How to Become a LinkedIn Influencer in 6 Steps (Works in 2024)

Want to become a LinkedIn influencer in 2024? 

Don’t worry, I got you.
This is not going to be like all the other blog articles you find on Google.
You know why?
Cause I’ve actually done it!

In this article, I’ll share everything I know about posting content on LinkedIn that got me over 400k impressions in 2023.
I even made a video about it.

Make sure you watch the video cause I do a deep dive on the tactics that got me over 80k impressions on a single LinkedIn post (and share my strategy).

Okay, so here is everything I’ll talk about:

• How to become a LinkedIn Influencer?

• What even is a LinkedIn influencer?

• What are the benefits of being a LinkedIn Influencer?

• What kind of badges do LinkedIn Influencers get?
  
• Is becoming a LinkedIn influencer worth it?

I’m giving you a one-time opportunity to pull back the curtains and see how you can get into one of LinkedIn’s super-exclusive clubs. You really don’t want to miss this one!

How to Become a LinkedIn Influencer

Being an influencer on LinkedIn sounds like it gives you an insane boost in your social circles. That means there’s gotta be some steep entry fee, right?

Actually, there’s nothing you have to pay for to be a LinkedIn influencer. Literally anybody can be one if they can build and manage a community for their industry.

Of course, you can’t build that kind of trust in a day. It takes a lot of focused effort to get to a point where people take you seriously. 

That’s why I have a proven 6-step Bra-Pro-Con Net-Nic-Com formula to help you start strong and become a LinkedIn influencer. 

I know that the formula sounds like a prescription drug for urinary incontinence 😂 but please hold on, I’ll tell you what it means.

Define Your Brand (And Don’t Forget Your Goals)

The very first step to becoming a LinkedIn influencer is nailing your personal branding. This is where you have to show off what makes you unique. 

Defining your brand lets you stand out on LinkedIn. 

And as you know from the tenets of business wisdom, strong branding lets you stand out and keeps you memorable to your audience for longer.

From here, you’re all set to create your goals as an influencer on LinkedIn. Becoming one is definitely on the to-do list, but it’s not a long-term goal. 

Think about what you want by being a LinkedIn influencer. 

That could be anything from getting new sales-ready leads, new high-profile Connections, or just gaining more notoriety. 

For me, it was to establish myself as an authority in sales outreach via cold email and LinkedIn and share tactics that would help business owners get leads via cold outreach.

Give Your LinkedIn Profile a Makeover

Another thing your audience is bound to look at is your LinkedIn profile. After all, you can’t blame them for wanting to know the person behind the LinkedIn influencer profile, can you?

And just like your personal branding, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for the perfect LinkedIn profile.

But thankfully, I already have a checklist of the best practices to follow and some never-before-tips to create a LinkedIn profile that gets more eyes on you. Check it out by clicking here.

Also, if you’re more of a visual learner, here’s a video for you 😉 (I did a deep dive on one of my LinkedIn Influencer friend’s profile):

Just to give you an idea of what you should be starting off with, here are a few things you can spruce up as you’re reading this as we speak:

• Profile picture and banner - Possibly the first thing people are bound to look at, your profile picture and banner need to be top-notch. 

It’s basically the first impression you make to people for LinkedIn users who don’t know you yet. 

Want a foolproof way that works like a charm every time? Use a professional profile picture and banner. Put on your best suit (and smile), and you’re set. 

But hey, that’s not the only way to do things around here. If you want to show a little personality in your LinkedIn profile, go for it!

There are a TON of profile and banner combos that you can run with that just scream your personality. 

• Headline - Your LinkedIn profile headline has to be concise, but needs to tell exactly what your audience is going to sign up for. 

Don’t skimp out on the keywords! It’s like a string of words that immediately catch your audience’s attention. Not to mention, it’s more likely that you will show up on searches.

• The About section - This is your chance to tell your story and show off what makes you a kick-ass LinkedIn influencer. 

Same as your headline, don’t forget to add the keywords that people in your industry would be looking out for. 

• LinkedIn Short URL - If you’ve been paying attention, you’d know how important personal branding is for a LinkedIn influencer. 

That said, people often miss out on another way to customize their LinkedIn profile. You can actually shorten and create a custom LinkedIn profile URL.

By default, LinkedIn gives you a profile URL that’s just your name and a code. You can go into your settings and create a custom one for your brand.

Not only is it more memorable, it’s more closer to your brand identity than a bunch of random numbers, right?

While we’re at it, getting that verification mark on your LinkedIn profile definitely goes a long way. 

That means more profile views, more messages, and all because people know they know you are a real human being who can be trusted (because who knows what’s out there 👽).

Plan Your Content Strategy

Providing original content as LinkedIn posts is almost the whole point of being a LinkedIn influencer. Otherwise, why would people come to you for info they can trust, right?

As for what you should be posting, that’s where planning a content strategy comes into play.

People in your niche are always hungry for more professional advice, actionable tips, and even ideas that challenge the way people think.

Experimentation is the name of the game here. 

Make sure to read what other LinkedIn influencers are talking about in your niche. Does video content perform better than how-to posts? That means it’s time for you to pivot!

From my experience, 3 types of posts have performed well:

1. “How-to” posts.

2. Controversial opinion about my industry.

3. Giveaway posts.

Remember how branding is super important? Give your audience the content they love, but also sprinkle in your personality. Because your content has to reflect who YOU are.

Grow Your LinkedIn Network

Creating quality content isn’t the only work cut out for you as a LinkedIn influencer. You still need an audience who’s actually going to want to read your posts and follow you for more.

Your posts will be visible to your 2nd-degree Connections on LinkedIn only if your 1st-degree Connections engage with them first. That’s the secret sauce for making viral content 😉.

Don’t forget to network with other professionals in your industry too! See what they have to say and observe how their audience reacts to it. 

Over time, you’re bound to learn a thing or two. Better yet, the professionals in your sphere of influence expose your content to their audience whenever they engage with your posts.

You can run into a few problems while networking, at least at the beginning. 

For starters, you’ll have to start reaching out to them maually. Every. Single. Time. 

Don’t even get me started on writing follow-up messages for LinkedIn contacts who might have missed your messages the first time around.

Asking you to do this while you’re focusing on becoming a LinkedIn influencer is downright insane.

Because that’s a job for Salesrobot.

Salesrobot is an automated LinkedIn networking tool that lets you reach 100s of potential connections without breaking a sweat. 

Salesrobot lets you pull professionals you want to network with from LinkedIn searches, posts, events, and even CSV files so that you can get the conversation started in no time.

And we aren’t just an average run-of-the-mill outreach tool either. Because we make sure you build quality business relations with messages that actually sound human. 

You can create messaging campaigns to reach other LinkedIn influencers in just five minutes, even if you’re a complete beginner. 

This is possible with the magic of SalesGPT. 

One conversation with our AI-powered tool in simple English, and you’ll have a campaign ready. 

Target contacts, personalized messages, and follow-up sequences—trust me, we have thought of and covered everything. 

And hey, if you think our messages aren’t snappy enough, you can go in and change them however you want! Our Readability Score feature calculates the approx response rates for every message you draft.

When your LinkedIn contact does reply, the Smart Reply Detection feature automatically stops the follow-up sequence so that you can swoop in and carry the conversation forward.

You can set up follow-up sequences in the same way. But if you’re looking to take things to the next level, we let you add advanced steps to your follow-ups.  

Do you want to follow their profile or like a post after a delay? You bet you can do that with Salesrobot.

Personalizing your messages is a big deal. Without it, you’re just sending generic messages that are more likely to get ignored by the LinkedIn influencers you’d want to connect with.

As you might’ve figured by now, we really hate putting you through repetitive manual tasks. That’s why Salesrobot’s Hyperise integration personalizes your messages in bulk. 

Custom GIFs and media content, branded links, all personalized for the contact you’re messaging. Say goodbye to robotic messages forever 🤖. 

Need something more to sweeten the deal? No problem. Subscribing to our Pro+ pricing plan gets you 4 quality posts on your LinkedIn profile and 40 comments on posts of LinkedIn influencers in your niche. 

But I get it. All of this probably sounds too good to be true. You probably want to see Salesrobot in action to believe me, right?

Salesrobot offers a 14-day free trial so that you can test out our features risk-free. And no, we don’t ask for your credit card info😇.

Choose Your Niche. Then Choose Another.

One of the hardest choices you’ll face is deciding on a super-specific niche for which to create content.

Think about it, the more focused your content is, the better your chances of getting an audience to hear you out. 

Added bonus, you can quickly become the person to come to whenever someone needs to learn more about the niche you’re an expert in.

But once that’s taken care of, find another niche in your industry where you can expand your brand presence. Why? Simple, your growth will eventually stagnate in the same niche.

Create the content you want in your niche, then step out to another related topic that your audience finds relatable.

That way you don’t alienate the following you already have, but you attract even more people in your industry who want to learn about the new topics you’ll cover. 

For me, I started with business owners who are open to trying cold LinkedIn outreach as a method of getting more clients but then I eventually started writing content that would be useful for sales teams as well (to increase my target audience’s size)

Engage With Your Community

Don’t you just hate feeling like you’re talking to a brick wall? 

That’s exactly how your audience will feel if you keep posting content and don’t interact with your community of LinkedIn followers.

People will keep coming back for your content if they feel like you’re a LinkedIn influencer who ACTUALLY pays attention to what they have to say.

When more people interact with your posts by liking and commenting on them, your LinkedIn profile gains more exposure.

Start nurturing a community, and you’re on your way to becoming LinkedIn popular in no time 😉. 

Don’t just stop at your own community. Try interacting with posts from other LinkedIn influencers, too.

Not only are you creating more rapport with a network of influencers, but you also catch the attention of their audience who might check out your profile. 

Here is my strategy:

1. At least 30 comments every day (on prospect’s posts as well as other influencer’s posts).

2. 1 post every other day.

3. 20-30 connection requests per day sent via Salesrobot.

Rinse. Repeat. And that’s how you gain new followers and become an influencer 🥳.

What even is a LinkedIn Influencer?

Time to get everyone on the same page here.

Quick, close your eyes, and think of the industry expert on LinkedIn whose content you can trust to give you some valuable advice. 

Congratulations, you’re thinking of a LinkedIn influencer 🧑‍💻.

A LinkedIn influencer is a thought leader from your particular industry. What truly sets them apart is that they influence and engage with a large, active community.

LinkedIn influencers create and share organic content that is designed to be thought-provoking or start conversations on topics that are important in your niche.

Think of the high-valued content from the likes of Neil Patel, and Gary Vaynerchuck (or even Barack Obama!). Do these names ring a bell? That’s the power of being a LinkedIn influencer. Well, Obama was independently popular but yeah, the point stands. 

What is the Difference Between a LinkedIn Creator and a LinkedIn Influencer?

Now, all of this might sound like I’m describing a LinkedIn content creator. After all, they post content on LinkedIn for their audience. 

That makes them the same as LinkedIn influencers, right? Well, not really. 

The key difference between a LinkedIn content creator vs. a LinkedIn influencer is the reason they make organic content. 

LinkedIn content creators produce content to entertain or inform that is meant to be consumed. Nothing more, nothing less. 

LinkedIn influencers, as the name suggests, create content to influence business decisions with actionable tips, insights, and ideas.

Moreover, LinkedIn makes a bigger distinction between them with their Top Voices program.

What Are the Benefits of Being a LinkedIn Influencer?

Now that you know who are LinkedIn influencers, what’s in it for you? Aside from being an industry leader that people trust and look up to, of course.

Hanging out with some of the most popular names does have quite a bit more to offer:

Influence a Business-First Audience

Everyone knows LinkedIn is the place for professionals to connect with other industry experts.

Now add in the power a LinkedIn influencer would hold when these experts see you as a source of information they can trust. 

Being highly regarded by top-level decision-makers opens up new social circles where the info you share directly affects their thinking and actions. 

Additionally, your connections can back your own business endeavors. 

Thinking of conducting a seminar or event for your industry? Imagine the potential reach you could get if a key figure in your niche vouched for your initiative. 

Farm Engagement Organically 

Organic engagement, two words that sound like a dream to anybody in B2B and B2C. 

That’s because getting more eyeballs on your business without taking the paid advertising route has become almost impossible. 

Except, that’s not the case with LinkedIn.

Organic engagement on LinkedIn is king. Take InMails for example, where people have found better engagement rates than emails.

As for LinkedIn influencers, original content is your bread and butter for organic engagement. 

Let me tell you why. 

Whenever your Connections engage with your content, they appear in the Trending Topics section. That’s more exposure, more engagement, and more reasons to be a LinkedIn influencer. 

And engaging with LinkedIn posts can be anything from reacting, commenting, or sharing posts. 

More Influence + More Engagement = Real Life Business Opportunities

So, influence over high-profile executives and more views on your content. Sounds like a pretty good deal, doesn’t it?

But what if I told you there’s a bonus advantage to having these perks under your belt? You also get better sales leads for your business. 

And you know these leads are willing to convert into paying customers since they already see you as a figure of authority in your industry as a LinkedIn influencer. 

What Kind of Badge Does a LinkedIn Influencer Get?

Top Voices (Blue Badge)

Being a LinkedIn influencer by itself is a tall order. 

You need to nail your personal branding, dedicate an insane amount of time to social media and content, and hope that the stars align.

But what if I told you, there’s an even more exclusive group on LinkedIn? It’s invitation-only, so you bet you have to be a big-name senior-level expert to be a part of their club. 

LinkedIn calls this the Top Voices program. Leaders and professionals from around the world are chosen to cover various topics that concern their industry. 

Previously known as the Influencer Program, the aim of Top Voices is to educate the general LinkedIn user with insider information from some of the biggest names on LinkedIn. 

So, if you’re serious about learning from the best, you seriously cannot miss out on the wisdom of the Top Voices. 

Fun fact: You can actually see if a LinkedIn user is part of the Top Voices program. Just go to their profile and you’ll see this icon at the top-left.

Community Top Voices (Gold Badge)

Top Voices is an invite-only community for LinkedIn influencers. But that’s not where LinkedIn awards users who are major contributors to their communities. 

The Community Top Voices badge is given to people who are major contributors to collaborative articles. These badges are based on particular skills.

Here’s the thing, only the top 5% of contributors get this badge. You also have to be the first 2,500 people in a particular skill to get a Gold Badge.

But hey, all is not lost if you haven’t received yours yet. LinkedIn users get to keep their community badges for 60 days, or sooner if they stop making meaningful contributions. 

Are you a multi-talented cyborg that has mastered several skills at once? You can earn badges for multiple skills and choose which one to display on your profile (also thank you for not taking over the world already 🤖).

Is Being a LinkedIn Influencer Worth It?

LinkedIn is your best choice to go out and meet professionals in your industry. And being a LinkedIn influencer is a great opportunity for aspiring thought leaders out there.

Becoming one takes a little bit of elbow grease and commitment to being a trustworthy source of information for other experts. 

While there is no shortcut to getting there, I have given you 6 steps you can go out and follow right now to set yourself up as an important name in your social circles. 

And it’s not about fame and celebrity status either. Being a LinkedIn influencer gives your potential customers all the more reason to trust you. 

Networking is crucial if you want to reach out to other well-known influencers and their sphere of influence.

Instead of staying up all night trying to do your LinkedIn outreach manually, you can trust Salesrobot to do the heavy lifting. 

From reaching out to influencers with messages that sound human to AI-powered message campaigns, you name it we have it. 

So, what’s stopping you from taking Salesrobot out for a spin with our 14-day free trial and seeing us work our magic?

And hey, if you have bigger dreams for your LinkedIn outreach efforts, let’s chat over a quick call. The coffee’s on me 😉.

Until next time, 

Good luck!