10 Tips to Get Your First 10K Followers on LinkedIn

As a business owner, your presence on LinkedIn is more than just a resume or job-seeking tool - it’s a powerful platform for building relationships, generating leads, and establishing your business as an industry leader. With over 1 billion members, LinkedIn is an essential space to grow your influence and connect with potential clients, partners, and customers. But to fully unlock its potential, you need to build a strong following.

In this guide, we’ll explore ten actionable tips tailored specifically for business owners like you to help you reach 10K followers on LinkedIn.

1. Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for Business

Think of your LinkedIn profile as the digital storefront for your business. Your headline and profile picture are the first things people see, so make sure they reflect your role as a business owner. You can use your headline to show clearly what your business does and who it serves. Your “About” section should tell the story of your business—what problem you solve, who you help, and why people should care.

Also, please ensure your profile is optimized with relevant keywords to make it easily discoverable by those looking for your services.

2. Define Your Brand's Online Persona

What makes your business unique? Are you a disruptor, innovator, or advisor in your industry? Define your brand’s online persona and ensure it aligns with your business's voice and message. Your LinkedIn presence should consistently reflect your business goals, values, and mission, helping potential clients and partners understand what you bring.

3. Build a Strategic Network

As a business owner, growing your network means more than just connecting with random individuals. Identify key players in your industry—partners, suppliers, influencers, or potential clients—and send personalized connection requests. Tailor your message to each person, explaining why connecting with them is mutually beneficial. LinkedIn is a digital networking event where meaningful connections can lead to business growth.

4. Engage Meaningfully with Other Businesses

Engagement is more than simply “liking” a post. Show your expertise by leaving insightful comments on posts from relevant businesses and industry leaders. Engage with your network regularly by offering your perspective on industry trends or offering solutions to everyday business challenges. Meaningful interactions help establish you as a trusted voice in your field, increasing your visibility.

5. Create Value-Driven Content for Your Audience

As a business owner, your LinkedIn content should position you as an expert while providing value to your audience. Share insights, case studies, and tips that resonate with your target market's challenges.

Focus on educating and solving problems rather than selling. When your content helps your audience succeed, they’ll naturally gravitate toward following your journey and business.

6. Follow and Learn from Industry Leaders

To grow, you need to study what’s already working. Follow industry leaders, competitors, and relevant influencers in your niche. Analyze their posts and pay attention to the strategies that drive high engagement. What type of content resonates with their audience? How can you add your unique spin to these ideas while staying true to your business values?

The goal is to interact with posts from industry leaders from your niche.

Interact with at least ten accounts per day, leaving one comment under their posts daily.

7. Use Attention-Grabbing Formats

Capturing attention is crucial on LinkedIn’s busy newsfeed. Use formats that make your audience stop scrolling, such as a catchy headline, impactful imagery, or a strong call to action. For example, start your posts with a hook that speaks directly to a common pain point in your industry.

Pair this with valuable, actionable advice, and end with a call to action that encourages engagement or sparks a conversation.

8. Commit to Consistent Posting

Consistency is key to building a following - that's why most business owners cannot stick to it. Create a posting schedule that works for you (or let your team create one for you and let one person run your LI account via HubSpot or another scheduling tool).

Start with once a day and slowly ramp up the cadence to 3-5 times a week. The goal is to regularly put out content that adds value to your audience. Remember, consistency shows reliability and keeps your brand top of mind for your network.

Make sure you enable “Creator Mode” on LinkedIn to track your performance and grow your audience more strategically.

9. Experiment with Different Content Formats

Don't be afraid to mix it up! LinkedIn offers a variety of formats to engage your audience, including text posts, images, carousels, polls, and videos. For example, polls can be a great way to gather insights from your audience while boosting engagement, and videos allow you to showcase your business and products more personally. Try out different formats to see which resonates best with your audience.

10. Collaborate with Other Industry Experts

Strategic collaborations can help expand your reach to new audiences. Partner with other industry professionals for webinars, co-create content, or offer joint insights on industry trends. When you collaborate, you not only provide value to your own audience but also tap into the networks of your collaborators, accelerating your follower growth and increasing your business visibility.

Bonus: Leverage Storytelling to Connect Authentically

People buy from people. We connect with stories, not just facts and figures. As a business owner, don’t just share what your business does—share the journey behind it. Talk about your challenges, your successes, and the lessons learned along the way. When you show the human side of your business, people are more likely to engage with your content and become long-term followers.

Building your LinkedIn following to 10K can unlock numerous opportunities for your business—from generating leads to establishing authority in your industry. By optimizing your profile, creating consistent and value-driven content, and building strategic connections, you’ll be well on your way to achieving this milestone and expanding your business’s influence.

Ready to take your business to new heights on LinkedIn? Reach out for your personalized strategy: https://theapexconsulting.com/