How LinkedIn Is Becoming A Destination For Creators

Source: LinkedIn

Daniel Roth, LinkedIn's editor in chief, announced LinkedIn was building a Creator Management Team almost a year ago. A lot has changed since then. The company is in the process of successfully transforming its perception as merely a professional networking site into a destination for creators.

Today, more LinkedIn users are taking on the role of creators and sharing content connected to their interests and passions while more traditional creators are expanding their digital footprint on LinkedIn.

While it has a lot left to do to catch up to more traditional social media platforms, LinkedIn has become more attractive to creators over the last year by focusing on three areas: dedicated creator teams and programs, new tools and features, and creator-focused marketing and editorial.

Here is a breakdown of the actions, the impact, and the future for LinkedIn:

Dedicated Creator Teams & Programs

Most platforms have creator-dedicated teams and programs, but they vary in nature and focus and have a tendency to favor the biggest creators. LinkedIn has taken a different approach with its Andrei Santalo-led Creator Management Team, in which 40+ creator managers support creators of all sizes and backgrounds. Through virtual meetings and email, managers help creators by sharing guidance and ideas for content, feedback on projects, and LinkedIn-specific best practices. They also provide creators with early access to new features and tools, as well as opportunities to participate in initiatives such as Giving Tuesday and Black History Month.

LinkedIn also launched a Creator Accelerator Program, a 10-week incubator-style program where 100 U.S.-based creators get access to coaching and a creator network. They also receive a $15,000 grant to use towards content creation on the platform.

The team and program empower creators with the necessary resources they need to be successful on LinkedIn while at the same time, building a relationship between creators and the platform. Creators and platforms have an ever-changing relationship, with creators often feeling that platforms don't do enough to support them, despite the important role they play. LinkedIn's investment in these areas shows its commitment to the creator community, a commitment that is paying off. Creators are increasingly sharing positive opinions about LinkedIn, in a way, serving as unofficial ambassadors.

New Features & Tools

Last April, LinkedIn kicked off a marathon of new features and tools with Creator Mode. This feature enhances creators’ discovery by turning their Connect button into a Follow button and enabling them to add relevant hashtags on their profile to indicate the type of content that they typically share. Following Creator Mode, the platform introduced new content formats like Newsletters, Live Video, Live Audio Events, and other updates, like subscribe buttons on creator profiles.

These new features and tools make it easier for creators to share content and grow their audience in new ways. With new content formats like newsletters, live video, and social audio, creators have options to share content that suits their skills, expertise, and audience. This optionality is helping to bring new creators to LinkedIn. For example, social audio creators who before relied on Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces are now experimenting with Live Audio Events. At the same time, Gen Z is becoming the fastest-growing audience demographic on LinkedIn, thanks to new video formats that help them better express themselves.

Creator-Focused Marketing & Editorial

LinkedIn's recent marketing and editorial initiatives have focused heavily on creators, from Roth's Creator Weekly newsletter to the LinkedIn For Creators hub and webinars hosted by the Creator Management Team. These initiatives highlight creator trends, showcase creators and how they are leveraging the platform, and give creators more resources to be successful on the platform.

Platforms can have a profound impact on how people use them, which is why LinkedIn's marketing and editorial initiatives focusing on creators are so important. They build an environment that embraces creators and welcomes them. This further encourages and reinforces creators to invest in activities on the platform.

What To Expect Going Forward

LinkedIn still has a long way to go before it catches up with all the other platforms, but its progress so far is impressive.

Its efforts to attract creators will continue into 2022 and beyond with more support for creators, new tools, features, experiences, and eventually creator monetization tools, which is the biggest missing piece.

The company hasn't announced any specific plans for in-app creator monetization, but it recently surveyed creators to determine their preferred method of monetizing their audiences, hinting at future support, which will help bring in more content creators.

As with any platform, where creators go, brands will follow. This year, influencer marketing campaigns will be more prevalent on LinkedIn. B2B campaigns will make up the bulk of them, but there will be consumer brands that get creative. Instead of having creators push products, as they do on Instagram and TikTok, brands will tap creators to amplify cause-based messaging. There will also be some companies who tap in their own employees as influencers to help them recruit and hire talent.