I get it – with so much competition, the pressure for leaders to stand out in a crowded market has never been higher.
And, done well, personal branding can not only increase visibility but generate new leads too. Some of the best voices I’ve seen on LinkedIn use the platform so effectively that a high percentage of their new business comes directly from it.
It means many simply don’t have time to post thoughtfully every day. That in itself isn’t a problem. It’s the originality that is the issue.
The result is many posts crafted not by them, but by agencies, ghostwriters or social media managers. Add the rise of AI tools capable of producing polished content in seconds into the equation and it starts to become clear why so much of it looks the same.
What once required thought, experience and perspective can now be created with a quick voice note, a content calendar or a simple prompt.
To the untrained eye it may not be obvious, but regular users can see it instantly: the same templates, the same structure, the same hook.
You know:
– The ones that
– Look a bit
– Like this
Usually starting with “unpopular opinion” and ending with “thoughts?” Add a couple of hyphens, a few motivational quotes about waking up at 4am and walking the dog and doing a yoga class before work, plus a photo of you smiling at the desk or giving a presentation, and you’re ready to go.
LinkedIn experts insist this format boosts engagement, but honestly, I’m not sure it does. I think automated content actually performs worse over time because people quickly realise, roll their eyes and scroll straight past.
How to build an online personal brand when starting out in advice
I understand the temptation to outsource. Many leaders have powerful personal stories to tell but struggle to express them properly, whether because of the aforementioned time constraints or simply not “having a way with words”. Without sounding patronising, CEOs are business people, not necessarily good writers.
The trouble is that when a post sounds like a formula rather than a person, when every CEO’s feed looks the same, that illusion of authenticity begins to crack.
The whole point of personal branding is to reveal the person behind the posts. If it becomes indistinguishable from anyone else’s, it’s simply no longer personal – it’s just a brand.
Personally, I’ve had a few posts go “viral” over the years. One of them got over 130,000 reactions, 11,000 comments and reached 10 million people; another got 44,000 reactions; another 25,000.
Afterwards, I had messages from people asking me how I did it. My response was, “I didn’t try.”
I wasn’t trying to come across as arrogant, I just genuinely didn’t care how many people liked or commented on it. I wrote them in a couple of minutes because I felt I had something worth saying, something I was passionate about, and clearly people related to it.
I think sometimes people trying a bit too hard, writing with the algorithm in mind instead of showing their true, authentic selves.
The LinkedIn gurus will tell you that posting three to four times a week is the sweet spot.
While that may help push you to the top of your followers’ news feed, it only really matters if you have something interesting to say and they dig what they are reading.
In my view, a personal brand isn’t defined by how often you post, but how much of you is in the content. A leader who posts once a week but writes the posts themselves is usually more effective than one publishing daily agency-written updates.
A personal brand only works when it reflects the person behind it.
So, how can leaders stand out? By showing vulnerability. People like honesty. They want to feel less alone.
LinkedIn, like Instagram, can be a smorgasbord of toxic positivity, full of inspirational quotes, “shoulds” and highlight reels of everyone else “smashing it”. It’s easy to compare your own life or business to others and feel you’re not doing enough.
People want to see the failures, the doubts and the struggles – not because they are warped but because it makes you real and, importantly, relatable, like them.
As AI and agencies continue to grow, the leaders who stand out will be those who maintain a genuine voice, because no one else can tell your story quite like you can.
Personal branding is a bit like AI. The “winners” will be those who utilise it to gather their thoughts, but stay personally involved. Because the human touch always wins.
