. Do not just assume people will understand why that concept matters. Telling them directly will allow them to put the concept to better us.
This will keep your audience coming back to your content because they’re learning new things they cannot find elsewhere!
Here, the goal is get people to keep reading your content, so explaining exactly why your concept will help them achieve that is paramount.
Actionable Advice
Now, don't just leave your audience hanging. Imagine you learn a great concept, but then have no clue what to do next? Provide your audience with direct tips that they can use themselves!
A 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗧 thought leadership post has the following elements:
→ Has a point of relevancy
→ Shares information you can’t find on Google
→ Contains actionable advice / direction
→ States a credibility point (𝘈𝘒𝘈 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶?)
Yes, you read these above, and these are direct tips that people can implement into their LinkedIn posts to increase engagement, credibility, and get more customers overtime. People leave this post with takeaways that will help them. If they work, it's a no-brainer for them to look at other content created by our founder.
Conclusion / CTA
Finally, you'll want to wrap this post up. It's a good spot to have a call to action to get your audience moving in the direction you want them to (follow, website visit, message you, etc.). Plus, you can even add some of your own voice / authenticity in there calling out the 'elephant in the room.'
Sorry for the rant here, but it had to be said!
Oh.. and hopefully this wasn't too obvious 😅 😂
Follow me for LinkedIn tips 💭
This makes it more likely the reader will take the action you want them to take that gets you closer to your goals. For our founder, he simply wants more LinkedIn followers, so he focuses on that for his call to action.
There you go! Your post is complete and you're officially becoming a thought leader on LinkedIn.
Other LinkedIn Profile Tips & Tricks
If this blog was helpful, we have others that you may just as valuable! Take a look:
On the other hand, if you are interested in posting more LinkedIn content and optimizing your profile to increase your leads, investment opportunities, business partnerships and much more, we are here to take care of the entire process for you!
Reach out to us today to see how we can increase your professional community engagement!
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