How to Add a Follow Button to Your LinkedIn Profile

One of the biggest steps you can take to influencer status is to add a follow button to your LinkedIn profile.

It tells people right off the bat that you're a thought leader.

Why?

Because influencers and thought leaders are followed

In this, quick guide, we'll show you how you can add a follow button to your LinkedIn profile, and what other benefits you get from implementing this today.

Let's get at it!

The Difference Between a Follow and a Connect on LinkedIn

There's a big different between a connection and a follow on LinkedIn.

A connect on LinkedIn is usually a two-way interaction where you and the party that connects with you now share a relationship on the platform. This is provided that you approve the request – or if they approve yours.

On the other hand, a follow allows a a user access to your account and posts regardless of you accepting they're request to connect with you or not.

The follow option seems to be a hybrid between the follow options of Twitter and Instagram, versus the "Add as a friend" option of Facebook.

What Are The Benefits of Using a "Follow" Button Instead of a Connect Button?

If your goal is to grow on LinkedIn then you should be looking at achieving influencer status, and influencers make it easy for their followers to follow them.

Here's what.

The follow button subconsciously suggests to prospects that the profile that they're on belongs to an influencer. And, it does this by just using one word.

It indirectly tells people that you're not exactly trying to sell anything to them, but instead offering something of value, since they don't even have to engage in a two-way connection to begin with.

And, there's more.

When you're rapidly scaling, you also want a system in place that will help you go through people the number of requests that you have.

Having a follow button makes it easier for you to grow your influencer base because there is no need for you to approve their requests.

You can then focus on growing your "business connection" base by just having to go through people who have taken the time to connect with you.

Now some people might argue that it could be counterproductive to users who still want to gain a lot of connections in their industry, but I beg to differ.

Here's the other thing.

You still have the message button prominently featured in your LinkedIn profile just in case people want to contact you directly.

If you have been following our LinkedIn profile optimization guides in the past, you'll find that having CTAs in your header image or having a properly optimized summary will help direct business traffic to your funnel in any case.

Find out how to create LinkedIn summaries that convert in our guide!

Here's another thing we noticed.

Having a follow button is less intrusive than a connect button.

Think about it, how many people on Facebook do you want to follow, but not connect or be friends with?

The follow button represents less commitment on the part of the prospect.

How Do You Add a Follow Button to Your LinkedIn Profile?

It's pretty simple to add a follow button on your LinkedIn profile. However, they've buried the option deep in your settings.

What you need to do is head over to the "Me" option on the upper-right hand side of LinkedIn and bring down the dropdown menu to access "Settings & Privacy".

Go to the "Visibility" tab on the left-hand side, and click on "Visibility of your LinkedIn activity" and scroll all the way down on the right-hand side till you find the "Followers" option.

To find out more, take a look at the rest of the article here!