I recently searched Google News for information about LinkedIn and AI search and was surprised (and elated) to see two of my articles near the top of the results.
The experience reinforced something I’ve been telling professionals for years: if you want to be known for a topic, start creating content about it.
Many people assume recognition comes first. They think they’ll be invited to speak, quoted by the media, featured on podcasts or viewed as an authority and then they’ll start sharing their ideas publicly. In my experience, it usually works the other way around.
The people who become associated with a topic are often the people who have spent time writing about it, discussing it and contributing to the conversation. Their content creates a record of their thinking. It gives people something to find, read, share and reference. Over time, it helps establish a connection between their name and a particular subject.
This is especially important today as search behavior continues to evolve. People aren’t just using Google anymore. They’re asking questions in ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity and other AI tools. They’re looking for experts, researching companies and trying to understand unfamiliar topics. The more content that exists around your areas of expertise, the more opportunities there are for people and platforms to connect your name with those subjects. That doesn’t happen from a single post. It happens through consistency.
Start With the Topics For Which You Want to Be Known
OnOne of the biggest mistakes I see professionals make is creating content without being intentional about what they want people to associate them with.
A lot of people sit down to write a LinkedIn post and simply write whatever happens to be on their mind that day. One week it’s an industry trend. The next week it’s a conference they attended. Then it’s a leadership quote, a news story or something completely unrelated to the work they actually do.
Over time, that approach can make it difficult for people to understand where your expertise really lies. Someone can read dozens of your posts and still have no idea what you do, what kinds of clients you work with or what topics you’re most qualified to discuss.
Before creating content, spend some time thinking about the subjects that are most closely connected to your experience, expertise and professional goals.
Think about the conversations you have most often. What questions do clients ask repeatedly? What topics come up in meetings again and again? What challenges are people bringing to you for advice? What trends are affecting your industry and showing up in discussions with colleagues and clients?
Those are usually the best places to start.
I also encourage people to think about the opportunities they would like to create for themselves over the next few years. If someone were looking for a speaker, consultant, board member, advisor, recruiter, lawyer, executive or subject matter expert in your area, what topics would you want them to associate with your name?
Once you identify those subjects, look at your content and ask yourself:
- Are you writing about them regularly?
- Are you sharing your perspective on them?
- Are you answering questions related to them?
Many professionals discover there’s a disconnect between the work they spend most of their time doing and the content they’re putting out into the world.
Content becomes much easier when you narrow your focus. You don’t need ten content pillars. You don’t need a completely new idea every time you sit down to write. A handful of core topics can generate months of content when you start approaching them from different angles.
A leadership topic can become content about hiring, managing teams, difficult conversations, mentoring, company culture, employee engagement and decision-making. A cybersecurity professional can write about risk management, compliance, emerging threats, employee training, vendor management and lessons learned from real-world situations. The same principle applies regardless of your industry.
When people see your name associated with the same subjects over time, they begin to develop a clearer understanding of what you do and what you know. That association doesn’t happen from a single post. It develops gradually through consistent participation in the conversations that matter most to your work and your expertise.
Turn Everyday Conversations Into Content
One of the reasons people struggle with content creation is that they believe they need completely original ideas every time they sit down to write.
In reality, some of the best content comes directly from the work you’re already doing.
Think about the conversations you’ve had this week. What questions have clients asked? What topics came up during meetings? What advice have you found yourself giving repeatedly? What misconceptions are people struggling with? What trends are generating discussion in your industry?
Those conversations are often filled with content ideas.
I can’t tell you how many articles, LinkedIn posts, presentations and client alerts I’ve created over the years simply by paying attention to the questions people were asking. If one person is asking a question, there’s a good chance dozens or even hundreds of others are wondering the same thing.
That’s one of the reasons I encourage people to keep a running list of questions they receive from clients, colleagues, prospects and members of their network. Over time, that list can become an editorial calendar.
A single question can often become multiple pieces of content. You can answer it in a LinkedIn post, expand on it in an article, discuss it during a webinar, include it in a newsletter or use it as the basis for a presentation. The goal is to get more value from the knowledge and experience you already have.
Many professionals overlook some of their best content opportunities because the information feels too obvious to them. They’ve been talking about a particular issue for years, so they assume everyone else understands it as well. In reality, the topics that feel routine to you are often brand new to someone else.
The next time someone asks a question you’ve answered dozens of times before, don’t just answer it and move on. Ask yourself whether it’s a topic worth turning into content. More often than not, the answer is yes.
Share Your Perspective, Not Just Information
One thing I’ve noticed after years of working with professionals on their content is that many people underestimate the value of their own perspective.
There’s no shortage of information online. Anyone can find articles, statistics, research reports and breaking news. What people are often looking for is context. They want to understand what a development means, why it matters and how someone with experience views it.
That’s where your content becomes valuable.
I see a lot of professionals spend most of their time sharing articles, reposting industry news and commenting briefly on someone else’s content. There’s nothing wrong with that, and sharing useful information can certainly be part of your strategy. The problem is that if all you’re doing is sharing what other people have written, you’re giving your audience very little insight into your own expertise.
People don’t build trust because you shared an article. They build trust because of what you have to say about it.
Think about the conversations you’re having every day. What are you seeing in the market? What patterns are emerging? What challenges are clients facing? What questions keep coming up? What do people misunderstand about your industry or area of expertise?
Those observations often make excellent content because they’re grounded in real-world experience.
Some of the most effective content I’ve seen doesn’t break news or introduce a completely new idea. Instead, it helps people understand a topic more clearly. It offers a different perspective, explains a trend, challenges a common assumption or shares a lesson learned through experience.
Your audience doesn’t need another summary of an article they can read themselves. They want to know what you think about it and why it matters.
That’s one of the reasons I encourage professionals to spend less time worrying about creating something completely original and more time focusing on their own experiences, observations and expertise. The way you see a situation, explain a concept or approach a challenge is unique to you.
Over time, those perspectives become part of what people remember. They help differentiate you from others in your field and give people a clearer understanding of how you think, what you know and what it’s like to work with you.
Don’t Rely Only on Posts
I love LinkedIn posts and write them almost every day, but I think articles are one of the most underutilized tools on the platform.
Most professionals spend all of their time focusing on short-form content. They write a post, it gets some engagement, people react to it for a few days and then everyone moves on. There’s certainly value in that. Posts help you stay visible, participate in conversations and engage with your network in real time.
The challenge is that posts often have a relatively short lifespan. Articles give you the opportunity to slow down and explore a topic more thoroughly. They allow you to answer common questions, share examples, provide practical advice and demonstrate your expertise in a way that a short post often can’t.
I often tell people to think about the subjects they would like to be known for three years from now. If someone searched your name or asked an AI platform about your expertise, what topics would you want to be associated with? Those are the subjects that deserve more than a single post. They’re often worth an article, and in many cases, multiple articles.
One of the biggest benefits of long-form content is that it creates a body of work around your expertise. Every article becomes another resource that people can find, read, reference and share. Over time, those articles begin to work together. They help tell a more complete story about what you know, what you’ve experienced and what perspective you bring to your work.
I’ve also found that writing articles forces you to think more deeply about a topic. It’s easy to have a quick opinion in a LinkedIn post. It’s much harder to sit down and explain a subject in a way that’s thoughtful, useful and easy for other people to understand. That process often helps sharpen your own thinking while creating content that continues to provide value long after it’s published.
Articles also create opportunities to be discovered outside of LinkedIn. They can show up in search results, be referenced in newsletters, get shared by others in your industry and continue attracting readers months or even years after they were written.
Some of the most successful professionals I know have built extensive libraries of content around their areas of expertise. They didn’t do it by writing one article and moving on. They continued writing about the topics that mattered to them, answering questions, sharing insights and adding to the conversation over time.
If there are subjects you genuinely want to be known for, don’t limit yourself to short-form content. Posts can help introduce an idea, but articles give you the space to develop it. Together, they create a much stronger foundation for building visibility, credibility and a reputation around the topics that matter most to your career and business.
Consistency Matters More Than Perfection
Consistency Matters More Than Perfection
One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that people spend far too much time worrying about individual pieces of content and not nearly enough time thinking about the bigger picture.
They agonize over a LinkedIn post, rewrite an article five times or convince themselves they need a completely new idea before they can write again. In the meantime, weeks or months go by without publishing anything at all.
The professionals who become known for a topic usually take a different approach. They understand that one article isn’t going to establish them as an expert, just as one speaking engagement isn’t going to make them a thought leader. What makes a difference is showing up repeatedly and contributing to the conversation over time.
Think about the people you associate with certain topics. Chances are it wasn’t one post, one article or one presentation that made you think of them. It was seeing their name connected to the same subject again and again. You read an article they wrote. Then you saw a LinkedIn post. A few weeks later they commented on an industry trend. Maybe they spoke on a panel or were quoted in an article. Over time, a clear picture started to form.
That’s how professional reputations are built online.
I think many people make content creation harder than it needs to be because they treat every article as a completely separate project. In reality, the strongest content strategies are often built around a handful of themes that continue to evolve. One article leads to another. A client question becomes a LinkedIn post. A post sparks discussion that turns into a newsletter article. An industry development creates an opportunity to revisit a topic from a different perspective.
When you approach content that way, you’re no longer starting from scratch every time you sit down to write. I’ve found that the professionals who get the best results from content aren’t necessarily the smartest people in the room, the most experienced or the most talented writers. They’re often the people who keep showing up. They continue sharing ideas, participating in conversations and adding to the body of work they’ve already created. Months later, people begin to recognize their name. Years later, people begin to associate them with a particular topic.
Most of the opportunities that come from content don’t come from a single article. They come from the cumulative effect of everything you’ve shared over time and the reputation that develops as a result.
Create the Opportunities You Want
One of the reasons I care so much about content creation is that I’ve seen how often it leads to opportunities that might not have existed otherwise.
An article can lead to a conversation.
A conversation can lead to a relationship.
A relationship can lead to a referral, a speaking engagement, a client opportunity or something completely unexpected. Those things don’t happen every time. But they can’t happen if the content never gets created.
Too many professionals spend years waiting to be chosen. They wait to be invited to speak. They wait to be asked to write. They wait for someone else to recognize their expertise. Meanwhile, the people building visibility are creating their own opportunities. They’re writing. They’re sharing ideas. They’re participating in conversations and building a body of work around the subjects that matter to them.
If there’s a topic you want to be known for, don’t wait until someone else gives you permission. Start writing about it. The more content you create around a topic, the more opportunities you create for people, search engines and AI platforms to connect your name with it.
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