LinkedIn has become the go-to social media platform for entrepreneurs, employees, and creators looking to build their personal brands, engage with their community, establish themselves as domain experts and build their professional network. With the business challenges and GTM shifts we're facing today, creating content on LinkedIn has never been more important. But with the growing presence of AI in content creation, a crucial question arises: Can AI help you craft engaging LinkedIn posts while keeping your authentic voice intact?
The answer is yes—and it’s not as complicated as it sounds. In this post, we'll go through how to strike a balance between authenticity and AI, how LinkedIn’s algorithm impacts your content, and how tools like Inboundr can help you create high-quality, personalized, and relevant content for your target audience with ease.
Related: Transform Your LinkedIn Content Strategy in 2024.
Understanding the Role of Authenticity on LinkedIn
Before diving into the tools that can streamline content creation, let’s discuss why authenticity is key to success on any social network, in this case LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is a platform built on valuable connections, relationships, and sharing valuable content. And I mean truly valuable content. When your audience senses that you’re being genuine, they’re more likely to engage with your content, trust your perspective, and reach out for opportunities. On the other hand, generic AI-generated content that spews out generic advice feels impersonal and of course fails to resonate.
Take it from Nehal, one of Inboundr’s early users and GTM advisor. Nehal is a B2B content leader at Clari. One of Nehal's many roles is to lead the social media marketing strategy, in particular, leading the strategic approach to employee-led marketing on LinkedIn. She had always battled with the time-consuming process of helping her team to create thoughtful posts that reflected each individuals personal voice and tone. Content that reflects personal stories, enables social selling, and builds strong relationships. After trying Inboundr, she was able to quickly help her team turn insights from their internal and external meetings into authentic LinkedIn content, without sacrificing tone.
Benefits of Using AI Tools in Content Creation
AI tools can feel intimidating at first—especially if you’re worried they’ll take the "human touch" out of your posts. But AI can actually be your ally in creating more authentic, engaging content by freeing up your time and helping you brainstorm fresh ideas.
For example, Inboundr uses AI to automatically extract key insights and content worthy moments from your conversations, meetings, podcasts, or even Slack messages, transforming them into original posts for LinkedIn that boost engagement rates. The best part? The AI adapts to your style, ensuring the content sounds like you, not like a robot.
It also notifies you of the latest news that align with your content pillars. At Inboundr we treat great content similar to great journalism. Great journalism requires deep research and staying on top of the latest news and trends. Inboundr helps to accomplish this with its research feature.
By automating the tedious parts of content creation, AI allows you to focus on what matters most: The final round of editing, where you can add personal touches and anecdotes.
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Balancing AI Assistance with Your Unique Voice
Here’s the trick: AI doesn’t replace your voice—it amplifies it.
Think about the process of writing a LinkedIn post that will get meaningful engagement and create an active conversation in the comments. You may have a great idea, but getting that idea down in a thought provoking and engaging way can be challenging, especially when you’re short on time. That’s where generative AI tools like Inboundr come in. By analyzing your previous content and conversations, it generates content suggestions tailored to your voice, letting you focus on the storytelling while the AI takes care of the structure and formatting. It also provides you with the research and stats to support brainstorming.
For instance, rather than spending hours crafting high-quality content from scratch, Inboundr might pull out a memorable quote or perspective from a recent team discussion and suggest a post around it. It will generate a rough draft based on the conversation. You just tweak it to add your personal touch or go deeper on the topic. It’s like having a content assistant that works in the background, allowing you to keep your personal brand front and center.
Analyzing LinkedIn’s Algorithm for Better Reach
Understanding how LinkedIn’s algorithm works is crucial if you want to maximize your content’s reach. Here's an unexciting algorithm secret: LinkedIn’s algorithm rewards relevant content that sparks meaningful conversations and engagement. Content that gets comments and shares. Makes sense - content that causes people to share with others and leave comments on the post shows LinkedIn this content sparked a conversation. Content that sparks conversation keeps users on the platform. Which is LinkedIns #1 priority. But, the real question, how do you create content that resonates? Should you create content thats closely aligned with your audience demographics or create content that applies to a wider audience?
Here's the thing about reach and everyones desire to create "viral posts". I know plenty of people who create content and get less than 20 of likes per post yet still drive inbound leads. And I know plenty of people who often get hundreds of likes but don't drive inbound leads.
Posting a picture of your cat or a photo of your mom for mothers day may get thousands of likes. But, its thousands of likes from people outside your ICP. Don't get me wrong, its great to mix in personal content but I'd only recommend this style of post be published on an 80-20 ratio. 80% of the time content that will resonate with ICP. 20% of the time content that will resonate with the human side of you.
Back to the point. How do you know if you've generated content that sparks conversation? Here's a checklist:
- Am I brokering truly valuable information?
Does the content provide useful insights, solutions, or knowledge that your audience can apply in their work or lives? - Am I brokering a polarizing opinion that I believe in?
Have I shared a bold, non-obvious stance that challenges the status quo and invites differing opinions? Have I presented an idea or viewpoint that encourages people to rethink their assumptions? - Am I asking questions that provoke thought?
Does my content encourage readers to reflect, respond, or share their own experiences? - Am I sharing personal experiences or stories?
Is my content relatable and authentic, grounded in real-world examples or personal anecdotes? - Does my content feel timely and relevant to current trends or conversations?
Is the post in line with what's happening in the industry or world at large, giving readers something to connect with? - Am I being clear and concise?
Does the content get to the point quickly, avoiding fluff and ensuring that the message resonates without confusion? - Am I staying true to my voice and experience?
Does the content sound like me, not like generic, AI-generated text or something that could be written by anyone? And does it truly reflect my experience or expertise? - Have I incorporated some level of humor or personality?
Does the post reflect my individuality and personality, making it more engaging and memorable?
Note: not all need to be checked off.
Inboundr helps you align with this algorithm by helping you create content that resonates with your audience. Whether it’s drawing out compelling quotes from your latest podcast episode or reworking insights from a meeting into a post that invites discussion, Inboundr ensures your content stands out while staying true to your authentic voice.
Related: LinkedIn Algorithm Report 2024
Tips for Engaging Your LinkedIn Audience
Creating content is only half the battle. To truly build a strong presence on LinkedIn, you need to engage with your audience. A news flash, not like a fake person. We've all seen the robotic AI generated comments that all follow the same process: Complimenting the post, reiterating what was said, followed by a question. Don't do that. And don't use automation tools for commenting.
Here are some tips to boost engagement:
- Ask questions in your posts to invite conversation. But in a real way. It's ok to respectfully take a different view point. Or add on to the post with more insight. Or share your own experience. This advice will help you craft attention-grabbing comments.
- Respond to comments promptly to keep the discussion going. If you make a post its important to stick around an engage with those who comment. Best practise is to reply to everyone who comments on your post. And not with "thank you" or "great addition"... keep the conversation going.
- Comment on others posts. Try searching a keyword in the search bar, in my case, "employee advocacy". This will give me a list of relevant people and content for me to leave thoughtful comments on.
Incorporating AI: Best Practices and Tools
If you’re new to using AI for content creation, here are a few best practices to get started:
- Use AI for ideation: Let AI help you brainstorm post ideas based on your recent conversations or the latest news. Let it create rough drafts for you to take the extra mile.
- Maintain your tone: Don’t let AI dictate your style—use it as a tool to assist, not replace.
- Experiment and refine: Test different approaches and see what resonates with your audience.
Strategies for Maintaining Authenticity
As you begin using AI to streamline your LinkedIn content creation, it’s important to remember that authenticity is your biggest asset. Here are a few strategies to maintain that authenticity:
- Be transparent: Let your audience know when you’re using AI to assist in content creation. This builds trust.
- Edit and personalize: Always make sure to add your personal touch before posting.
- Focus on value over perfection: Your audience values insights, not polished, perfect posts.
Building Thought Leadership Through AI-Enhanced Content
Building thought leadership on LinkedIn requires consistency, quality, and authenticity. AI tools like Inboundr can help you maintain that consistency by turning your raw thoughts and ideas into shareable content. Whether it’s a quick reaction to a trending topic or a deep dive into an industry challenge, Inboundr ensures your content is always ready to go.
By using AI strategically, you can position yourself as a thought leader while freeing up time to focus on real-world interactions and growing your network.
Fostering Genuine Connections on LinkedIn
At the end of the day, LinkedIn is about building genuine relationships. While AI can help you generate and refine content, it’s your human interactions that will make the biggest impact.
Engage with your connections, respond to comments, and share your experiences. Use AI as a tool to help you stay consistent and authentic, not as a crutch that replaces the human element of connection.
