A thought leader or an industry leader in a particular niche on LinkedIn is referred to as a LinkedIn Influencer. Probably, it reminds you of personalities like Melinda Gates, Daymond John, etc. who have millions of followers on the platform.
However, any individual or B2B brand can become an influencer by positioning themselves as experts in their domain. You must be a value provider to your audience, build and maintain a meaningful relationship with your followers.
But the question arises, why position yourself as an expert? Why become a LinkedIn influencer?
Note its benefits:
1. Reach key decision makers
Many influencers are followed by CEOs, CFOs, and key decision makers in businesses, which increases the visibility of your posts and improves your brand awareness.
2. Grow your network
Having some of the largest networks on LinkedIn gives you an opportunity to build and grow your own community. Networking is the primary goal of every person on LinkedIn, but it takes time. However, as an influencer, you can grow your network much more rapidly.
3. Easier promotion of your brand
Being a public figure on LinkedIn increases the engagement on your LinkedIn posts, engages a more relevant audience for your LinkedIn webinars, and when you promote your brand/product on the platform, it typically has higher views and engagement.
4. Increase followers on your page and website
Higher engagement of posts on LinkedIn translates to increased traffic on your website, lead inquiries, and increased followers of your company page.
So, now you’ll be interested to know how to become a LinkedIn Influencer!
C’mon then let’s get to the steps you need to take!
What It Takes to Become a LinkedIn Influencer in 2022
1. Define your brand
If you already have a personal brand, optimize your LinkedIn headline and profile image to showcase it.
Defining your brand on LinkedIn means how people perceive you, the type of content you create, and how you position yourself.
Finding it difficult to define your brand?
Here’s the ticket!
Use LinkedIn automation to scan through 100s of profiles of influencers in your niche and see how they have written their LinkedIn headlines. Use these ideas to create your own.
2. Create a company page on LinkedIn
Building trust with your audience is the key to becoming an influencer on LinkedIn. The more you build trust, the quicker you’ll grow your following.
So, creating your company page on LinkedIn is the stepping stone. Use your company page to:
- Share information about people in your company
- Share company news with your own views and opinions
- Share case studies and your success stories
3. Create content consistently
People follow influencers to stay updated on the latest industry news and trends. Therefore, you must have a regular content calendar and keep your followers updated.
Post content that is helpful and solves problems for your target audience. Share your opinion on industry news to build a reputation as an influencer.
There’s another advantage of LinkedIn automation to exploit. Use it to scan through content in your niche and get ideas for your content.
Few tactics to make your content stand out are:
- Use humor and personality in your posts
- Shock, entertain, and educate your audience with your content
- Create content no one else is creating in your niche
Besides just creating, share your content across other social media platforms and publish on LinkedIn Pulse too!
4. Grow a relationship with your audience through drip campaigns and personalized messages
LinkedIn offers a maximum of 30,000 first-degree connections. More your number of connections, wider your reach and impact. So, building as many high-quality connections as possible will solidify your brand as an influencer.
The best way to grow your connections on LinkedIn quickly and efficiently is through Automation.
LinkedIn Automation allows you to send personalized messages with connect requests, and connect through a series of drip campaigns.
5. AI-powered LinkedIn Inbox management
Some businesses offer AI-powered management of your LinkedIn Inbox as part of their service. Inbox management categorizes replies from your potential prospects as positive, negative or inquiry, and helps you filter out active leads to engage with and grow your network quickly and efficiently.
How to Become a LinkedIn Influencer – Mistakes to Avoid
Now, when you know how to become an influencer on LinkedIn, you must also watch out for any of these mistakes:
Using hashtags poorly– Hashtags help you reach new audiences on LinkedIn. However, never load your posts with hashtags just to show up in searches. Compile a set of key industry hashtags and use just one or two of those on each post. Mix up popular hashtags with less popular ones to improve your visibility in searches. Also, create a branded hashtag for your business.
Not posting regularly – To become a thought leader in your industry, plan out a content calendar to post two to three times a week, and stick to it. Focus on quality rather than the quantity of content.
Not automating LinkedIn tasks – Doing it all manually on LinkedIn is the biggest mistake. From posting valuable content to reaching out to new connections and responding to messages, every task can be automated.
So, automate as much as you can to save time and speed up the process.
List of LinkedIn Influencers
One of the best ways to learn about being a LinkedIn influencer is to have a look at the profiles of current LinkedIn influencers going viral.
So, let’s look at some of the authority figures on LinkedIn:
Bill Gates
Bill Gates has over 35,023,000+ followers as of now. His content is related to both his personal brand and his worldwide philanthropic ventures.
Arianna Huffington
She is the Founder of Thrive Global and shares content on entrepreneurship, media, start-ups, health, and more. Following her on LinkedIn will help you discover the type of content people engage with.
Satya Nadella
As a CEO Of Microsoft, he shares articles and videos on the current happenings in the world and from the Microsoft blog. You must follow him to learn how to use business content related to what people care about as an influencer.
Neil Patel
Labelled as the top influencer on the web by the Wall Street Journal and one of the top 10 marketers by Forbes, Neil Patel is worth following on LinkedIn to learn A-Z of digital marketing.
Jeff Weiner
With over 10,600,000+ followers and being an Executive Chairman at LinkedIn, it’s worth following him on LinkedIn to learn the type of content influencers share that resonates with their audience and gain a ton of engagement.
Conclusion
Becoming an Influencer on LinkedIn is an art. It takes time and consistency with your marketing efforts to establish your brand as an industry leader.
So, note the steps outlined in the post. Follow the few influencers mentioned above to get ideas for your own content, and establish your identity as an influencer on the platform.