How to Use LinkedIn's Creator Mode to Grow Your Business and Catapult Your Career

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Are you using LinkedIn’s Creator Mode?

In 2021 LinkedIn released a new tool called Creator Mode – a profile setting on your dashboard that helps you grow your reach and influence on LinkedIn . This tool was created to encourage users to create(hence the name) and share original content, providing users with more opportunities to spark conversation. By turning on this innovative new tool, LinkedIn users present themselves as a source for informative and thought-provoking content. There are currently 5.5M LinkedIn members with Creator Mode turned on.

Essentially, even if you have yet to build a large group of connections, turning on Creator Mode increases a person’s organic discoverability by allowing LinkedIn’s 800M+ users to see the content you create when they search for keywords related to what you share, further building communities who share common interests

When users turn Creator Mode on, their profile’s setup will shift to highlight the areas that stand out most to viewers. For example, your profile viewers will see the content you’re creating in your activity section rather than what you have “liked” or “commented” on.

When should you turn Creator Mode on?

If you take more of a “fly on the wall” approach to LinkedIn, this is one tool you will not benefit from. (Linkability can help you stand out in other ways.)

However, suppose you’re an aspiring thought leader trying to make a name for yourself, a professional who frequently loves to research and share your findings, or a professional who regularly shares content and updates on LinkedIn’s platform to inspire conversation. In that case, Creator Mode is the perfect resource to take advantage of in establishing your voice.

How do you turn Creator Mode on?

1. Go to the top of your LinkedIn homepage and click on the Me icon.?
2. You will then be directed to a screen where you can add hashtags related to the topics you will talk about the most.
3. Choose your hashtags wisely to ensure maximum visibility/searchability.?
4. Click done.

If you ultimately decide that Creator Mode is not for you, you can follow the first three steps as stated above and click off.

Enabling Creator Mode on your LinkedIn profile produces numerous benefits for users serious about establishing their professional voice.?

These benefits include:

• Live Video Features: When you utilize LinkedIn Live, you can connect to your audience in real-time and drive more vital conversations and connections. In fact, LinkedIn reports that users who keep their live content interactive and engaging receive an average of 7x more reactions and 24x more comments than non-live videos.
• Companies have successfully used LinkedIn live to show off their skills, teach others, interview leading experts, attract employees, showcase and/or promote special events, etc.

Note: You can view LinkedIn’s Live Video criteria here .

* Pro-tip: Do your homework to see your optimal window of time before going live. You want to schedule your live feed when you know your audience will most likely be watching and engaged.

• Publish LinkedIn Newsletters and Articles: When you write and publish your newsletters and articles on LinkedIn, you increase your brand awareness and help others view you as a reputable and knowledgeable industry expert. When you become a published author through LinkedIn, you can push in-app and email notifications, keeping you at the forefront of your network and keeping your audience engaged and up-to-date on your postings.?

* Follow Linkability’s biweekly newsletter Moving Forward Back to Basics Newsletter for ideas.

* Pro Tip: Make sure your profile settings are set to public so that the content you publish can be found outside of LinkedIn.?

• Become Featured as a Suggested Creator to Follow: This is another resource that allows you to be discovered and reach a more widespread audience.
• Share Presentations, Playbooks, and Multiple Documents: Shared in a carousel format, this is an excellent way to share more detailed content in an engaging and artful design.
• Create Events: Whether you’re hosting a meet and greet, a conference, a webinar, or some other professional event, LinkedIn’s event setup makes it easy to market both virtual and in-person events.
• Don’t forget to Go Live to share your event!
• Automated notifications are generated to keep your audience up-to-date.

• Measure Your Impressions and Engagement Using Creator Analytics: Measuring your impressions (views) and engagement (reactions, comments, and shares from other users) is an essential step to building a winning marketing strategy, as it provides you with the key demographics that can help you tailor your content and drive engagement. These demographics include a user’s occupation, industry, location, and company size.
• LinkedIn allows Content Creator users to download their analytics, including a graph. Users can also see their weekly impressions front and center on their profile, rather than needing to go searching for the information.
• New Connect Features: Rather than a connect button on your profile, users will see a follow button to click. Your number of followers will also be shown in your profile introduction. Additionally, any new follow requests will know what you post while awaiting your response. Even if you decline their invitation, they will still follow your posts until they manually unfollow your page.

The idea behind Creator Mode is to grow a following. However, people can still connect with you by clicking More and then clicking connect on the pop-up window. Offering an option to follow rather than connect gives Creator users the ability to reach a larger audience without feeling inundated with connection requests from people you don’t know. This also keeps your own newsfeed open to viewing the professionals and companies you care most to see.

Similarly, users are presented with a Subscribe Bell Option – a new 2022 icon that allows LinkedIn users to follow you. They will then be notified when you share content.

• Add a Professional Link to Your Profile’s Intro: Unlike the URL/hyperlink limitations on a standard LinkedIn profile, you can attach a URL to your profile’s intro section with Creator Mode turned on. This means you can advertise things like your website to make it easier for your profile viewers to access important information regarding your company. Users have also used this to promote event links, separate newsletter links, etc.?
• You can learn how to add a URL to your profile here .

How to get the most out of Creator Analytics:

To make the most out of Creator Mode, you need to remain active in creating and producing original, thought-provoking, and industry-related content. As we have mentioned numerous times, your benefits and growth will only be as significant as the work you put into it. We will list some pointers below.

• Make your LinkedIn analytics a part of your regular content planning, and then establish goal benchmarks. Consider what’s working well and what isn’t. Which demographics are you reaching? How can you adjust your content to best target your ideal audience?

Linkability helps clients establish and evaluate monthly benchmarks, but you can also work every quarter or whatever timeline fits your needs best.??

• Try different content formats and see what works best. Try out formats such as video, text, images, articles, events, and polls. Then, adjust accordingly based on what works well for your audience and continuously mix things up to keep your content fresh and exciting.
• Share on various topics while staying true to your brand and mission. Think about what you can share regarding professional advice, unique or exciting personal stories, recent industry news, the latest trends, etc. Make your followers excited to read or watch what you have to share next.
• Regularly check for similarities in your top-performing shared content and work with that information.?
• Consistently spark conversation. Set aside 15 or 20 minutes daily to engage with your followers and provide valuable feedback, advice, content, and expertise.

LinkedIn is no longer just a site to search for jobs. Each year LinkedIn unveils new tools and features for users to thrive and grow professionally. Creator Mode is just one more tool to use if you want to establish your voice in your niche, and as the months and years go by, we can expect LinkedIn to unveil even more groundbreaking features.?

?? If you choose to utilize Creator Mode, leave a comment below so Linkability and our followers can subscribe and learn more about your areas of expertise!

If you are looking for practical yet impactful ways to represent yourself on LinkedIn then let us create a LinkedIn Profile for you that your future career will thank you for .

Kim Peterson Stone is a three-time business found keynote speaker, and leading?

LinkedIn strategist ?that has amassed a global following of over 225,000 on LinkedIn. Not only has she authored hundreds of articles on LinkedIn and become a verified thought leader, but she has helped her clients do the same.

Her B2B digital marketing agency,?Linkability, Inc. , has?helped many clients from Intrapreneurs and Entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies ?work smarter on LinkedIn by leveraging the art of surviving disruption. Armed with her intimate knowledge of thought leadership, entrepreneurship, and global business communications, Kim uses creative and purpose-driven solutions to?develop a strong brand presence , generate targeted leads, and maximize online visibility for their clients.?

Kim has changed the lives of many not by selling products but by?solving?problems, and she can teach you to do the same.