How To Grow Your Following On LinkedIn

Intro

I’ve been posting almost every day for the last 2 years.

First 1.5 years, I grew from 0 to 15K.

Then grew 15K to 26K in 7 months.

Because I figured out my voice, content cadence, and templates.

Here’s everything I’ve learned and please feel free to reach out with questions on LinkedIn:

Finding your Voice

One of the most important elements of growing on LinkedIn is finding your "voice." Your voice is the unique way you present your thoughts, ideas, and opinions. It’s a combination of how you communicate your personality, knowledge, and values through your content. Your voice is what separates you from everyone else.

Why Voice Matters

Your voice is crucial because it helps create authenticity, making it easier for your audience to connect with you. If you can’t express yourself clearly and authentically, it’s going to be difficult for people to engage with your content.

How to Find Your Voice

1. Start by sharing what you’re passionate about. What excites you? What’s been on your mind recently? Let these thoughts guide your content creation.
2. Be yourself. Don’t try to sound like someone else. Authenticity always trumps perfection.
3. Experiment. Start with a few different tones and formats. Whether you’re writing long-form posts, comments, or quick thoughts, see what resonates with your audience.
4. Observe others but don’t copy. Learn from the people who are already successful on LinkedIn, but make sure to adapt their strategies to fit your own personality.
5. Iterate based on feedback. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t. Listen to your audience's reactions, and adjust accordingly.

The key is consistency. Over time, your voice will naturally evolve as you discover what resonates with your audience, but it will always be rooted in authenticity.

The most actionable tip that worked for me was to make a list of 10 influencers I liked, observe how they write, and note down the things I like and don’t like. (and talk if they do video or audio)

Then experiment with different tones and styles and see what works what doesn’t work.

Content Cadence

In the beginning, the most difficult part of growing your following on LinkedIn is finding content ideas.

I always hear how hard it’s to find content ideas.

How I started:

1. Build a list of 10 influencers
2. Write posts as if I was responding to their top posts
3. Publish

So for example, if someone posted about the death of SEO, I’d write a response to that. (without mentioning the post or the poster)

Over time, you get to know what topics you enjoy writing and which ones get engagement.

I started posting 5x/week, and after 3 months, I started compiling topics and tone that get engagement from my audience.

Afterwards, I built a content cadence. Here’s what it looks like every week:

1 Product Update

1 Personal Update

2 Thought Leadership

1 Video

Now, I religiously follow this cadence, and it makes writing and sharing much easier.

Templates

After you post on LinkedIn for 6+ months, you get to recycle posts and turn them into templates.

For example, I have playbook posts (like this one), if I was the XYZ post, we got XYZ deal here is the buyer journey posts, product update videos, announcement posts, and more.

Once something works, you need to start thinking of templating the content.

Mistakes To Avoid

As with any growth strategy, there are pitfalls that you’ll want to avoid. Here are a few of the biggest mistakes I’ve made and how to sidestep them:

1. Being Inconsistent
   • If you post sporadically, your audience won’t know when to expect content from you. Consistency helps build trust and anticipation.
   • Tip: Stick to a cadence that feels sustainable for you, whether that’s daily or 3-4 times a week.
2. Ignoring Engagement
   • Posting without engaging with your audience’s comments or other people’s content is a missed opportunity.
   • Always take the time to respond to comments on your posts, and engage with others by commenting on their content.
3. Over-posting Self-Promotional Content
   • LinkedIn isn’t just about promoting yourself or your products. Too much promotional content can turn off your audience.
   • Top performing promotional content for me has been telling a story or announcing something then a cool video talking about the video. Like this one.
4. Not Tracking Results
   • If you’re not tracking which posts perform well, it’s hard to improve.
   • Use LinkedIn Analytics to monitor your post performance and adjust your strategy based on what’s working. You don’t need any software for this.
5. Trying to Please Everyone
   • It’s impossible to cater to every person in your network. Trying to please everyone can dilute your message. Instead, write polarizing, provacative posts that will create conversations. It’s harder and definitely upsetting to see negative comments. But it’s the only way to get conversations going on a social media platform.

Final Thoughts

Building a strong LinkedIn presence doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a journey of figuring out your voice, developing a consistent cadence, using templates to streamline your content creation, and avoiding common mistakes.

The key is to be authentic, stay consistent, and always be open to evolving your approach based on what resonates with your audience.

By following these principles, I’ve been able to grow my following from 0 to 26K in under two years, and I’m confident you can do the same.