LinkedIn’s tips on finding ‘white space’ in thought leadership

We’ve all seen the endless platitudes on LinkedIn, the crowd-pleasing quotes, the broetry stuffed with strategically spaced and obvious observations. You might wind up with a lot of likes on these kinds of posts, but it’s unlikely anyone will think of you — or the executive you’re working with — as a true thought leader.

If you want to truly break through the noise and avoid being a thought follower, LinkedIn has tips for you. You can download the entire whitepaper here, thanks to your Insider subscription.

Among the suggestions, LinkedIn urges you to focus on “finding your whitespace,” or the “intersection of your expertise, your interests, and the interests of your community?”

This exercise is designed to get you thinking about how your thought leadership can stand out amid the noise. You don’t want to hit that upper right quadrant, where things get plenty of engagement but don’t stand out, but you also want to avoid that lower left square. There, you’ve shown off some creativity and avoided the trap of dime-a-dozen platitudes, but no one’s really reacting.