Open up LinkedIn on any given day and you’ll be swimming in folks pushing things:

• Shameless plugs of their services - actually not a terrible place for those
• Humble-brags of recent successes - some not so humble
• Networking updates - new jobs, lost jobs, posted jobs

Fish through all that, and you’ll get to the actual exchange of ideas.

The brave souls willing to put out a POV and brace for reaction and engagement.

Sometimes the lack thereof.

​

Now, LinkedIn engagement is a murky algo-driven game, so I wouldn’t recommend optimizing for it blindly. (A quick glance at my recent posts, and you can see that I don’t 😂 )

But pay attention to the types of POVs that stop your scroll, and you might find an interesting pattern to consider.

My observation is there’s a range of POVs across a spectrum of increasing originality:

• Repeat - Reposting someone else’s idea that resonates with you
• Reinforce - Reposting someone else’s idea + adding your thoughts
• Refute - Reposting someone else’s idea + ripping it to shreds
• Reconsider - Exploring an existing concept in a new way
• Reinvent - Introducing something truly novel in your domain

I don’t have the data, but I’d suspect yes, originality breeds engagement.

I’d also suggest that more importantly, originality delivers unique value.

And delivering value is what builds your authority.

​

Now, it’s unrealistic to expect to deliver some earth-shattering original insight every time you post. That's not the point.

But, you can certainly use LinkedIn as a low-risk sandbox to get comfortable on the right-hand side of the originality spectrum.

The more you dig around over there, the more likely you are to provide value along the way.

And if you’re diligent and curious while you're over there, you might just unearth your Signature POV while you’re at it.

💡

-Wes

​

P.S. If you're struggling to differentiate yourself as a solo consultant, you are likely missing that Signature POV
​If you'd like a hand sorting that out, check out my new services and book a free exploration call to see if working together would be a good fit.