“Should we post this expert-led content on LinkedIn or the blog?” That question still pops up in planning meetings, Slack threads, and founder inboxes everywhere. But framing the question as a choice between one or the other misses the point.
Expert-led content works best when it’s not limited to a single platform. Your blog builds substance. LinkedIn builds reach. Together, they form the foundation of a content flywheel that gets your ideas seen, shared, and remembered.
This article is part three in a four-part series on building a thought leadership content program.
This article, the third in the series, shows you how to connect the dots across blog posts, LinkedIn content, and even Youtube, a surprise third platform.
Whether you’re a small team with a brilliant technical founder or a growing brand trying to get more mileage from your content, this approach will help you build an expert-led publishing habit that actually moves the needle.
Your blog: A home base for expert-led content
Done right, your blog acts as a home base for your sharpest thinking. It’s where you explain technical breakthroughs, unpack strong opinions, and answer questions with clarity and confidence. The blog is less about volume and more about value. And it doesn’t have to read like a marketer wrote it.
What the best expert-led blogs do
Rand Fishkin’s blog at SparkToro is legendary because he challenges the status quo instead of posting quaint tips. One recent headline, “Unpopular Opinion: Public Relations is the Future of Marketing,” is just the kind that sparks conversation, shares, and backlinks when shared on social.
Hotjar’s blog also stands out by going beyond product how-tos and leaning into human insight. Its post, “6 traits of top marketing leaders,” connects product expertise with big-picture thinking—exactly the blend that builds authority.
The Cloudflare Blog is a great example, this time of a blog written by and for technical experts. Rather than simplify or marketize tech, posts like “How we built Pingora, the proxy that connects Cloudflare to the Internet” explain tech like you’re in the room with the team. Their posts give readers both the “how” and the “why,” often including code samples, architecture diagrams, and lessons learned. That kind of transparency builds real authority among tech-savvy readers.
Bottom line: Your blog matters
Your blog is still one of the best tools for long-term thought leadership because:
- You own the platform. No algorithm changes can bury your content.
- SEO benefits compound over time, bringing in new readers daily (if you’re promoting your posts, that is).
- You control the whole experience—from formatting to where you send readers next.
But even the best blog posts can fade into the background without visibility. That’s where LinkedIn comes in.
LinkedIn: Your expert-led content amplifier, not your archive
LinkedIn isn’t just for recruiters and job seekers anymore. For B2B companies, it’s become one of the most powerful platforms for building visibility and trust. LinkedIn actually serves you best when your internal experts—not just your brand page or nameless marketers—share insights in their own voices.
Examples of expert-led content crushing it on LinkedIn
Dave Gerhardt is a standout LinkedIn example. He’s built massive followings across multiple B2B companies by posting honest, punchy takes on marketing. No fluff, no jargon—just useful insights with a clear point of view.
Debra Ruh, founder of Ruh Global Impact, also nails it on LinkedIn. Her content about accessibility and inclusion blends personal experience with practical guidance, positioning her as a leader in a space that needs more visibility.
Guillerm0 Rauch, founder and CEO of Vercel, the brand behind Next.js, is a great example of a technical founder posting on LinkedIn. He doesn’t post daily, but when he does, it’s usually technical gold—performance wins, frontend strategy, and clear takes on where web development is heading. His audience? Mostly engineers, designers, and founders paying attention to the modern web.
Why LinkedIn helps your expert-led content get seen
LinkedIn works because:
- Your audience is already there, actively looking for insight.
- Engagement is baked in—comments, likes, and shares happen more naturally than on a blog.
- Personal brands drive company credibility. When your experts show up with valuable ideas, your company reaps the benefits.
There are limitations, of course. The algorithm doesn’t like outbound links. You’re playing on rented land. And good posts disappear fast. That’s why it’s important to make LinkedIn work with your blog, not instead of it.
A third platform for expert-led content: YouTube
YouTube might not be your first thought when it comes to B2B thought leadership, but it should be among your top five! YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, and it’s a powerful tool for showing what your team knows, attracting visual learners, and communicating complex concepts.
What expert-led content looks like on YouTube
NordVPN nails it with creator partnerships. Instead of producing dry product demos, the brand teams up with YouTubers like Scammer Payback to create engaging, trust-building content around cybersecurity. In one video, “Calling Scammers Back Until They Cry,” the creator uses NordVPN to mask his location while exposing fraudsters. He seamlessly integrates the product into the narrative so that it doesn’t feel like an ad.
Canva also excels with its Design School videos, turning customers into community members by teaching real-world applications instead of pushing features. Tutorials like “How to Design a Presentation” and “Create Social Media Posts in 5 Minutes” walk viewers through actual use cases, helping people feel empowered to create.
Ahrefs gets YouTube right by treating education as the product. Their channel isn’t a glorified ad reel—it’s a masterclass in SEO and digital strategy. With videos like “How to Get Your First 100 Backlinks” or “How to Do Keyword Research for Free,” Ahrefs builds trust by teaching tactics their audience can implement immediately—even if they’re not paying customers. The production is clean, the tone is straightforward, and the value is real. That’s how you turn content into conversions.
Why YouTube works for expert-led thought leadership
YouTube works because:
- Visual demos increase understanding, especially for complex concepts.
- It reaches audiences who won’t read a 2,000-word blog post.
- You can build human connection faster when people can see and hear your experts.
Plus, you don’t need a full production crew. Just a smartphone, whiteboard, and a passionate explainer can be enough. The real magic? Showing instead of telling.
Putting it all together: A strategy for expert-led content across the blog, LinkedIn, and YouTube
When you connect your blog to your YouTube channel and your experts’ LinkedIn pages, you’ll do more than just “post content.” You’ll build momentum. You’ll create what marketers call a content flywheel—where every effort spins the wheel faster and further.
Gong mastered the flywheel approach by publishing:
- Deep blog posts built from real data.
- Sharp LinkedIn takes that tease out insights from the blog posts.
- YouTube videos that further visualize the ideas and fuel sales conversations.
Each channel points back to the others. Nothing is wasted. Every piece of content reinforces the whole.
What an expert-led content flywheel could look like for your brand
Let’s say your lead developer solves a thorny AI implementation problem. That breakthrough could become…
… a blog post
Tell the story from frustration to breakthrough to impact. Structure it like a narrative, not a product manual. Start with late-night struggles. Include failed code. Show what finally worked. End with what it means for your buyers and customers.
… a LinkedIn series
Pull out highlights by writing a number of related posts over time:
- “It took 14 failed attempts to solve this issue. Here’s what I learned.
- “I thought this approach would work. It didn’t. What I found instead changed our roadmap.”
- “Here’s the diagram that finally helped our team see the problem clearly.”
Link each social post back to the full blog post and invite discussion.
… a simple video
Film your developer explaining what happened. Show the whiteboard. Walk through a key part of the solution. Keep it short. Add the video to your YouTube channel, promote it on your experts’ and your brand’s LinkedIn pages, and embed it in the blog post.
Now you’ve got one insight, spun three-plus ways, meeting your audience wherever they are.
Bottom line: Use expert-led content across channels to build influence that grows
By linking your platforms, your expert-led content will go further. It’ll drive trust and build community. Your efforts will then spark conversations that lead to demos, partnerships, hires, and even investor interest.
So no, you don’t have to choose between LinkedIn and your blog. You just have to stop treating them like separate worlds. Let your blog posts give your ideas depth. Let LinkedIn give them reach. Let YouTube give them personality.
That’s smart thought leadership publishing. The kind that scales.
Stay tuned for my final article in this series on thought leadership. It’ll focus on the common mistakes that derail expert-led content efforts and what you can do to avoid wasted time, missed opportunities, and burned-out experts. I’ll also share lessons learned, practical fixes, and mindset shifts that can help keep your program running effectively over the long haul. Follow me here on Forbes.com or sign up for my Beyond Copy newsletter to catch the final part of the series when I release it.
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