Building Trust and Credibility on LinkedIn Starts with Thought Leadership

When I tell people that my company, WantLeverage Communications, specializes in public relations and LinkedIn content strategy and execution, they often give me a funny look. In reality, these two areas are naturally synergistic. 

Thought leadership today is an essential part of any strategic communications program given the global and increasingly competitive nature of business. It’s the most effective means of sharing the ideas, thoughts, and opinions of company leaders especially during a time when trust in companies is waning. It can also be a source of valuable information and rational thought during uncertain times. 

This makes LinkedIn, the professional social networking platform, an ideal forum to amplify thought leadership and connect with a wide range of stakeholders – both inside and outside of an organization. Here’s why. 

Securing Trust

According to the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer, over the last 10 years, trust has declined significantly in companies headquartered in the largest exporting nations, including the U.S., which is down 9 points to 53 percent. Since the pandemic, there’s also been a drop in trust for leaders with only 21% of U.S. employees agreeing strongly that they trust the leadership of their organization. This marks a decline from its 2019 peak (24%) and raises the question, about the role of ethics and morale in American businesses.

In contrast, nearly 75% of decision-makers at client and customer companies put more trust in an organization's thought leadership content. This is particularly true when compared to trust in B2B marketing and product materials. 

Taking thought leadership to the LinkedIn platform makes perfect sense for companies and leaders that want to establish trust and credibility in their organization. By posting content about company culture including tips and takeaways that make employees feel connected and which can be immediately applied to work can positively affect motivation, productivity, talent attraction and retention. 

Thought leadership content can also engender trust in the greater marketplace. With a billion people in 200 countries on the platform, LinkedIn is the place to form new connections, follow industry leaders, jumpstart careers, and provide valuable advice to wide audiences and target segments.

Direct Engagement With Business Targets

Bearing this in mind, it should come as no surprise that LinkedIn is also where great leaders showcase their authentic selves, expand their influence, and engage with targets on a daily basis. That’s because as a social platform, it stands out above the others for being serious about business and expanding opportunities. Research shows that as trust increases, it can also stimulate interest in your organization’s products and services over time.

As a rule, companies carefully choose what content to share on social media as it contributes to the amplification of thoughts, ideas and information that matter most to an organization. On LinkedIn, leaders actually get to engage and interact with their business followers and connections on a very one-to-one basis. There are a number of ways to create this level of engagement. For example: regular posting schedules with content that includes a call to action; thoughtful commentary and the sharing of other people’s posts; short survey polls that collect data on key issues while eliciting opinions; and requests to readers that they share their ideas, stories and even photos of their experiences. Here's a real-world example. One of my clients, a C-suite leader - the third most followed executive in her Fortune 100 company - found that her team lacked energy and cohesion after the pandemic. She was also looking to enhance her profile in a very male-dominated company and industry.

She has effectively leveraged LinkedIn to create a strong sense of community and belonging among her internal team. She posts regularly on four content pillars, all leadership-related. Team members from across the organization have come to regularly share stories and photos on her feed. On the business front, she’s also significantly increased her followers over a three year period, from 7,500 to 26,000.This is shared media at its best. Now, when people meet her they say, “I feel like I know you.”

The opportunities to leverage thought leadership, and to do so on LinkedIn, are many. In a world that’s experiencing great upheaval, this is the perfect time for leaders to deepen relationships with employees, customers, and clients. It’s also an opportune time to expand beyond to a wider stakeholder universe. It’s a form of public relations that’s as strategic as you can get.