Should you turn on LinkedIn creator mode?

For a long time, I resisted LinkedIn creator mode.

I thought it was L-A-M-E.

But now I have it turned on. How embarrassment.

Hey, in business we are all allowed to change our minds. Unlike my Mum and internet banking, I want to be the kind of person who is always open to change. This means accepting that I have made mistakes.

As Oprah says, when we know better, we do better.

So what changed?

LinkedIn added new features which made me do a double take.

What you get with LinkedIn creator mode

• Your connect button defaults to follow: meaning instead of a two-way connection, your audience follows you, but you don’t follow them. (They can still connect with you via the drop-down menu.)
• You get the chance to use LinkedIn Live and LinkedIn Newsletters: two features I don’t use. Why? I prefer pre-recording short-form video, and I prefer using my own newsletter platform.
• You get better reach: it seems the Linkey algorithm will give your content more visibility. I find that to be generally true. But maybe my fabulous content is why I am getting more reach lately? This anecdotal evidence is a n-of-1 clinical trial and wouldn’t stack up to a peer review, your honour.
• You are eligible to become a suggested creator: if LinkedIn likes you enough, you can be crowned Prom Queen. No wait, you can be featured as a suggested expert to follow. But who knows how the hell to get featured? Probably have good hair and share devastatingly amazing original content every day. So it’s a long shot.
• You get to display hashtags about your areas of expertise in your profile, beneath your headline, so people know what you’re all about
• You get a link featured in your bio so you can send your audience your website, lead magnet or sales page: inter-esting!

What I don’t like about creator mode

I don’t like that your default button is set to follow.

It sends an unintended message to your audience: you follow ME, but I’m not interested in YOUR content.

To me, LinkedIn is all about community. So you should be keen to connect rather than gain followers. (At the start of your Linkey journey.)

So when you have this switched on, and a really low follower number, it’s not a good look. Because:

• you don’t have many followers, which is a form of social proof you are lacking, people wonder why they should follow you
• you should want to connect with people two-way, rather than have them only follow you

Do not turn on creator mode if you are not willing to commit to being a genuine creator.

Reasons to avoid creator mode

1. you are not a creator, and you don’t intend to be
2. you have a small number of followers, because it displays your follower count very visibly in your profile (see example above)

How many connections should I make before turning it on?

I suggest you get to at least 500 connections first, then assess.

Because when you hit 500 connections the number is listed as (500+) in your bio.

For example, this profile has fewer than 500 connections (creator mode off).

But this profile has 500+ connections (also creator mode off). 

If you turn creator mode on after this, the exact number will be shown, and 500 is a good place to start. 

What do you consider low connections? 

Generally, I would say that anything under 1000 connections is low. 

However, if you work in a super niche industry where there aren’t as many specialists, 1000 could be stupendous. 

Me? I’ve got a massive ego and I will never be inwardly content no matter how many followers I have. (At the moment, June 2022, it’s 6000+, and I want more, more, more!) Yes, I am doing the necessary self work to put this vanity aside. 

But what really counts is the ker-ching. 

By which I mean LEADS, coming you to via LinkedIn, saying something like this: 

Or even DMs like this, which is not a lead, but made me feel happy. 

But I digress. Let’s get back to my thoughts on LinkedIn creator mode. 

What if you turn it off? 

Your data goes a teeny bit skewiff, but don’t worry about it. 

I had a DM from an alarmed follower, wondering why the data would adjust. 

But if 200 people saw the post, they wouldn’t unsee it, would they? It’s just LinkedIn adjusting the data. As I say in the message, impressions are a weird metric. 

But the biggest piece of advice I can give you is: test for yourself

By the way? This applies to EVERYTHING, not just LinkedIn creator mode. If you blindly follow experts, you will never trust your own intuition in business, and that is not good. Of course, it’s cool to learn when you are a beginner. But an outside expert can never know: 

• your business
• your audience 
• your feelings 

If a coach is telling you to do something and it FEELS OFF to you, listen to your gut. 

So if you read this and think, ‘What a load of shit, she doesn’t know my business at all,’ you are right. 

However, if you read this and think, ‘I will give this a go and see for myself, Kate is my second-favourite redhead,’ you are also right.