Men Most Likely To Call Themselves A ‘Thought Leader’ On LinkedIn

by: FOXYpreneur

Published on: September 1, 2020

Whether it’s okay to call yourself a thought leader or not has been debated extensively. Some consider the term little more than obnoxious business jargon, while others argue that it’s a valid form of self-promotion. In this article, we take a look at some stats surrounding the matter!

New research by Instant Offices revealed that six out of every ten people globally who describe themselves as a thought leader on LinkedIn are men. Of all the profiles analyzed, 63% belonged to men compared to 37% of women, with the results leaning heavily towards men across virtually every country. Instant Offices used a tool to scrape almost 3,500 active LinkedIn bios, searching for words like ‘thought leader’, ‘opinion leader’, and ‘visionary’ to create a list. They had then segmented each profile into location, job type, and gender to split out the data.

Top 10 Countries With The Most ‘Thought Leaders’

In all of the countries in the top 10, the ratio of male thought leaders is higher compared to women. In the UK, 62% of men consider themselves thought leaders compared to 38% of women. In the US, a slightly higher percentage (78%) of men describe themselves this way, compared to 22% of women. In South Africa, 67% of men call themselves thought leaders compared to 33% of women.

The data also revealed that the men most likely to call themselves a thought leader are named David, Michael, or Peter, and for women, it’s Laura, Jessica, or Kate.
Google searches for ‘how to become a thought leader’ were up 23% last year, which means more people than ever are interested in becoming one.

UK: 40% who self-describe as thought leaders
US 18%
South Africa 8%
Italy 4%
Netherlands 4%
India 4%
Germany 3%
Canada 2%
Australia 1%
France 1%

The UK Takes The First Place

Comparing countries, the UK ranks head and shoulders above the rest, with a massive 40% of local professionals describing themselves as thought leaders in either their LinkedIn title or bio. In the US, 18% of people consider themselves thought leaders, while South Africa ranks third with 8% of professionals using the term to describe themselves.

The research shows that across most countries, the group most likely to consider themselves thought leaders are entrepreneurs, followed by those in the marketing, tech, and health sectors.

Looking at the top three countries, London, Edinburgh and Birmingham have the highest concentration of thought leaders in the UK. In the US, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco rank high on the list. While in South Africa, people in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban are more likely to self-promote as thought leaders.