Latest news with #LinkedInGrowth
Forbes
7 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Turn Your LinkedIn Profile Into A Powerful Community Growth Machine
Your LinkedIn profile has a few thousand followers, but they're just profile views and notifications to you right now. Unless you do something, they remain digital strangers instead of becoming real opportunities. Most advice about LinkedIn growth focuses on sheer numbers. On growing your accounts and getting post engagement. Hardly any tell you what to do with your followers beyond broadcasting content. That stops today. You and I are going to crack this together. While most business owners collect connections like virtual trading cards, smart ones like you turn online relationships into powerful offline networks. Building a community transforms your LinkedIn presence from a vanity metric into genuine business growth. I quadrupled my LinkedIn following in 2024, growing from 7k to 30k targeted followers. But I learned that true growth happens when you move beyond the platform. These strategies will help you do the same. LinkedIn provides a perfect starting point for community building. It gives you basic information about who someone is and what they do. But people are more than just their LinkedIn profiles. Get to know the person behind the words and the realness behind the polished posts. Build a core group of followers who get you, understand your business, and trust you enough to buy and refer. Take your business growth to a whole new level when you create this machine. LinkedIn shows professional qualifications, but hobbies create stronger bonds. Ask your followers what they're into outside work or see if you can figure it out from their content. Sports, music, books, travel. These personal interests reveal common ground that business talk never could. When you know their interests and you've chatted in the DMs, you're on a deeper level. With a higher volume of chats, you can search your inbox for people with that passion and create natural affinity groups within your larger network. LinkedIn users who engage in conversations about shared interests spend 60% more time on the platform, indicating stronger relationship building. Send personalized messages when you discover content related to their interests. "Saw this article about hot yoga and thought of you." These small touchpoints build familiarity and trust far more effectively than generic business updates. Location matters more than you think for community building. When someone follows you or engages with your content, send them a friendly message asking where they're based. This single question opens the door to real-world meetups. Get them to tell you their city in a DM. Then, whenever you're in that city, you can search your DMs for its name and reach out. This simple system connects you with potential clients, collaborators, and friends in every location you visit. Keep a spreadsheet of cities where your followers concentrate. Plan travel strategically and organize local events where demand exists. Your followers will appreciate that you remembered them and took the initiative to connect in person. Your followers want to meet you in real life. They want to meet each other too. Create these opportunities with simple, effective gatherings that strengthen your community bonds. It doesn't need to be complicated. Choose a venue with a casual approach and plenty of space. Share the time window. Three hours works best. Make sure there are high tables so people can move and mingle. Afterwards, send a list of everyone's LinkedIn profiles so they can connect. For maximum impact, plan events around industry conferences or when you visit cities with high follower concentrations. Share details in a post, and send the info via DM to those in the same city. Give people enough notice to add it to their calendars. Focus on creating a welcoming environment rather than perfect planning. If you're on LinkedIn with someone, you're just one of thousands of connections to them, and vice versa. Create a simple system for moving conversations to email, messaging apps, or specialized community platforms. Start a newsletter, Slack channel, or WhatsApp group for your most engaged followers. LinkedIn provides the introduction, but the relationship needs space to grow elsewhere. Give your community a permanent home regardless of algorithm changes. Take showing up there as seriously as posting on LinkedIn. General networking groups often fizzle without direction. Keep the new space focused on specific topics or outcomes. Give people a reason to participate. Share thoughts and ideas, exclusive content, facilitate skill exchanges, or set up accountability partnerships that provide tangible value. Nothing builds community like shared success. When members of your new network achieve something noteworthy, make it a big deal. This creates a culture of support and motivation that people want to join. Feature community members in your LinkedIn content. Share their stories, tag them in posts, and explain what makes their achievement special. Public recognition strengthens their loyalty while showing others the benefits of joining your community. Highlight how connections made through your network contributed to these successes. Demonstrate the tangible value of your community to encourage more active participation from others who want similar results. Your LinkedIn following contains the building blocks of a powerful community. Find out where your people are located. Discover their personal interests beyond professional titles. Create real-world meeting opportunities. Build communication channels outside the platform. Celebrate community wins that show the value of connection. The right connections, opportunities and relationships are closer than you think. Get to know the humans behind the profiles and watch what happens.
Forbes
09-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
7 Things LinkedIn Influencers Don't Tell You About Growth
7 things LinkedIn influencers don't tell you about growing on LinkedIn LinkedIn influencers love showing off their follower counts but never tell you what it really takes to get there. They post screenshots of milestone celebrations and sell their "secrets" in masterclasses. The truth? There's a massive gap between what they showcase and what happens behind the scenes. LinkedIn growth demands more grit, time, and hard work than anyone admits. Their highlight reels hide the daily grind that actually creates results. I quadrupled my LinkedIn following in 2024. From 7k to 30k followers in one year, with consistent action and repeatable moves. Here's what those LinkedIn gurus aren't telling you. Only 1% of LinkedIn users create content regularly. This tiny fraction claims nearly all the attention, opportunities, and business. People sign up, post sporadically, then wonder why nothing happens. But building influence takes deliberate effort sustained over months; not casual posting whenever inspiration strikes. LinkedIn influencers claim they built their following with "just 20 minutes a day." Pure fantasy. During growth phases, they spent hours daily on the platform. No one accidentally becomes a LinkedIn master. Accounts with massive followers work harder than they admit. They study engagement patterns. They test different content types. They track what performs and double down on winners. They respond to comments immediately and nurture relationships through DMs. Success comes from treating LinkedIn as a serious business asset, not a casual social network. Many founders try skipping the learning curve by hiring someone to handle their LinkedIn. Big mistake. You need to understand the game before you can teach someone else to play it. The first few months demand your personal attention. Write your own posts. Study your analytics. Feel the disappointment when something flops. Learn what topics resonate with your specific audience. Experience the dopamine hit when something takes off. This firsthand knowledge becomes invaluable later if you decide to bring on help. Your team can't capture your voice if you haven't found it yourself. Outsourcing your entire LinkedIn presence kills authenticity. LinkedIn users spend 7 minutes and 42 seconds per session on average. In those precious minutes, they can spot generic content instantly. They crave genuine connection with real humans who understand their challenges. The accounts gaining serious traction share unique perspectives from individual experiences. Your unique insights, personal stories, and hard-won expertise can't be replicated by a third party who hasn't lived your journey. An agency can repurpose your stories, but they can't make them up from scratch. People winning on LinkedIn genuinely enjoy the platform. Their enthusiasm shines through in every post. If you secretly hate LinkedIn, your audience will sense it. Your reluctance seeps into your writing and dampens your impact. Find aspects of LinkedIn that appeal to you. Maybe you enjoy writing powerful hooks. Perhaps you love connecting with like-minded professionals. You might get satisfaction from tracking your growth metrics. Lean into whatever sparks your interest rather than forcing yourself through a process you dread. Growing your account comes with unexpected side effects. Strangers slide into your DMs with bizarre requests. Former colleagues suddenly watch your every move. Random people from high school resurface to champion you. As your visibility increases, boundaries become non-negotiable. Learn which messages deserve responses and which connections warrant your time. Success demands selectivity. Your growing influence makes your attention increasingly valuable. Guard it carefully and direct it intentionally. Telling your origin story for the hundredth time tests your patience. But consistency requires repetition. The audience discovering you today hasn't heard your journey before. Research indicates people need approximately seven exposures to your message before taking action. The challenge is finding fresh angles to share your core message. Look for new examples, different perspectives, and various formats to keep your content interesting. Your fundamental story remains consistent while your delivery flexes. Maintains your sanity and your audience's attention. Every successful LinkedIn creator battles moments of doubt. They question their content quality, worry about judgment, and feel exposed. Discomfort signals growth. Your cringe reflex means you're pushing beyond comfort zones and taking risks that matter. Getting visible on LinkedIn requires courage. Sharing your thoughts with a professional audience feels vulnerable. But vulnerability creates genuine connections no amount of polished corporate content can match. The path to real influence runs straight through discomfort. It's evidence you're moving in the right direction. LinkedIn growth isn't mysterious. It just demands more persistence than most people can muster. Skip the gimmicks and focus on creating value consistently. Show up with intention day after day. Learn the platform's patterns by doing the work yourself. Your LinkedIn profile becomes a lead generation machine when you build genuine connections and share compelling stories. The results you want come from the work most people won't do.
