Why LinkedIn's 'Creator Mode' is a very big deal

About 10 days ago LinkedIn announced several cool new features, but one of them has got me especially excited and I'll tell you why in just a second. First let me run down what's in the pipeline:

• Video Cover Story: You will be able to record a short 'introduction' video for your audience that will allow you to customize your first impression with viewers to your profile. Once you add your Cover Story, an orange ring will appear around your Profile photo, and a preview of your video will auto-play silently within your photo frame, and soon to come will be captioning capabilities. Check out a demo here!
• Service Pages: Soon you will be able to showcase your services from your personal profile without needing a company page. These new service pages will be discoverable in LinkedIn search by members—even by those who aren’t members of your network (if you make your public profile visible). Regardless of the degree of connection, LinkedIn members who seek out your services can contact you. The offerings on your Service Page will display on the feeds of your network as well as your own feed. LinkedIn is planning a future upgrade that will allow you to display ratings and reviews directly on your Service Pages. 
• Branding Upgrades: LinkedIn will be offering the ability to use gender pronouns as part of your title without needing to allocate space in your headline. You will also be able to show your Banner image when live streaming.
• Creator Mode: This feature will be designed to help content creators and thought leaders extend their reach and grow their followings by putting more of a focus on their content. Users who switch to 'creator mode' will have their activity and content shown more prominently in their profile, before their experience and about sections. It will also allow you to select hashtags that are relevant to your niche to help deliver your content in a more targeted way.

Creator Mode is being rolled out right now and can be accessed from your profile. If you aren't seeing it yet, hang tight and it will show up soon. With content shared on the platform up 50% year-over-year in 2020, LinkedIn's keen to keep its top voices active, in order to continue that growth - and in order to this, it's looking to invest in new initiatives like Creator Mode to better incentivize people to share their thoughts, and establish bigger followings in the app.

Creator Mode is the update that I am most excited for because this validates what Gary Vaynerchuk has been professing for the last couple of years: that LinkedIn has been moving from a Job and Career site to a 'content delivery platform' similar to more traditional social media sites. What does that mean exactly?

This may be old news now but I've heard Gary Vaynerchuck (aka Gary Vee, the Godfather of social media) say on several occasions that LinkedIn 'feels like Facebook 2012'. Now being someone who capitalized on the organic growth of Facebook in 2012, that means that content creators are richly rewarded for supplying quality content for the feed to keep people tuned into the platform. For the time being, this means content is shown outside of your own network (2nd and 3rd connections), instead of to just a fraction of the network like on some of the other platforms.

Both Creator Mode and Service Pages are a game changer and show that LinkedIn is dedicated to rewarding people who create content and entice them to keep doing so. It also gives content creators additional resources to be able to monetize their followings via services such as coaching, copywriting, consulting, SEO, branding, web or graphic design and much more.

What I love most about LinkedIn is that out of all the social media platforms I've used, this is the one that has put the most focus on 1) quality and 2) quality connections. Other platforms seem to have much lower standards and seem to favor whatever gets the most attention and disregards the means in doing so.

Lastly, there has been talk on the street that at some point there will be the ability for content creators to be able to monetize their content (revenue sharing, sponsors, advertising, influencer marketing).

If you are an entrepreneur, small business owner or aspiring side-hustler, then now is the time to get more active as a content creator on LinkedIn. While there are so many people who market via Direct Messaging, people are getting tuned out and content creation is the best way for you to build the 'know, like and trust' factor that brings potential clients to you.

We have all had times where we regretted 'missing out' on something like starting an online business in the early days or investing in Apple or Amazon 20 years ago. Do not miss out on the opportunity to grow and nurture your following using LinkedIn.

Please join my list because I will be rolling out plenty of resources for entrepreneurial minded professionals who want to level up their game with both #LinkedIn and personal/professional topics. I recently completed my most recent 8 week LinkedIn business boot camp and the feedback was phenomenal, you'll want to be tuned in for the next one because I'll be rolling out new features and guests.