How To Grow Your LinkedIn Audience – New Follow vs. Connect Feature

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with hundreds of millions of members.  Their mission is to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.

As a regular contributor on LinkedIn, I enjoy testing and exploring new features as they become available.  As I post topics or articles related to Naked Networking, Career Dating, or LinkedIn Logic, opportunities presents themselves for connections or followers to ask questions and explore new perspectives.  Engaging with other like-minded professionals and observing different perspectives on timely news and trends impacting diverse industries is par for the course in my body of work.

LinkedIn recently created the option to allow you to choose making “Follow” the primary action on your profile rather than “Connect.”

Benefits Of The Follow vs. Connect Button?
When LinkedIn members choose to follow you, they are more likely to see your content in their feed which means more exposure for the message you want to share. Members can stay up-to-date with topics you share and engage in your online conversations. This feature is also nice for those who do not like the overwhelming feeling of connection requests (especially from people they do not know).  When you choose to display the follow option primarily on your profile, it makes it easier for those interested in learning from your posts to review your ideas but removes the pressure of having to connect in order to do so. When you choose to share high-quality insights, you have a better opportunity to build a loyal and engaged audience.

3 Steps | How To Set Up The Follow vs. Connect Button

1. Go to Settings from your Profile, select “Privacy”

2. Under the “Who can follow you” section, ensure you have selected “Everyone on LinkedIn” as the people who can follow your updates

3. Turn on “Make follow primary”

LinkedIn updates their platform with new features as they support innovative ways to keep users engaged.  Visit https://blog.linkedin.com/topic/new-linkedin-features for additional updates and new features.

If your networking skills are lacking or you would like to learn more about LinkedIn coaching programs, please contact me for a consultation today at kari@www.karimirabal.com