How to Get 50,000 Insurance Followers on Linkedin

This morning, I popped open Linkedin and checked my notifications.  I was slightly dumbfounded when I saw the photo attached to this article.  

"Congratulations -- Maria Luisa Rodrigues is your 50,000 follower!" 

How in the world did I get 50,000 followers on Linkedin?  Good question.  I have a top secret recipe for getting Linkedin followers that I am about to share with you: 

1.  Take Social Media Risks

My greatest marketing idea didn't always seem that great.  If you have ever looked at my Linkedin portfolio, you may have noticed the following: 

Chris Cheatham | Dr. Dre of Insurance 

When I first put that up in my Linkedin profile, my co-workers thought I had lost my mind.  The quick backstory is that I had been listening to a lot of Dr. Dre as we were going through a turbulent time in our insurance technology business.  On a whim, I started tweeting out Dr. Dre lyrics.  Then I changed my Twitter bio and finally my Linkedin Profile to include "Dr. Dre of Insurance."  

Every week, someone says something positive about the "Dr. Dre of Insurance" moniker.  I was once in a meeting with a large insurance carrier and the title came up.  It seems like each week I get a message or email that starts out "I love your Linkedin profile."  Its even resulted in this awesome article.  

Calling myself the Dr. Dre of Insurance in a traditional, buttoned up industry like insurance was a risk.  It was something totally different, and it works.  It catches people's attention.  

So step one to 50,000 followers:  take a risk.  

2.  Work Hard

In 2015, I knew my company was going to be launching game-changing Technology Enabled Policy Review software in the next year.  I did not know the exact launch date.  I did know that I wanted people to pay attention to what we had built.  I needed eyeballs.  

I have no idea where I read the following advice:  if you are serious about a social media platform then you need to post at least once a day.  

So I religiously started posting to Linkedin once a day.  I also religiously posted to Twitter 1-3 times a day.  This meant that I was constantly reading and saving insurance technology articles.  For me personally, this also meant I needed to spend a lot of time writing.  

This was the hard work.  Most people will probably fail at this step.  

3.  Get Lucky 

Then I got lucky.  A woman from Linkedin emailed me.  At first I thought it was spam.  But then I realized my lucky break (paraphrasing):  

"Hey Chris, I noticed you have consistently been posting about insurance technology on Linkedin for some time.  We would like to feature you as an insurance thought leader in our new Linkedin app.  Would that be okay?"  

Heck yes!  

And that's how I got to 50,000 followers.  It wasn't a bot, or automated software, or an advertising agency.  It was taking a risk, working hard, and getting lucky.  

And thanks to Fred Wilson for helping me understand this three part process:  risk, work, luck.  You should definitely check out his commencement address on the topic.