LinkedIn Launches A ‘Creator Mode’ To Help Creators Build A Following & Engage With Their Community

Source: LinkedIn

In February, Daniel Roth, LinkedIn, editor in chief, revealed plans LinkedIn was building out a creator management team.

Build A Following & Engage With Community

Two months later, the company has announced another initiative dedicated to creators in Creator Mode, a new feature that users can leverage to build their following and engage with their community on the platform.

"At the heart of our ecosystem is our creator community. People love to see creators give their take on what’s happening in the news or share insights into a specific industry -- whether that’s a post, a video, an article, or even a comment. If this is you, check out the new creator mode in your Profile dashboard," Tom Cohen, Chief Product Manager, LinkedIn, said in a blog post.

Users who toggle on Creator Mode can add relevant hashtags to their profile to indicate what topics they post about most. Along with this, their Featured and Activity sections will appear at the top of their Profile to display the content they share more prominently, and their 'Connect' button will become a 'Follow' button.

According to LinkedIn, Creator Mode can help with the following:

Grow your Following: 50% of member follows come from Profile views. With creator mode, your primary Profile action updates from ‘Connect’ to ‘Follow,’ helping you grow your audience. The option to connect is still available for creators and people they know.  

Establish your voice: We’ve heard loud and clear that creators want to prioritize showcasing their content over work experience, so with creator mode, your original posts will be highlighted front and center, helping you establish your voice with potential followers that visit your Profile. You can also add hashtags to your Profile intro so that potential followers can easily see which topics you post about the most. 

Get discovered: Creator mode will make members eligible for search and discovery results downstream, helping creators get discovered and grow their audience. 

The feature is the Microsoft-owned company's latest effort towards focusing on creators on its platform. Along with building an internal team to support and help grow its community of creators, the company previously launched LinkedIn Stories to provide another format option for sharing content.

A Step In The Right Direction

Although Creator Mode isn't a robust feature, it's a step in the right direction. Like Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, Clubhouse, and others, social media platforms have recently dedicated a lot of time and attention to improving the creator experience, such as rolling out new features and launching monetization tools.

The features and changes that come with Creator Mode will help give creators and the content they share more reach and visibility, but the most significant impact will be the potential shift in thinking about LinkedIn. The average person tends to think of LinkedIn as just a place for professional networking and job-searching, but it's a valuable destination for thought-leaders and industry experts, who are the equivalent of influencers on the Instagram and TikToks of the world.

Overall, Creator Mode will help people who utilize the platform to share commentary on their industry or share thoughts on the latest news while also inspiring others to look at LinkedIn as an opportunity to demonstrate their expertise, create conversations, and share their ideas around their interests and passions.

A Breeding Ground For B2b Influencer Marketing

As someone who spends a reasonable amount of time on LinkedIn and has found it quite valuable in building thought leadership, I'm excited to see what other investments LinkedIn makes for creators.

Influencer marketing on LinkedIn has picked up, but it's still somewhat of a rarity. Creator Mode and other future moves by LinkedIn could make the platform a breeding ground for B2B influencer marketing.

SOURCE: LinkedIn Blog