6 Strategies to Grow Your LinkedIn Following: A Founder’s Guide?

Have you noticed how many startup founders are also becoming content creators on LinkedIn? There's a valid reason for it. LinkedIn personal accounts outperform other platforms when it comes to organic reach. The platform's distinct edge is that it is content-deficient, with only 4% actively posting compared to X’s 10%.

By cultivating your LinkedIn following, you can organically connect with your key audience, turning them into potential customers. Let's dive into 6 strategies used by founders with over 30,000 followers each on their personal LinkedIn accounts:

1. Curate bite-sized videos from well-known voices

Example: Brandon Arvanaghi , CEO and founder of Meow (52,470 followers)

This strategy of posting video snippets he calls “Daily Legendary Lessons” works because it relies on well-known names and insights while ensuring he has consistent content he can post. And he includes a clear CTA at the end of each post that asks readers to follow him (linking directly back to his own account).

Plus, it's easy for you to replicate; simply think of 10-15 well-known individuals who are influential to your target audience and start curating 1-minute video snippets that resonate with them. Add 3-4 hashtags for increased discoverability.?

This is a very clever strategy that’s both viral and reproducible.??

2. Repurpose evergreen content + strong visuals

Example: Wes Kao , Co-founder at Maven (69,080 followers)

Wes repackages her evergreen blog content into short snippets and infographic-like images from those original blog posts for LinkedIn. She also uses carousel-style posts, which are favored by LinkedIn’s algorithm and should be about 7 slides long.

You can dip into your existing content (or even start creating!) and share insights that remain relevant over time. Or take a topic you are well versed in and chop it into 5-10 individual posts. If you are just getting started writing content, try Ship 30 for 30’s Lean Writing Method.

3. Openly share your numbers

Example: Adam Robinson , Founder/CEO at Retention.com (49,109 followers)

You’ve heard of building in public. And Adam does this very well. He stands out by sharing specific financial screenshots and growth metrics. He regularly shares updates on ARR from his bootstrapped startup, which is highly engaging and builds trust from his audience.

You can do the same by sharing real company stories and numbers including screenshots of earnings, customer feedback, internal Slack conversations, and the hurdles you've overcome to reach milestones. Sharing business metrics creates another reason to follow you as a narrative they can learn from and aspire to.

4. Show your unique personality

Example: Chris Bakke , Founder & CEO of Laskie, acquired by X (44,466 followers)

Chris is probably one of the world’s funniest founders on social media. This is probably not very reproducible. But by being a world-class sh*tposter on Twitter, your company gets acquired by Elon! Chris's content shines because it's engaging and gets you to react to it, especially because it is surprising.?

But what we can learn from Chris (especially if you're not naturally that funny) is to look for what makes you unique and human, and share that with your audience. Don’t be afraid to be a little vulnerable as that is how you can authentically connect with people. For example, in addition to sharing founder growth content, I also share about meditation and spirituality as it is a genuine interest of mine.

5. Address one clear audience

Example: Robin Choy , Co-founder &CEO of HireSweet (31,021 followers)

Create content that solves the pain points of one clear target audience (exactly the persona you want to become your follower). Robin speaks directly to recruiters in his daily posts, and he sparks real meaningful conversations in the comments. He creates polls asking questions to his followers and turns the results into new content. He also leverages trending topics, such as ChatGPT, and gives relevant use cases to his audience.?

The strategy is not a growth hack, and it takes serious time and dedication. You can adopt this approach by first being crystal clear about who you are trying to attract, even boiling that down to one single person in your mind to help clarify it. Then, you can create endless content ideas to speak directly to that one person addressing their more urgent pain points (or use ChatGPT to help with this). Be sure to add 1-2 specific ideas from your unique experience to each post!

Don’t forget to be consistent with hashtags that your specific reader would search for (in his case, he uses #recruiters #talentacquisition #recruitment on almost every single post).

6. Take a stand?

Example: Iwo Szapar , Co-founder of Remote-how (34,251 followers)

Speak directly to your tribe's beliefs and against your “enemy” to create content that gets an emotional reaction. Iwo consistently posts pro-remote work (anti-return to office) content including news articles covering the topic. This is catering directly to his audience. You can adapt this by standing up for something controversial or creating an “Us vs. Them” point of view that resonates with your followers.

If you are posting news articles or links of any kind, be sure not to link them directly in your post as the algorithm seems to penalize this.

Growing your audience on LinkedIn?

This is just snapshot of a few founders who have figured out how to grow their LinkedIn in unique ways. But don’t be mistaken – it takes dedication to do this. As the Demand Curve team says, LinkedIn requires persistence and commitment to make it work: “The most influential LinkedIn creators each dedicate 30+ minutes per day to it. This isn’t a second-tier consideration; your team needs to treat this like running a second blog.”

If you’re willing to put in the effort, try out some of these tactics to help you grow your following. Know the audience you want to attract first and foremost. Then consider the ideas discussed here like curating high-quality content or repurposing content from other channels – as long as you’re authentic and consistent. So, get inspired and start posting.?

If you know other founders who you think are doing a great job growing their LinkedIn share them and their strategies in the comments below!

If you found this article useful, follow me Weiting Liu for more founder growth ideas and my occasional post on spirituality.