General Overview

How will I know if I’m a “LinkedIn creator”?

LinkedIn’s mission is to help our members be more productive and successful. We believe the best way to achieve this mission is to empower our members to have better conversations, connections, and community experiences.

LinkedIn creators can be members, organizations, and companies who regularly share content with their professional community to build their reputation, grow their business, and/or empower and educate others with their experiences. If this sounds like you and you’re interested in learning more about content best practices on LinkedIn, we encourage you to use this website as a resource.

How is a “LinkedIn creator” different from a Top Voice or LinkedIn Influencer?

LinkedIn Influencer is an invite-only program run by LinkedIn’s editorial team. It is focused on executives who run large organizations — CEOs of Fortune 100 companies, large startups, or well-known brands — as well as recognizable leaders and industry experts.

How are Influencers chosen?

LinkedIn’s Influencer program is focused on executives who run large organizations — CEOs of Fortune 100 companies, large startups, or well-known brands — as well as recognizable leaders and industry experts. These are the people who are shaping the business conversation from the highest levels. It is an invite-only process and our editorial team is always looking for unique professional voices that meet these standards.

Please note that being an Influencer isn’t a prerequisite for huge success on LinkedIn as a platform. Our editors are always looking to highlight the highest quality conversations and timely content, and our members are hungry for great insights from thoughtful leaders. We invite all members to share their own perspectives on LinkedIn via comments, updates, and articles.

I have a question that’s not addressed on this website. Is there a person I can contact?

Please refer to our Help Center for commonly asked questions or our Help Forum for support from other members. If you still don’t find what you’re looking for, please file a ticket and a member from our support team will get back to you as soon as possible.

I filled out the form. When should I expect to hear back?

Great news! We are excited that you are eager to create content on LinkedIn and build your professional community. We want to make sure we are providing you with the appropriate resources, so hang tight and we will be in touch shortly.

Content Overview

What types of content performs best on LinkedIn?

Successful content on LinkedIn are usually from professionals who reach the audience they care about and generates high quality conversations. While members can get broad reach on LinkedIn, the real power is in the comments, feedback and engagement they receive from their professional community. Check out our content best practices to learn more.

How do I improve engagement on my posts?

Below are some tips to help you improve engagement on your posts and articles:

1. Start with an understanding of what your target audience cares about. To generate engagement on your post, the content has to cover a topic that’s of interest or value to your professional community. What are some unique insights only you can share?

2. Once you identify the topic you’d like to cover, leverage videos, custom images, or document uploads to help your post stand out in the feed.

3. Make sure your posts are encouraging a conversation.

Post things that encourage a response. Ask a question at the end of your articles or posts asking your audience to weigh in. It can be as simple as "What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments." or something more specific like "Should companies encourage more men to take paternity leave?" It's amazing how much that simple invitation to weigh in can spark engagement.
Be authentic. Our most successful creators are those who talk about things they truly care about in a way that's natural for them and allows their unique voice to shine. Use a first-person, approachable writing style. Even if you're just sharing a link, make sure to include an opinion, analysis or experience.
Use @mentions to pull other people you know into a conversation when you think they’ll have something valuable to add. Be thoughtful: only mention people that you think are likely to respond, and don’t use more than five.
Engage in the conversation, respond to commenters, and encourage back and forth dialogue.
Weigh in on timely topics. Share on current affairs and industry trends. Timely topics work best to drive engagement because they are things professionals care about now. Check out our trending stories (which can be found under "Today's news and views" in the top right-hand corner of the feed on desktop) to see what topics are already trending on the platform and see if there's one where you can add your voice.

4. Go niche over broad

Members are more interested in going deep on topics they’re interested in. Consistently we see better conversation around niche ideas (e.g. #performancemanagement) than the broad (#management).
Use hashtags (no more than three) to help other members find the conversations that match their own interests.

5. Review your analytics

Get intimate with your content analytics and review on a weekly basis. You’ll start to see trends on who’s viewing your content and see what’s resonating. You can then refine your content strategy with these learnings.

What signals are most important in determining distribution?

Our algorithm looks at thousands of signals to help us understand a member’s preferences for content and enable us to personalize the feed for a specific member. These signals fall into three broad categories:

Identity: who are you? where do you work? what are your skills? who are you connected with?
Content: how many times was your post viewed? how many times was it “liked”? what is the update about? how old is it? what language is it written in? what companies, people, or topics are mentioned in the update?
Behavior: what have you liked and shared in the past? who do you interact with most frequently? where do you spend the most time in your news feed?

How do I improve my distribution on LinkedIn?

It has become increasingly competitive to gain attention online today. While views are one way to determine the success of a post or an article, we recommend that you first look at the conversations you're starting to determine whether your content is truly resonating with your audience.

Consistent posting can help create a cadence that encourages more interaction — think a weekly content series — as well as including relevant hashtags to help support discovery, tagging others who might be interested in the article, and ensuring that you’re posting high quality content that others are motivated to interact with and share.

Can I sponsor or promote my post to boost engagement and distribution?

Right now, we don’t support sponsored or promoted posts for individual accounts. If you are an admin of a LinkedIn Page, you can sponsor content and ads in the LinkedIn feed.

How will I know if my content is reaching the right people?

You will be able to get a sense for whether your content is resonating with the right audience through comments, reactions, and content analytics. While views are one way to determine the success of your post, we recommend that you look at the conversations you're starting to determine whether your content is resonating with the audience you most care about reaching. By having a deep understanding of your content resonance, you’ll be able to consistently grow your content engagement over time.

How come I get more engagement on posts rather than articles?

It's important to note that a "view" on a post is really an impression in the feed, whereas a "view" on a long-form article published to LinkedIn is really a click. Articles require particular care because you have to convince someone to take the time to stop and click through to the piece (whereas people can consume short-form posts and videos just by scrolling down the feed). That one extra step to consume the content means that you need to do what you can to grab people's attention in the feed. Make sure you have an engaging headline, cover image and share copy. The excellent litmus test is always "Would I take the time out of my busy day to stop and click on this?" (regardless of the beloved author or great piece behind the headline).

Product Features

What is the difference between “Connect,” “Follow,” and Messaging on LinkedIn? When and which should I be focused on?

Building a thoughtful LinkedIn network is a great way to establish your voice and support your professional community. But, growing your network isn’t just about the quantity of connections you have. In fact, we recommend multiple ways to have enriching conversations and meaningful interactions with people on LinkedIn. Learn about when to connect, follow, and message your network.

How do I change my default profile CTA button from “Connect” to “Follow”?

Changing the primary action on your profile to “Follow” is an effective way for members who are interested in your content to stay up-to-date. We encourage you to change your primary profile action from ‘Connect’ to ‘Follow’ which makes you eligible to appear in search and discovery results for other members. You can also make “Follow” your default profile CTA by following these instructions to edit your settings.

How do I get more followers?

Besides changing your primary profile action to “Follow” you can grow your followers by continuing to post quality content that inspire conversations within your community. By following our content best practices, you are making it easier for people who value your content to discover you. Those members of your professional community will want to engage with your content and help spread the word, allowing more people outside your immediate network to find and follow you.

How do we know which hashtags are most effective?

To use hashtags effectively, we recommend you first start with your objectives. For most SMBs, their top goal is to grow followers, so to use hashtags effectively, we recommend following a mix of broad and timely hashtags. For example, if my organization is in the advertising space, I could follow a generalized hashtag such as “#digitaladvertising.” There would likely be thousands of members following this hashtag, and I could scroll through the hashtag feed and join in our conversations from the perspective of my organization.

For enterprise, goals are more varied. Often times, it is to help control the brand narrative/ image. In this case, we recommend following niche hashtags that are focused on their particular industry or even their own business. For example, Cisco could follow “#Cisco” and see what members are saying about their brand, and help shape the narrative by joining in on conversations from their brand perspective.

I own my own business and am the face of it. How do I distinguish between using my Profile vs. creating a Page?

If you’re a sole proprietor and the face of your business, you may find it easier to use your LinkedIn Profile to engage on LinkedIn. We know you’re busy, so we’ve recently added new Profile features to help you grow your business without the added hassle of creating a separate Page.

Once you hire employees to work for you, we recommend you create a Page for the business. This allows your team to indicate they work for your company, further establishing your brand on LinkedIn. Check out the differences between a LinkedIn Page vs. a personal Page and when to use both.

Should I be using all of your recommended products in my content strategy?

Probably not, but it depends. Everyone has different goals, and some products are more effective than others in helping you achieve specific goals. Familiarize yourself with our product features and see which ones make the most sense for you.

How do I tell people about the live videos I stream, or the newsletters and events I create on LinkedIn?

We encourage you to post about your content both on your LinkedIn feed and wherever else you regularly share content. For example, if you’re sharing a presentation at an event or publishing on your personal blog, you may want to highlight your LinkedIn content as well to generate more awareness so people can follow along. The more people are aware of your content on LinkedIn, the more traction you are able to get from posting regularly.