LinkedIn has been around for nearly two decades, having been born in May 2003, even before Facebook. Though it didn’t come into popularity until closer to 2011 when it finally hit the 100 million user milestone.
What is LinkedIn Creator Mode?
According to LinkedIn, creator mode is “a profile setting on your dashboard that can help you grow your reach and influence on LinkedIn.” Users can turn this on to gain access to additional tools that can help them create and promote their LinkedIn content.
Some of the additional features available to users with creator mode include:
The ability for users to “Follow” you instead of sending a connection request
An area to display the topics you regularly talk about on LinkedIn
Placement of the “Featured” and “Activity” sections at the top of your profile
The ability to add a link to the “Introduction” section of your profile to drive traffic to your site
Eligibility to be featured as a suggested creator for others to follow
Access to creator tools like LinkedIn Live, LinkedIn Audio Events, LinkedIn Newsletter, and creator analytics
How to Turn LinkedIn Creator Mode On
If you’re interested in turning LinkedIn creator mode on, the process is extremely simple:
Click Me in the top navigation bar. Click View Profile from the dropdown menu. Scroll down to the Resources section and click on “Creator mode Off.” Click Next on the popup that appears.
Add up to five topics that you regularly post about and click Turn on.
Pros & Cons of LinkedIn Creator Mode
Let’s look through some overall pros and cons of this new profile type to see if it’ll work for your LinkedIn habits.
Pros
Showcase what you talk about right at the top of your profile, instantly appealing to people in your industry or interested in learning more about your industry. You can add up to five topics. They will appear in the form of hashtags underneath your bio, as we see below
Switch out the “Connect” button with a “Follow” button to entice people to start following your content before they send a connection request. This can help you grow your follower count, but it also helps decrease the clutter in your own feed while still reaching a larger audience.
Get access to creator analytics that can help you track your follower growth, reach, and more, giving you an even more in-depth look into how your LinkedIn is performing. Pay attention to these, creating a monthly or quarterly report for yourself to track growth and overall performance.
Use LinkedIn Live Video to broadcast livestreams to your audience, connecting with people in real-time. You can now go live on a number of platforms, with LinkedIn adding onto capabilities already available in Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
Use LinkedIn Newsletters to add a newsletter feature to your profile that your followers can subscribe to in order to learn even more from you/your brand.
Use LinkedIn Audio Events (similar to Twitter Spaces) to hold online discussions in real-time. These were inspired by audio platform Clubhouse and have now made their way onto a couple other platforms.
Cons
You need to have an active LinkedIn presence to really reap the benefits that creator mode can offer. This means you consistently publish new LinkedIn posts and interact with other posts on the platform.
Your “About” section is pushed down to make room for “Activity”, so if you’re not active, this won’t have a positive outcome for your profile. See the example below to get an idea of how far down this could potentially push your profile summary:
If you don’t have a lot of connections, the “Follow” button can hinder your connection growth. You may want to wait until you’ve reached the 500+ cutoff to start growing your overall following. People will still connect with you, but the frequency will likely fall.
You may need to allocate more time to implement your LinkedIn strategy to make sure you’re appealing to your newfound audience. If you’re already struggling to make time for LinkedIn, switching to a creator profile may not be worth it.
How to Use LinkedIn Creator Mode
After reading all of the pros and cons, have you decided if LinkedIn creator mode is for you? If you’re going to remain active on the platform, we see no reason why you shouldn’t give it a try!
We’ve already walked you through how to turn it on—but let’s cover a few tactics you can use to make the most of this new profile mode.
1. Utilize all five available topics.
When you turn on creator mode, you’re able to put up to five topics that you talk about on the platform. While this is completely optional, we highly recommend that you take advantage of this.
Those topics appear as hashtags at the very top of your profile, helping people who land on your LinkedIn profile to get an immediate understanding of the types of content you share.
2. Create a comprehensive LinkedIn content strategy.
To make the most out of your newfound creator status, you need to create a plan to publish original content to your LinkedIn profile—and a lot of it.
The ideal posting frequency on LinkedIn is two to five times per week. With creator tools, you’re going to want to err on the side of the latter, posting closer to five times per week or every business day.
3. Add a cover story video to your profile.
With creator mode, you also get access to adding a 30-second video to your profile. Users can click on your profile photo to view your video if you have one.
You’ll know if someone has a video that you haven’t watched yet because their profile photo will be outlined by this blue-purple gradient circle
Expand Your Reach With LinkedIn Creator Mode
If you’re a heavy LinkedIn user, it’s a great idea to get started with creator mode to access even more features. To improve your success rate even more, learn how to completely optimize your profile to appeal to prospects and generate even more sales.
Read more here