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The Conversation That Changed Everything
I recently reached out to our most successful users—content creators who've grown 10,000 to 20,000+ followers in the last year and consistently generate posts with 300,000 to 800,000 impressions. I wanted to feature their success stories in our Black Friday campaign.
Every single one said no.
And honestly? I respect them for it.
Their reasons were brutally honest:
- "I don't want people to know I use AI"
- "I don't want to be associated with any tool"
- "It's my competitive advantage. Why would I tell people?"
- "My audience thinks I write everything myself. I can't risk them getting the feeling that my content is AI generated or not personal."
This revealed something fascinating: the most successful creators on LinkedIn are using AI tools as their secret weapon—they just won't admit it publicly.
The Real Numbers Behind LinkedIn's Top Performers
Let me show you what's actually happening behind the scenes with real data from creators who've mastered LinkedIn growth.
Case Study #1: The Executive-Turned-Founder
One user, an executive who became a founder, experienced explosive growth:
- November 22, 2024: 17,000 followers
- November 20, 2025: 62,000 followers
- Growth: 45,000 new followers in under a year
Her most successful post performance:
- 924,000 impressions on a single post (May 14th)
- 28,000 profile views generated from that one post
- 16,000 new followers from a single piece of content
- Multiple posts exceeding 100,000 impressions
When I asked her to share her story, she told me: "Sep, I love ContentIn, but it's my competitive advantage. Why would I tell people?"
Case Study #2: The Solopreneur Phenomenon
Another creator, a solopreneur, showed even more impressive consistency:
- November 2, 2024: 61,000 followers
- November 20, 2025: 93,000 followers
- Growth: 32,000 new followers
His viral post performance (filtering only posts over 100,000 impressions):
- 844,000 impressions (May 14th)
- 748,000 impressions (May 12th)
- 605,000 impressions (April 26th)
- 327,000 impressions (another post)
- Consistently hitting 100,000+ impressions on multiple posts
His response when I asked him to go public? "My audience thinks I write everything myself. I can't risk them getting the feeling that my content is AI generated or not personal."
Why The Stigma Around AI Tools is Completely Wrong
There's a massive stigma around using AI vs. manual writing for content creation. People think it means you're cheating, that you're not authentic.
But here's my take: That's like saying Grammarly makes you a fake writer or using Canva makes you a fake designer.
The right tools are here to amplify what you're doing, not replace it.
Think About Other Tools You Use Without Question
Consider my development workflow with Claude Code. It's not writing code for me—it's helping me write better code faster. It creates great results because I know what I want and how to get it. It just helps me build that in a fraction of the time.
The same principle applies to content creation.
Trust me, the best creators on LinkedIn aren't:
- Spending three hours formatting carousels
- Manually tracking which hooks work
- Reinventing the wheel with every post
They're using their time to:
- Have real conversations
- Build genuine relationships
- Create actual value for their audience
- Let tools handle the boring, repetitive stuff
What Real Users Are Saying (When They Think No One's Listening)
While I can't feature those top performers publicly, I've been collecting feedback from users who are willing to share. Here's what they're saying:
Hiker: "I also want to say that the AI assistant provided by ContentIn is excellent. I really enjoy working with ContentIn AI."
Barttosh: "I had a chance to give a proper walkthrough of the platform and I love the idea. I think it's the smartest, most thought-through platform I've seen so far. The training screen, taking scraps of info from my LinkedIn profile and profiling me, analyzing my posts, my writing style, my target audience even. Brilliant."
The Quality Difference
Here's feedback from a German user (translated):
"Quick feedback after first use. The content quality is significantly above what other tools deliver. The carousel and quote image generation is very well done and useful. And once I've understood the workflow, it's actually really quick as well."
A few days later, after planning 20 posts:
"I have to say the quality is really good and I only have to tweak a few details here and there. I have never planned content this well this quick."
This feedback fuels me. It shows we're on the right track developing something genuinely useful for founders and solopreneurs building their personal brands on LinkedIn.
Maybe The Best Tools Are The Ones People Keep Quiet About
Unfortunately, I can't create nice feature cases out of these top performers. But maybe that's exactly the point.
Maybe the best tools aren't the ones everyone's bragging about.
Maybe they're the ones people keep quiet about because they actually work and give them a competitive edge.
In a way, ContentIn has become LinkedIn's worst-kept secret—the tool successful creators use but won't mention publicly.
The Choice Every Content Creator Faces
Look, in a week we're doing something I honestly didn't want to do. My team has been on my case for months about running a proper Black Friday sale. Everyone's doing Black Friday sales, and I don't like sales.
But fine, team—you win.
We're doing it our way though: Newsletter subscribers only. If you're not on the list, you won't see it.
I'm not going to beg you. I'm not going to use fake urgency tactics.
But I will say this:
While everyone else is arguing about whether AI is authentic, our users are quietly:
- Growing their audiences by 30,000-50,000+ followers
- Landing high-value clients
- Building sustainable businesses
- Generating posts with 300,000-900,000+ impressions
- Turning profile views into revenue
You can join the debate, or you can join them.
It's your choice.
Get Started: 35 Viral LinkedIn Templates (Free)
To make it easier for you to experience what's working for LinkedIn's top performers, I'm giving away a valuable resource: 35 free viral LinkedIn templates that have generated millions of impressions.
When you sign up for our newsletter, you'll get immediate access to these templates plus exclusive insights on:
- The exact hooks that drive engagement
- Content structures that consistently go viral
- Formatting techniques used by top performers
- How to maintain your authentic voice while scaling
Download Your 35 Free Viral LinkedIn Templates Now →
The Bottom Line: The most successful LinkedIn creators aren't successful because they work harder—they're successful because they work smarter. They've figured out how to amplify their expertise with the right tools while maintaining authenticity. The question isn't whether you'll use tools to grow your LinkedIn presence. The question is whether you'll use the right ones before your competitors do.
