What Is LinkedIn Ghostwriting?
Ghostwriting is writing content that is published under someone else's name. On LinkedIn, it usually means a writer, an agency or an AI tool drafts posts for a founder or executive, who reviews, edits and approves them before they are published from that person's own account.
Updated
Ghostwriting, explained
Ghostwriting is a long-standing practice in which a writer drafts content that another person publishes as their own, as with speeches, books and op-eds. On LinkedIn, busy founders and executives use ghostwriters to turn their ideas into regular posts. A good arrangement keeps the substance with the named author: the ideas, opinions, stories and claims are theirs, and the writer shapes them into clear posts. The author reviews every draft and approves it before it goes out. Problems start when the writer invents experiences, quotes or numbers, or when the posts drift so far from how the author speaks that readers notice. AI tools now play a similar role, which raises the same questions. Pew found most Americans say it matters to them whether content was made by AI or a person. The safest rule for both human and AI ghostwriting is that everything presented as the author's experience must be real.
Example
A ghostwriter spends 30 minutes a week interviewing a founder, then drafts three posts from the conversation. The founder edits each one, cuts a claim she cannot back up, and schedules them herself.
In practice
The handoff that makes ghostwriting work is the same one that makes AI drafting work: a clear brand voice model plus real source material. The guide on writing LinkedIn posts in your own voice with AI covers that handoff in detail.
Related terms
Sources
- How Americans View AI and Its Impact on People and Society, Pew Research Center,