r/ThoughtLeader

The second people switch into that voice, everything turns into vague advice and big statements that don’t really say anything.

What’s worked better for me is just writing the way I’d explain something to a friend.
Same ideas, just less polished, more specific.

Like, instead of saying “consistency is key,” it’s more like posted 3 times a week for a month, nothing happened, then one random post took off and pulled the rest with it.

Way less impressive on paper, but way more believable.

I guess people connect more with proof than polish.

Do you catch yourself switching into “thought leader mode” when you post, or nah?

Honestly this has been bugging me

Everyone’s using AI which is fine
But feeds feel copy paste now
Same hooks
Same flow
Same vibe

It works but low key feels empty
No one really stands out

I’m using AI more like a rough draft
Still messy still human

How are you keeping your voice from sounding like everyone else?

I see very little these days that I would say is even remotely worthy of being considered "thought leadership." As my title says, the key word is the first one: thought leadership content must display real thinking, and real thinking is not conventional wisdom.

So for what it's worth, here's my definition of thought leadership:

--It displays original ideas, new insights, and/or unique points of view. It should feel new.

--It delivers value to readers. Rehashing the obvious never delivers value to readers.

--It provokes readers, not in the sense of making them mad, but making them think and question. "Thought-provoking" content is engaging content. (This is more important that the mechanism of engagement, though that is also vital.)

At the same time, people and companies who want to be seen as thought leaders should also be thinking how posting this kind of content will help them. This means it should be written with an eye towards building the brand, personal or corporate, effectively, though of course without trying to hard to do so. If it feels like marketing, it really can't be considered thought leadership. The selfish goal of thought leadership is the patina that gets attached to people and companies that do it well.

Does this make sense?

I was writing a LinkedIn post the other day, felt good about it, hit publish… and then got that “too long” warning.

So I started trimming.

Cut a sentence. Still too long.
Reworded a paragraph. Still over.
At some point, I wasn’t even improving the post anymore, just guessing what to delete.

Ended up pasting everything into a simple character counter to see where I stood.

That small step made it way easier. I could see exactly how much I needed to cut, instead of blindly editing and hoping it fits.

Kind of funny how something so basic can save a lot of time.

If you’ve ever played the edit-and-pray game with LinkedIn posts, you’ll probably get why this helps.

i always go over or end up shortening too much trying to fix it. started using this free character counter to check before posting and it helps https://thoughtleadership.app/free-tools/linkedin-character-counter

do you guys just eyeball it or actually check?

I always overthink hashtags on LinkedIn posts, so I tried a few hashtag generators to speed things up.

This one actually gave me decent, relevant tags: https://thoughtleadership.app/free-tools/linkedin-hashtag-generator

I’m kind of curious if you all rely on tools for hashtags, or just stick to a few standard ones?

I'm not sure who needs this, but writing a LinkedIn bio is harder than it should be.

Like… It’s just a few lines about what you do, but somehow it turns into 30 minutes of overthinking every word.

I found this free LinkedIn bio generator on thoughtleadership.app and messed around with it for a bit.

It’s not one of those cringe “AI writes your life story” things. It just gives you a solid starting point so you’re not staring at a blank box.

I ended up tweaking most of what it gave me, but that was the point. Way easier to edit something than start from zero.

If your bio has been sitting unfinished for months, this tool might help.

Curious if anyone here actually updates their LinkedIn bio regularly, or if it’s more of a “set it once and forget it” thing?

And I don’t mean that in a bad way.

The posts that actually stick with me aren’t the polished, big-brain ones. It’s the random, slightly messy posts where someone’s just sharing what they’re figuring out in real time.

Like:

- tried this, didn’t work

- here’s what I’d do differently

- This assumption I had was completely wrong

That stuff feels way more useful than generic advice threads.

I feel like people wait until they have everything figured out before posting, when the interesting part is usually the middle, not the conclusion.

Does anyone else prefer reading unfinished thoughts over polished takes?

People say post daily and you’ll grow. But I’ve seen people post every day with no traction and others post less but with clear intent and grow faster. Feels like consistency without direction just creates noise.

What do you think matters more: frequency or clarity?