There’s an ultra-exclusive club that spans every industry on Earth and, until recently, was only open to a select few. I’m talking about the LinkedIn Influencer program.
Originally featuring “150 of the most influential thought leaders on LinkedIn who will be sharing unique knowledge and professional insights,” the program (first introduced in October 2012) has recently expanded to include 25,000 members, with a worldwide release within the coming weeks and months.
Since its inception, the LinkedIn Influencer program has grown into a powerful status symbol for the business professionals invited to participate. If given early access to share your insights, you can join the ranks of world-renowned thought leaders such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Ariana Huffington and Warren Buffett.
It was a brilliant move by LinkedIn, whose ultimate goal is to create the premier business content publishing platform. By invitation only, super-well-known professionals freely provide thought-leading content that can spread like a napalm-fueled fire to be consumed by LinkedIn’s 225+ million users.
To give you an idea of the possibilities of the Influencer program, the average Influencer post on LinkedIn drives more than 31,000 views and receives more than 250 likes and 80 comments.
According to Ryan Roslansky, Head of Content Products at LinkedIn:
Starting today, LinkedIn is opening up our publishing platform to our members, giving them a powerful new way to build their professional brand. When a member publishes a post on LinkedIn, their original content becomes part of their professional profile, is shared with their trusted network and has the ability to reach the largest group of professionals ever assembled. Now members have the ability to follow other members that are not in their network and build their own group of followers. Members can continue to share their expertise by posting photos, images, videos and their original presentations on SlideShare.
Every professional has valuable experience to share.
When I first heard about this, I immediately signed up to be considered for inclusion into the program so that I, too, can publish on the LinkedIn platform.
So What Do You Need to Do to Become a LinkedIn Influencer?
Simply apply for early access.
That’s it. Nothing too fancy or complicated. Simply fill in the requested information and hit “submit.” Then wait.
Keep in mind that applying in no way guarantees that you will be accepted to the program. It was only announced to be open to the general public on February 19th. Although it will be rolling out to the entire LinkedIn population soon, there are still many benefits to getting in early — for example, there will be much less competition.
What’s great, and specific to the program, is that when you publish, users don’t have to be following you to see your post. Roslanksy states:
When a user publishes a piece through LinkedIn, everyone in their network can see the post, and LinkedIn will also algorithmically recommend it to other professionals interested in the same topics. Members can follow other members that are not in their network.
What I don’t want you to do is apply for early access only to start posting generic, unoriginal content on a platform that rewards thought leadership. Below, I’ve listed a few ways I plan to use LinkedIn as a publishing platform to further my own cause, which I recommend you do as well.
Be Valuable
It’s not enough to simply publish any generic post you’d like to share. It has to be engaging, valuable, useful and demonstrate your expertise and why you belong in the ranks of LinkedIn Influencers.
Be a thought leader. Find questions that need to be answered. Solve problems for people who are looking for leadership.
As soon as the program opens to the general public, there will be a lot of background noise and it will be harder than ever to be noticed. Not only will you have to compete with other published posts; you’ll still need to compete against others sharing posts from their own websites or sharing others’ content, updates, news stories, etc.
The best way to avoid being lost in the shuffle is to provide insanely valuable content that people want to share and engage with. (Tweet this thought.)
Be Active
It’s not enough to be part of the in crowd; you have to be an active member of the community as well.
Follow other influences and share and comment on their posts. Join groups if you haven’t already and share valuable content with them (not just your own) that’s specific to that group’s topic.
Participate in discussions and start your own. The more active you are in groups, other posts and LinkedIn in general, the more likely others are to see your own published content and comment or join the discussion.
Be Engaging
When you comment on someone else’s post and they reply, keep the conversation going.
Don’t think that you’re done once you hit the “submit” button. If you want to join the Influencer program, you need to strive to create a community around your content.
Ask questions. Invoke thought. Provide people with a reason to continue the conversation.
Be Consistent
This relates to your overall content strategy on LinkedIn. Will you use it as your main publishing platform or merely for one-off posts?
Personally, I plan to post at least once a week with original content not already found on my professional blog. However, my main focus will still be on my blog. Although there’s a lot of opportunity for posts to go viral on LinkedIn, it is still on LinkedIn. I have much more control over the content on my own site, so I’ll continue to use that as my main content platform.
Be Professional
The LinkedIn Influencer program is not for you to make a hard sell. If you’re only posting content with the intent of selling your products, I doubt you will get very much traction.
As a professional, you want to provide value to people that will make them better at what they do. Yes, your product may help them, but if all you do is try to sell something, it comes off as you trying to help yourself more than others.
That is usually not a very good long-term strategy.
Be Strategic
Using LinkedIn as a publishing platform will allow you to share your expertise and experiences. However, there are times when you may want to share those things with a broader group in mind.
Be strategic in what you post. Although highly targeted content will provide excellent value, if your post is jargon-filled for your industry only, it may not have wide appeal.
How Will YOU Be An Influencer?
So, I want to know: What will you write about? How will you be an influencer on LinkedIn and within your own industry?
What are your thoughts on LinkedIn opening this program up, and how will you be using it? Share in the comments!
This post originally appeared on the Sales Pro Blog.
Image: Flickr
