LinkedIn has never had more users who call themselves “thought leaders.” No surprise, it’s harder than ever to tell who actually has something to say.
One of the most important parts of my job at Environics Research is empowering very smart colleagues to share interesting observations and findings that come up in the course of their work.
Here’s the challenge.
Thanks to ChatGPT, Perplexity, and the rest, passable posts and essays are just a few prompts away. As marketers (throwing shade at myself here), we can get an AI to help us elaborate on almost any industry. Trendy topic, SEO-friendly, clean structure, strong headlines, polished tone, and a tidy proofread at the end. We can also make it rank. But so what? If nobody really wrote it, who should bother reading it and why?
The flood of “good enough to post” material is what my team are competing against. Most somewhat-savvy LLM users can create a “thought leadership” piece in minutes now. Which is why LinkedIn suddenly feels flooded with brand-new thought leaders posting at a cadence that doesn’t quite add up. The result is predictable. Formulaic posts, over-polished language, emojis doing the heavy lifting and, to be honest, a lot of noise.
So, if you – like my researcher colleagues – actually do have something to say, how do you stand out? Here are seven points I keep coming back to with my team. Keeping these principles in mind continues to pay off for us.
Becoming a thought leader in 2026
1. Does it sound like you?
We’ve reached a point where imperfections can actually be a signal of authenticity. A slightly rough edge, an unusual phrasing, a recognizable voice. As someone who still gets anxious during live screen shares because my spelling isn’t great, this has been oddly freeing. A comment from my boss recently (after I ran my agenda through ChatGPT before sharing it with the team) stuck with me: “You have a unique way of getting your points across. It works and there’s no reason to change it.” If it sounds like you, people stay longer. They read. They click. They engage. That’s good for humans and, coincidentally, good for algorithms too.
Through platforms like Google Analytics (GA4), marketers are seeing more and more referral sources from LLMs. This has spurred an increase in the need to understand how to rank within prompts. Tools are slowly but surely popping up to show how LLM’s describe your brand and rank it versus competitors on sentiment/perception – we’re seeing when content is authentically human and engaging: Green Flag!
2. Is there value for the reader?
Self-serving content is easy to spot. It might get a short burst of engagement, but it doesn’t build credibility. People stick around when they get something useful – a takeaway they can apply that day or pass along to a friend in a DM. Quiet shares and private messages are often a stronger signal of success than public comments.
3. Real engagement is a two-way street
LinkedIn is constantly evolving, with expanded content formats that prioritize long-form and video-first content, the introduction of AI-powered assistants, and ongoing refinements to its feed algorithms designed to surface more relevant professional content.
Something that hasn’t changed is that reciprocal engagement still matters. IMO, it’s the most important of all metrics for achieving perceived “thought-leader” status. Engaging in real give-and-take with other people, old-fashioned as it may be, is still the best way of building influence and credibility. It can be as simple as paying attention to others in your space: taking their ideas seriously and reflecting on how they line up with other perspectives, including yours. When’s the last time you truly engaged with someone in your network?
4. The Golden Hour is real
In the first 60 minutes or so after it goes live, often called “golden hour,” every post goes through a quiet filter for spam, misinformation, and obvious engagement bait. If it doesn’t pass that first sniff test, distribution slows before it ever really starts. Your post is also shown to a small test group first. If people stop, read, and interact in a meaningful way, LinkedIn expands its reach. If they scroll past, it doesn’t. That’s why captions and visuals are so so important.
5. Consistency beats volume
Posting regularly with something valuable to say builds more trust than flooding feeds with low-quality updates. LinkedIn has often stated that more than one post per day will hamper your visibility; the second post will reach less of your network.
6. Diversify how you post
Carousels and native video to accompany your text can drive huge engagement. The term I always come back to, from an Irish upbringing touched by horse racing is ‘horses for courses’. Basically, different people are attracted to different formats. I don’t like long-form writing, but I love a 45-second video. I scroll past images but always engage with a slider. You’re missing an opportunity if you’re not accommodating your network’s preferences. LinkedIn also prefers content that keeps people on the platform. Don’t keep driving them to your website. Push them to the comment section, spark a conversation!
7. Diversify your posts
Offer a quick but thoughtful take or take a step back to reflect on recent trends. Link to a curious poll or share a personal story or POV (related to your expertise). Thought leadership is about being understood and being a human with a perspective, not just about how smart you are. By mixing it up and taking some deliberate risks (say, posting something a little unconventional), you should see exposure and engagement rise with those you actually want to connect with in your network – this isn’t Instagram, but in an online-first world, showing more of your professional self goes a long way.
What’s my evidence that these tips work?
Part experience, part intuition. LinkedIn doesn’t publish a rulebook per se for how its feed works. Most of these observations I’ve pieced together over time. Some come straight from LinkedIn: their product updates, engineering blogs, and creator guidance regularly point to the same priorities. The rest comes from experience, both mine and that of people in my network – gathered through years of chatting with marketers and creators who test what works, watch what gets distribution (and what quietly doesn’t), and of course the marketers’ secret weapon… a little A/B testing.
Final takeaway
When publishing becomes easy, intention matters more. Originality matters more. Effort matters more. The people who stand out won’t be the ones posting the most, but the ones who clearly care about who’s on the other side of the screen.
