How to Develop Thought Leadership on LinkedIn

LinkedIn might not be the best social media outlet for every business, but if you are trying to build some brand authority, developing thought leadership on LinkedIn is an awesome way. Especially good for B2B marketing, thought leadership is a great way to say, “Hey, I’m a big deal in this industry.” For those in highly competitive industries, nothing is better than establishing yourself not only as an authority, but also as a mover and shaker in industry dogma.

The better the content you post is, the better the payoff will be. Great content means more people will see that content, recognize your name, and trust that you know what you are talking about—not just on that topic, but on all topics. This isn’t done just by writing a couple articles and then sharing them. You have to have a coherent strategy, and that means understanding who your audience is and what they want to read. Here are some tips to help you build effective thought leadership on LinkedIn:

Share the news

If you’ve got a scoop, writing content about it and posting it on LinkedIn is a great way to both share that news and to drive traffic towards your business. The more scoops you get and the more consistently your account comes to be associated with publishing high quality articles about recent developments in your industry, the more recognition you are going to get and the more you’ll set yourself apart from other profiles who are trying to do the same thing.

As with all news, make sure you’re writing something factual and useful, as well as interesting.

Related: How Storytelling Will Increase Your Brand Engagement by 340%

Use LinkedIn Pulse

In addition to posting elsewhere on LinkedIn, you should also use LinkedIn Pulse to post great content right on your profile. You can even do this by re-posting popular article right from your website, if you do not want to write fresh content.

If you do want to write fresh content, make sure that it is both relevant and in a long format. The longer your piece is, the more in depth it is going to be, making it usually more informative and more useful for those who care about the topic you are posting about. If you do just re-post articles already on your website, this is a great opportunity to also link back to that website.

Post using your own LinkedIn profile

You might have a separate page for your business, but even if you are trying to create buzz for that business, you might benefit from posting from your personal profile. Why? Because if that personal profile already has some authority status and name recognition, your reputation will add to the legitimacy of what you post, benefiting both your personal profile and your business.

For example, if you are well known for working in an industry and you start your own business in that industry, your business’s name might not yet be well known, but you might be.

Get involved

The advent of LinkedIn groups provides you with ample opportunity to connect to other people who have your same goals or who have need of your product or service. Both of these types of people can help you succeed.

Start looking for groups that are relevant to your needs and to your goals and start getting involved in discussions and connecting with people that are genuinely interested in you and what you have to offer. If you find the right groups, finding those people usually isn’t that difficult.

Start a group yourself

Though LinkedIn does have thousands of groups, you might not be able to find one that adequately reflects exactly what you want to talk about and share content about. Creating a group is a fairly easy process, especially if you are sure that one in your niche doesn’t exist. You’ll get a little boost of credibility by being labeled as the group’s owner, and you’ll still be able to find people who are interested in you and what you have to offer.

Thought leadership is a great way to build the authority that you need in order to impress others into using your service or buying your product. LinkedIn has plenty of tools to make this possible, you just have to take advantage of them. Getting involved and writing relevant, original content are two great ways to start spreading your name and making sure that people know who you are and understand that you are knowledgeable about your industry.

You can continue to build upon that thought leadership by connecting with even more people through groups. Use these five tips to start developing your own thought leadership!