How to Become a LinkedIn Influencer in 2023: The Ultimate Guide

LinkedIn has become one of the most important platforms for building a professional brand and influencing key audiences. With over 875 million users, it’s no surprise that LinkedIn influencer marketing is on the rise.

What is a LinkedIn Influencer?

A LinkedIn influencer is someone who has built up a large, engaged following on the platform and leverages that reach to shape opinions, promote ideas, and drive conversations within their industry.

The core elements that define a LinkedIn influencer include:

A large following: Influencers have at least 10,000+ followers, with many having follower counts in the hundreds of thousands or millions.
High engagement: Their posts and content generate above-average likes, comments, and shares compared to regular users.
Thought leadership: They post original, insightful content that demonstrates knowledge and expertise around a niche topic.
Industry authority: They are recognized as trusted voices on key issues and topics within their field.

Essentially, LinkedIn influencers have cultivated personal brands that lend them credibility and sway opinions within the LinkedIn community. Companies and peers look to them for insights, perspectives, and guidance.

“LinkedIn influencers are the subject matter experts that users follow to stay in the know and learn about industry trends and best practices.”

LinkedIn Influencer Program

Become a LinkedIn Influencer — Source – Social Media Monthly

In 2014, LinkedIn launched its official Influencer program to highlight thought leaders across various industries.

Influencers in this elite program have a prestigious “Influencer” badge on their profile signaling their status. According to LinkedIn, they have over 1,300 contributors across sectors like technology, business, science, higher education, and more.

Some of LinkedIn’s current Influencers include high-profile thought leaders like:

Richard Branson
Bill Gates
Satya Nadella
Arianna Huffington
Tyler Haney

But here’s the thing – you don’t need to be part of LinkedIn’s official influencer program to be considered an influencer. There are thousands more “everyday influencers” who may not have the blue checkmark but have still established themselves as subject matter experts through their content and follower base.

You can become a LinkedIn influencer without being part of the official LinkedIn Influencer program.

Also, Read – How to Ethically Steal Competitor’s Audience on LinkedIn

Why Become a LinkedIn Influencer?

Building influence and authority on LinkedIn delivers some major benefits:

1. Expand your reach and visibility

By developing an engaged, targeted following, you’re able to get your message and content in front of a much wider audience of ideal customers and connections. This expanded reach builds visibility and awareness for your brand.

2. Establish credibility and trust

The content you share allows you to showcase your knowledge, perspectives, and expertise to peers and prospects. This helps position you as a trusted voice that people look to for insights.

3. Shape industry narratives

As an influencer, you have the opportunity to impact narratives and drive conversations around topics that matter to you and your audience. Your voice carries weight in moving opinions.

4. Connect with leaders and decision-makers

Gaining a large, engaged following puts you on the radar of executives, business leaders, and decision-makers that you may want to connect with. It can help give you access to key individuals.

5. Grow your business and career opportunities

From partnership opportunities to speaking engagements to exciting job offers, becoming an influencer opens doors to new business and career possibilities.

6. Give back to your community

For many, influence is also an opportunity to elevate important topics and give back to their industry and peers by sharing knowledge and empowering others.

If knowledge sharing, brand building, and shaping ideas excite you, pursuing influencer status on LinkedIn can be highly rewarding!

How to Become a LinkedIn Influencer in 2023

Want to grow your influence and become a LinkedIn thought leader this year? Here are the key steps:

1. Identify Your Niche and Expertise

First, get clear on the specific topics and subject areas you want to focus on—and most importantly—highlight expertise around.

The strongest LinkedIn influencers specialize in specific niches. For example:

SaaS sales
Social media marketing
Diversity and inclusion
Healthcare leadership
Agile project management

Target an area you have deep knowledge or experience in. This niche focus establishes credibility and authority.

Make a list of the topics and themes you want to be known as an expert in and align your content strategy around them.

2. Optimize Your Profile

Your LinkedIn profile will be front and center as you build your influencer presence, so ensuring it’s optimized is key.

Include the following elements:

A professional headshot
An engaging headline and bio summarizing your expertise
Rich media like Slideshare, videos, and visual assets to showcase content
Your key skills and credentials
Recommendations from past colleagues and employers

Also, make sure your profile is filled out—incomplete profiles undermine your expert positioning.

In your bio, briefly summarize your credentials and influence intentions to establish immediate authority and intrigue visitors.

Example: “Passionate about empowering healthcare leaders with the insights needed to drive innovation. Building a community of forward-thinking changemakers.”

3. Grow Your Network

Expanding your network is critical because followers are the lifeblood of influence on LinkedIn.

Make meaningful connections with those in your industry and niche by:

Proactively sending personalized connection requests
Engaging with others’ content through liking, commenting, sharing
Joining niche LinkedIn groups and participating in discussions
Following and interacting with those you want to connect with Growing your network not only builds your follower count but surfaces more potential audiences for your content.

Aim to have at least 1000+ connections to start establishing influencer status.

4. Consistently Publish Valuable Content

Thought leadership content is the core of demonstrating your knowledge and value to audiences. Commit to frequently publishing content like:

Long-form posts
Articles
Whitepapers
Case studies
Videos
Q&As and AMAs
Slideshare

Post at least 1-2x a week to stay top of mind. Ensure your content delivers tangible value by teaching readers something new or offering solutions to problems.

Leverage LinkedIn’s blogging platform or embed content from an external blog.

Also, interact with and share other credible content from your industry to highlight curation skills.

5. Use Multimedia Content

While long-form posts are critical, also incorporate multimedia like videos, polls, images, and presentations.

Multimedia content tends to be more engaging and digestible. Plus, it showcases thought leadership in different formats.

6. Monitor Your Analytics

Keep a close eye on your LinkedIn Page Insights and post analytics. Metrics like:

Impressions
Engagement rate
Follower growth
Content likes/shares

Offer visibility into how your influence strategy is performing. Continuously optimize based on learnings.

7. Collaborate with Other Influencers

Look for opportunities to collaborate with those who have an established audience. This could include:

Interviewing them for a podcast
Co-authoring a post
Participating in a live video discussion or panel

Collaborating allows you to tap into their follower base and get visibility. Make sure to return the favor and offer them exposure to your network too.

8. Use Hashtags Strategically

Hashtags help surface your content to interested audiences outside your immediate network.

Research and incorporate relevant hashtags like #saassales or #healthcareinnovation. But don’t go overboard. Stick to 1-2 tops per post to ensure relevancy.

9. Engage Your Followers

It’s not enough to just broadcast content through a megaphone. Make sure to actively engage your growing follower base through:

Responding to comments and messages
Asking questions in your posts to spark discussion
Sharing user-generated content related to your topics
Sending personalized messages to build relationships

Engagement fosters community and loyalty. An engaged tribe amplifies your content and brand.

10. Track Your Progress

Define what LinkedIn influencer success looks like for you and actively track your progress against those goals. Metrics to follow might include:

Follower count
Engagement rate
Shares/likes per post
Content reach
Mentions

Celebrate wins along the way to keep the momentum going. Continuously refine your strategy based on results.

Mistakes to Avoid as a LinkedIn Influencer

As you build influence, sidestep these common missteps:

Automating messaging – Don’t automate connection requests. Personalize all communication.
Aggressive self-promotion – Don’t make every post a product plug. Focus on generating 80% valuable content, and 20% promotion.
Ignoring feedback – Listen and respond to comments and critiques. This shows you value community dialogue.
Inconsistency – Don’t post randomly. Establish a regular content schedule and stick with it.
Lack of focus – Don’t spread yourself too thin on scattered topics. Stick to your niche expertise.
Radio silence – Stay active daily. Influence requires consistent, ongoing engagement.

Also Read – Indeed vs LinkedIn: Comparing the Top Job Sites in 2024

Realistic Timeline for Becoming a LinkedIn Influencer

Gaining significant authority and influence won’t happen overnight. But stick with it, and you can build momentum over time. Here’s a realistic roadmap:

Month 1:

Establish your niche/focus areas
Complete and optimize your profile
Begin expanding your network with 25-50 new connections per week
Ramp up engagement through likes, comments, shares
Post 2-3x that month

Months 2-3:

Expand your network by 100+ more connections
Set a consistent content posting schedule (1-2x per week)
Test different content formats like video and SlideShare
Track engagement metrics and optimize popular post types
Engage followers by responding to comments and messaging
Repurpose/promote your best-performing posts

Months 4-6:

Grow your network by another 200-300+ connections
Leverage hashtags and @mentions for greater visibility
Consider an influencer collaboration to tap into new audiences
Continuously fine-tune content based on feedback and metrics
Monitor follower growth and engagement rates

Months 7-9:

Expand your audience with 500+ more targeted connections
Increase content frequency if engagement is strong (2-3x per week)
Start participating in LinkedIn groups related to your niche
Look for speaking opportunities at events to further influence
Track progress against your LinkedIn influencer goals

Months 10-12:

Leverage your influence and content portfolio for partnership opportunities
Continue nurturing your community with consistent engagement
Celebrate your wins! Take stock of your growth and impact over the past year.
Set new goals and establish a plan to deepen engagement and reach in the coming year

While every influencer’s journey is unique, this roadmap gives you an idea of the key milestones as you work towards establishing yourself as a LinkedIn thought leader.

The more value you consistently provide, the quicker you can build authority and amplify your message.

LinkedIn Influencer Content Ideas

Not sure what type of content to share to demonstrate thought leadership? Consider these engaging LinkedIn influencer content ideas:

Industry trend reports and forecasting
Q&As (ex. “5 Questions with [Industry Expert]”)
Current event commentary
How-to guides and tactical tips
Interviews with fellow influencers
Virtual Summit Keynote Recaps
Lessons learned from personal experience
Response to recent news/studies
“Day in the Life Of” feature stories
Case studies featuring clients
Thought-provoking lists/frameworks
Leadership insights and advice
Curated content roundups
Job transition and career growth tips
Book reviews and key takeaways
Problem-solving and troubleshooting
Commentary on the competitive landscape
Behind-the-scenes company/product updates
Relevant book/resource recommendations
Op-eds and think pieces

LinkedIn Influencer Marketing Campaign Examples

How are brands leveraging LinkedIn influencers as part of their content strategies? Here are a few examples to inspire your next influencer marketing campaign on the platform:

Program: Adobe Creative Resident featured influencer Ryan Christenson

Campaign: Adobe commissioned artist Ryan to create an original Instagram-worthy pop art piece highlighting the Creative Cloud apps. They leveraged paid ads to promote the content across LinkedIn feeds.

Illustration Software Company Campaign

Tactic: An illustration software company identified and partnered with a LinkedIn influencer who created logo designs, infographics, and portraits using their product. They leveraged the influencer’s original branded content in their LinkedIn Sponsored Content campaigns and on their Company Page.

Cybersecurity Company Partnership

Approach: A cybersecurity company pursued an affiliate partnership with cybersecurity influencer and hacking expert Principle Solutions. As an affiliate, the influencer shares security insights and invites followers to download buyer enablement content from the cybersecurity company’s website.

AI Startup THOUGHT-LEADERSHIP CAMPAIGN

Tactic: To establish thought leadership, an emerging AI startup recruited a mix of LinkedIn influencers and subject matter experts to contribute posts and appear in video interviews discussing AI trends on the startup’s Company Page.

Accounting Industry Micro-Influencer Campaign

Strategy: An accounting solutions firm targeted micro-influencers in the accounting space by searching accounting-related hashtags and groups. They offered each micro-influencer a fee to create a LinkedIn post featuring one of their smaller accounting products.

Also Read – LinkedIn Recruiter Lite: The Essential Talent Sourcing Tool for Recruiters

Common LinkedIn Influencer Marketing Mistakes To Avoid

When enlisting LinkedIn influencers, sidestep these blunders:

Asking for endorsements from influencers who haven’t used your product
Recruiting influencers with poor content quality or low engagement rates
Here is the continuation of the section on common LinkedIn influencer marketing mistakes to avoid:
Pitching influencers who are not a good fit with your brand values or positioning
Not giving influencers enough creative control over the partnership
Neglecting to establish clear expectations and messaging upfront
Failing to promote and amplify the influencer content through your channels
Not integrating influencer content into other marketing initiatives
Focusing solely on the hard metrics vs. the more qualitative impacts
Forgetting to incorporate relevant hashtags and handles that expand visibility
Not incentivizing audience engagement within the posts
Declining to share behind-the-scenes insights that lend authenticity
Neglecting to make the partnership a win for the influencer too
Overworking influencers with too many rigid requirements
Forgetting to optimize branded content for mobile
Not providing enough support during content development
Failing to properly vet influencers for fake followers and engagement
Not balancing educational with promotional content

The keys are choosing relevant influencers, giving them flexibility, supporting them fully, and amplifying the collaborations through multiple channels. Structure win-win partnerships that provide value to audiences and participants alike.