Why Walid Boulanouar Punches Above His Weight On LinkedIn

Why Walid Boulanouar Punches Above His Weight On LinkedIn

I stumbled on Walid Boulanouar's profile after seeing one of his agent posts get passed around, and something didn't add up at first. How does a creator with 16,587 followers, a Hero Score of 282.00, and only 3.6 posts per week feel like he's everywhere in the AI-operator corner of LinkedIn?

So I got curious. I pulled his numbers next to two very different, very strong profiles: Felienne Hermans (computer science professor, deeply respected in education) and Abdirahman Jama (AWS engineer with a much bigger audience). I wanted to see what actually makes Walid's content hit the way it does, not just "he posts about AI".

Here's what stood out:

• Walid's audience is smaller than Abdirahman's but he punches harder on engagement and Hero Score.
• He writes like a builder in a group chat, not a polished thought leader, and that makes him weirdly sticky.
• His content feels like live R&D logs, while Felienne and Abdirahman feel more like expert broadcasts.

Pretty interesting mix, right?

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Walid Boulanouar's Performance Metrics

Here's what's interesting: on paper Walid shouldn't outshine a 34k-followers AWS engineer or a well-known CS professor, yet his Hero Score of 282.00 edges out both of them at 271.00. That means relative to his audience size, his posts pull reactions, comments, and attention at a really strong rate. Combine that with 3.6 posts per week and you've basically got a consistent, mid-frequency creator whose content hits harder than his raw follower count suggests.

Key Performance Indicators

To see how that stacks up, here's the simple side-by-side view:

*Only Walid's connections are available, but it's still useful context: he's actively building a tighter network, not just a big follower count.

What surprised me is that Walid is basically beating both a well-known academic and a much bigger engineer account on a quality-of-attention score. So the question becomes: what is he doing differently?

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What Makes Walid Boulanouar's Content Work

First thing I noticed: Walid doesn't sound like a "LinkedIn creator". He sounds like the builder in your Slack who's shipping weird stuff on weekends and then dropping screenshots on Monday.

His rhythm is: short hooks, fast context, tight lists, punchy lesson, clean CTA. All of it in a casual, lower-case voice that feels closer to DMs than to keynote slides.

Let's break his edge into a few core plays.

1. Builder-first storytelling instead of polished thought leadership

So here's what he does: Walid talks from inside the build. Not "AI in 2030", but "we wired agents into this workflow yesterday and here's what actually broke". He mixes product-style breakdowns with very human asides, like "weekend mode: building things nobody asked for, as usual."

You see a lot of:

• real experiments (agents, workflows, tools)
• quick numbers or outcomes
• then a simple, almost brutal lesson: "vibes are dead / specs win"

Key insight: Talk like an operator sharing notes from the workshop, not a strategist summarizing from a deck.

This works because it creates trust at machine speed. People who are actually building can sniff out theory very fast. Walid's posts feel like "I tried this so you don't have to", which is catnip for busy engineers, founders, and operators who want signal, not fluff.

Strategy Breakdown:

2. Treats LinkedIn like a live lab, not a billboard

Walid's posts read like ongoing experiments. He shares internal tools, early UIs, reports he's reading, and even half-finished ideas. Then he uses comments as a feedback loop: "put your actual pain in the comments", "if you want it comment ui".

So instead of just pushing content, he's stress-testing ideas in public.

Comparison with Industry Standards:

The result: his content isn't just "about" AI agents. It's powered by the people who actually want those agents in their stack. That naturally pushes engagement and keeps his Hero Score high.

3. A simple, repeatable visual structure that trains the reader

Once you notice it, you can't unsee it. Walid uses a very consistent visual flow:

• Short hook line or two.
• Blank line.
• A bit of context in 2-4 lines.
• Tight list with "-" or "1) 2) 3)" or "->".
• One or two isolated takeaway lines.
• CTA or playful close.

He uses spacing like a designer: ideas live on their own lines, big transitions get their own mini paragraph, and key phrases are split across two lines for rhythm:

"the age of talking to ai is ending
the age of operating with ai is starting"

That layout makes his posts insanely skimmable on mobile. Your brain can scan, stop on the bold lines, then decide if you want to read the details.

4. CTAs that feel like inside jokes, not pressure

Walid's calls to action are direct but light: "if you want it comment ui", "if you are claude (code) super user you can check what we built". They're specific, a bit playful, and clearly tied to value.

No "subscribe to my newsletter", no hard sell. More like: "hey, if you're in this niche, we built something for you, tap in."

That combo of specificity + low pressure is a big part of why his comments are alive without feeling forced.

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Their Content Formula

If you strip away the AI and agents and buzz, Walid's formula is actually pretty simple. It's a repeatable structure that you can copy for almost any expert niche.

Content Structure Breakdown

The Hook Pattern

Walid usually opens with a fast hit:

• a question: "will i stop using openai?"
• a warning: "stop worrying about humans hacking you. worry about agents hacking you instead."
• a contrast: "everyone is busy talking about emotions… nice update but that is not the point"

Template:

"[Surprising claim or warning]"

"[One short follow-up line that flips the usual story]"

Why this works: LinkedIn is full of safe, generic hooks. Walid's first line feels like something you'd send to a friend: a bit dramatic, a bit spicy, but backed by real experiments in the body of the post.

Use this when:

• you have a strong opinion that comes from direct experience
• you're showing a new workflow or tool that breaks a common assumption
• you can back the claim with a concrete story right after

The Body Structure

After the hook, his body follows a very repeatable pattern:

1. Share context in human terms.
2. Break the idea into a list or phases.
3. Draw a simple lesson.
4. Tie it to a next step.

Body Structure Analysis:

The CTA Approach

Walid's CTAs are almost always:

• specific (comment a keyword, reach out if X)
• contextual (tied to the agent, report, or workflow he just described)
• casual (no corporate speak, lots of lower-case and jokes)

Psychology-wise, he's reducing friction by making the action feel like a continuation of the story, not a separate "sales moment". If you read a post about an agent that saves hours of manual security work, commenting a keyword to see the workflow doesn't feel like a favor to him. It feels like a favor to yourself.

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How Walid Compares To Felienne Hermans And Abdirahman Jama

Now here's where it gets interesting. Walid's numbers only really make sense when you put him next to other heavy hitters.

Audience and Hero Score Comparison

You might expect the 34k-followers AWS engineer to dominate on a relative attention score, but Walid edges him out. That tells you Walid's audience is smaller but more locked in on his niche.

Positioning And Content Focus

Felienne and Abdirahman feel like classic expert broadcasters: they share from a clear authority seat. Walid feels closer to a startup lab streaming experiments in real time.

Cadence, Format, And Risk Level

What this comparison shows: Walid is playing a "live builder + operator" game where risk and experimentation are part of the brand. The others are playing more classic expert roles. All three work, but Walid's format lines up perfectly with a fast-moving AI tools niche, which rewards speed, experiments, and screenshots of weird new workflows.

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3 Actionable Strategies You Can Use Today

You don't need to build AI agents to borrow from Walid's playbook. Here are three moves you can ship this week.

1. Turn your next idea into a mini build log instead of a thought piece - Share what you tried, where it broke, and what you changed, even if it's messy. People trust experiments more than theories.

2. Train your audience with a simple, repeatable visual layout - Use short hooks, blank lines, tight lists, and isolated lessons so your posts are skimmable on a phone in 5 seconds.

3. Use CTAs that are specific and playful, not generic and formal - Ask people to comment a keyword or drop a specific pain point, and actually respond. Treat comments like your R&D lab, not just a vanity metric.

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Key Takeaways

1. Walid wins on quality of attention, not just raw reach - His Hero Score of 282.00 with a mid-sized audience shows that focused, operator-style content can outperform much bigger accounts.
2. Builder energy beats polished "thought leadership" for technical niches - Writing like a person inside the work, with lists, failures, and experiments, attracts the exact people who care the most.
3. A simple content formula, repeated often, compounds fast - Hooks, tight structure, and clear CTAs sound basic, but used consistently with 3.6 posts per week they add up to a serious presence.

If you're trying to grow on LinkedIn in any expert niche, try writing your next post like a build log instead of a brochure and see what happens.

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Meet the Creators

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This analysis was generated by ViralBrain's AI content intelligence platform.