How to Reach 20K Followers on LinkedIn - Novice Edition

Disclaimer: I was already at 16K followers when I decided to get serious and hit my 20k followers target by 2024.

When you've been a tech recruiter as long as I have, reaching a high following rate is an easy feat to achieve. After all, you are the one chased by hundreds and sometimes even thousands of candidates almost daily. The same was true for me as well, until I transitioned into a more strategic role. I lost direct interaction with most candidates as my focus moved towards core/specialised positions. Thus, the rate at which my followers were increasing fell drastically.

I soon realised something needed to be done, and fast! Therefore, I simply reverted to the basics: LinkedIn Marketing 101 (without GPT).

Here's where you can start:

1. Enable your Public Profile: Ensure that you are visible and identifiable to your audience. Link.
2. Create posts of varying lengths: Quick, bold posts pack a punch on LinkedIn and are as effective as long-form stories in capturing the readers' attention and leading to longer dwell time on your profile. Create a balance to ensure that your current followers continue to visit your profile and that you attract new followers.
3. Hashtags: Strike a balance between relevant and popular hashtags by conducting hashtag research on LinkedIn. Your hashtags should reach the audiences you want to reach.
4. LinkedIn SEO: Optimise your profile with keywords to increase your search ranking and, therefore, your visibility. Link.
5. Make and maintain connections: Share personalised DMs, request and give recommendations, participate in LinkedIn collaborative articles, leverage @mentions in your posts or status, and engage with others' posts on the platform. The trick is to like, comment, and share others' posts to show your presence and increase your visibility.

With so many people using AI for drafting posts and articles, you can easily stand out by sharing your original, direct, and unique thoughts with your followers and connections. All the steps above require minimal usage of Chat GPT, enabling you to utilise your creative juices and push your original content more.

Think you have a better approach to optimise your network? Feel free to share in the comments below.