How to stay visible in your professional field, without becoming a blogger, without turning content into a second job, without spreading AI-slop or news spam

You probably have your own reasons to be visible on LinkedIn – or more precisely, in your professional field. Everyone’s reasons are different. Some are job hunting, some are looking for clients, investors, or hires, and some are simply growing their network. But everyone agrees on one thing: an active LinkedIn profile has upsides and basically no downsides.

Like most people who set out to share updates on LinkedIn, you probably have something holding you back. For some, writing posts means becoming a blogger (but you’re not a blogger! what will colleagues think?). For others, regular posts feel like spam (why repost the news?). Some are put off by AI-slop and don’t want people to think they generate posts. And some simply don’t have time to write consistently, even though they have plenty of ideas.

In one way or another, all of these obstacles applied to me too – until I came across this system in a professional community. The name “Opinion-first LinkedIn visibility system” captures it most accurately, and here’s why.

LinkedIn is built around positioning you as an expert in a specific area. And what do experts do? – Experts share opinions on topics within their expertise.

That’s the key insight. Most posts that move the needle for your professional visibility are simply your opinion on a topic in your field.

So here’s the main rule. Build the habit: when you come across a piece of news you actually want to read and you have an opinion about it – sit down and write an opinion post about that news.

Your job isn’t to retell the news, and it isn’t to deliver the ultimate truth. In fact, your opinion can be controversial – expertise is exactly what gives you the right to have a controversial take and defend it confidently. You can even change your mind during the discussion; that doesn’t reduce your expertise – it shows you’re open to new information and can update your position. Your task is to share your personal view and respond to comments.

Why would anyone care? LinkedIn is built for this: people come for industry experience and insights from those who actually know what they’re talking about. When you share an opinion in your field, people in your domain and adjacent ones will likely be curious what you think. And some of them will be happy to comment.

LinkedIn’s recommendation system needs a very clear signal about who you are, what you write about, and what other people respond to. Only then will it show your posts to people who’ll actually find them relevant and interesting. That’s why one great post has far less impact than ten average ones.

The recommendation system is also pretty unpredictable. When you post more, you’ll notice that some posts get ten – sometimes a hundred – times more views than others. There’s no point trying to explain every single case, but there is a point in sticking to consistency and coherence.

Your posts should genuinely reflect what you can speak about professionally. If you’re an expert in one area but comment on something completely unrelated, it’s no surprise the recommendation system will pass it by. But if you regularly comment within your field, you’ll see views grow with enviable consistency.

There are a couple more things that can help you get more views from the same content. They’re about how people read it.

In most cases, you should include an image. Ideally, it should show some real artifact of the event – or something from your own experience connected to it – so people want to stop scrolling. That’s exactly why AI-generated images aren’t recommended. Better to use a screenshot of something related to the event. In practice, what works best is whatever grabbed you personally. Highlight with a bright marker what caught your attention. You can add a text caption with a key point from your opinion.

If someone stops on the image, the next signal to the recommendation system is whether they tap “see more”. And that depends directly on whether the post’s headline or first sentence pulled them in. That’s why you should choose the headline intentionally. The best option is when it contains the least obvious, most counterintuitive part of your opinion. Pronouns like “I”, “we”, “us” also work well – they signal that it’s personal, based on lived experience, not "AI generated".

Update your profile so all its visible parts consistently reflect your area of expertise. Photo, headline, featured, profile language, bio.

Commenting on posts by relevant experts in your industry helps too, because those are the same people who can add useful perspective to your posts. People in your industry can assess your expertise more easily than random onlookers. Don’t be shy about regularly adding relevant people to your network.

Unique events you attended, interesting personal stories, any achievements (and sometimes failures) – these also deserve a post with a real photo.

That’s basically it. This is more or less how it works for me.

In my view, the right answer is: you can only automate the routine, not your opinion.

Of course, there are many ways to do it. Some people use ChatGPT or Claude, some dictate notes. I’ve found that the least time gets spent on routine work when each routine step is well automated and well contextualized. So I built automations for myself, and I can share what makes the biggest difference.