Struggling to make a splash on LinkedIn? Here’s what to do

Most executive LinkedIn profiles are, at best, ‘contributing to the noise of the internet’.

We’ve all seen the lightweight takes, the zen koans, the ‘what my dry cleaning taught me about B2B sales’ posts. It’s no wonder that, on average, engagement is low, growth is inconsistent and almost none of it translates into meaningful conversations or commercial impact.

At the same time, LinkedIn has become more important in the buying process. Prospects are forming opinions earlier, researching individuals as well as companies and building shortlists long before salespeople are involved. In many cases, an executive’s profile is one of the first places that credibility is tested and a prospect thinks ‘these guys get it’.

Executive visibility matters more than ever, but most leaders are not building influence in a way that compounds over time (if at all). What can we do?

Sharing insights from a recent webinar on How to Become a B2B LinkedIn Influencer With Executive LinkedIn Marketing, this article looks at why most executive LinkedIn activity underperforms and what to do differently if you want it to drive real trust, engagement and pipeline.

Why most executive LinkedIn activity fails to build influence

The pattern is familiar to anyone managing a company's social media. A director or C-suite executive starts posting with good intent. The content is thoughtful, often aligned with the company's messaging and professionally written. There may even be some early engagement.

But over time, momentum slows and then stops.

The issue is not effort or capability. It’s not even the fact that the executive in question got busy for a few weeks and didn’t post. It is that most executive LinkedIn activity lacks the foundations required to build influence. In practice, that usually means:

• No clear positioning or defined area of expertise
• Content that is accurate but indistinguishable
• Inconsistent output driven by availability rather than intent
• No system to sustain content or engagement
• No link to commercial outcomes

Without these elements, activity remains isolated and less effective than it could be.

Insight #1: Executive LinkedIn now sits inside the buying journey

LinkedIn is no longer just a platform for visibility. It has become part of how buyers evaluate credibility before engaging commercially.

Prospects are not only looking at what a company says. They are looking at how its leaders think. They are assessing whether there is depth of expertise, clarity of perspective and evidence of real-world experience from the people who lead it.

This is particularly relevant in complex B2B environments, where differentiation is not always obvious from product or messaging alone. In those situations, individuals often become proxies for the business itself.

A consistent, well-positioned executive presence reinforces confidence, where an inconsistent or generic one makes people second guess their intuition.

Insight #2: Positioning is what determines whether your content works

Most executives approach LinkedIn by thinking about content first. What should I post? How often? What format works best?

Those questions matter, but they come later.

The more important question is what you want to be known for.

Without clear positioning, content becomes unfocused. It covers too many topics, speaks to too many audiences and ultimately fails to create recognition.

David C Baker’s argument in The Business of Expertise is that expertise becomes more valuable as it becomes more specific. The same principle applies to LinkedIn.

Executives who build influence tend to:

• Focus on a clearly defined domain
• Address a consistent set of problems
• Reinforce a recognisable perspective over time

This is what allows their nascent influence to compound. Audiences begin to associate them with a particular way of thinking, which is what drives engagement and growth.

Insight #3: Authority comes from how you think, not what you report

Much of the content produced by executives is informational. It reflects what is happening in the market, highlights trends or shares updates. While useful, this type of content rarely builds influence.

What differentiates strong executive content is interpretation.

It explains why something matters, how decisions are made or what trade-offs exist in practice. It makes thinking visible.

In practical terms, this often comes from:

• Lessons learned through delivery or leadership decisions
• Observations about how the market is changing
• Opinions on common challenges within the industry
• Frameworks or principles that guide decision-making

The distinction is important. Information is widely available. Perspective is not. The more your content reflects lived experience, the more it contributes to authority.

Insight #4: Consistency needs a system, not motivation

One of the most common challenges for executives is maintaining consistency. Posting tends to happen in bursts, followed by periods of inactivity as priorities move to other areas.

This is often framed as a time or motivation issue. In reality, it is usually a lack of structure and systems.

Executives generate valuable insights continuously throughout their work, one of the rewards of long-term experience dealing with tough problems. The challenge is to capture and express them consistently.

A simple structure can make this significantly easier, such as the below:

• Capture ideas during the week from meetings, decisions and conversations
• Set aside dedicated time to turn those ideas into content
• Work to a repeatable cadence rather than ad hoc posting

Think of content as a repeatable process, rather than an ominous creative task. This is the key to making it sustainable.

Insight #5: Execution determines whether your ideas are seen

Even strong ideas will underperform if they are not presented clearly. LinkedIn is a fast-moving environment where attention is limited and most content is scanned quickly.

This places a premium on clarity and structure.

Posts need to establish relevance quickly, communicate ideas efficiently and avoid unnecessary complexity. A simple structure is often effective, like the one below:

• An opening that captures attention
• A clear insight or point of view
• A short explanation or example
• A concise takeaway

The opening lines are critical. You need to ‘arrest the scroll’ with a pattern interrupt first and foremost, with something laser-targeted to the interests of your audience.. Without that, even well-developed ideas are unlikely to be seen.

Insight #6: Influence is built through repetition of perspective

LinkedIn rewards sustained presence rather than one-off actions. Most executives underestimate the importance of repetition when building influence.

This is not about repeating the same content, however. It is about reinforcing the same underlying perspective over time.

As this happens, audiences begin to recognise patterns in how you think. That recognition builds familiarity, and familiarity builds trust.

Olivia Fox Cabane’s The Charisma Myth offers a useful way of thinking about this. She writes that charisma is not innate. It is built through presence, power and warmth. On LinkedIn, those elements translate into clarity, expertise and relatability. All three can be reinforced through consistent communication.

Insight #7: Engagement is part of the growth mechanism

Posting content is only one part of building influence. Engagement plays an equally important role.

LinkedIn amplifies content that generates interaction, particularly in its early stages. At the same time, engagement builds relationships and familiarity with your audience.

In practice, this means:

• Responding to comments to extend conversations
• Contributing to discussions within your network
• Engaging with relevant voices in your space

This is often overlooked, particularly by senior leaders who focus on publishing. In reality, participation is a key driver of both visibility and trust. If the leaders in your organisation don’t have the time to respond in a timely and thoughtful way, now is the time to outsource it to a social media expert within your team.

Insight #8: If it can’t be linked to pipeline, it won’t scale

For executive LinkedIn activity to be taken seriously internally, it needs to connect to commercial outcomes.

This is where many efforts fall short. The impact is real, but difficult to attribute directly. As a result, success is often measured through surface metrics such as impressions or follower growth.

A more useful approach is to track progression.

LinkedIn works by moving prospects through stages:

• Visibility
• Familiarity
• Trust
• Conversation
• Pipeline

Each stage represents a reduction in friction. This is the mechanism through which LinkedIn creates value for your business.

Rather than focusing only on the final outcome, look for signals across this journey. These might include increased inbound conversations, references to content during sales interactions or improvements in opportunity quality.

What to do next

If your LinkedIn activity isn't delivering results, the answer isn’t to post more. It is to strengthen your underlying approach.

This week, start with a small number of practical changes:

• Define a clear area of expertise and audience focus
• Identify the perspectives you want to be known for
• Build a simple, repeatable content process
• Commit to a sustainable posting cadence
• Engage actively with relevant conversations
• Track signals that connect activity to commercial outcomes

Remember that executives who succeed on LinkedIn are not necessarily the most active. They are the most consistent and the most clearly positioned. They treat LinkedIn as a system for building authority rather than a channel for distributing content. It’s a long game, but one worth playing.

If you’d like to talk LinkedIn strategy or simply sharpen your marketing approach from end-to-end, you can get in touch with our CEO Matthew for a free No-BS Marketing Strategy Session.