Growing Your LinkedIn Presence to 30,000 Followers: Insights from a Successful Consultant

LinkedIn, a Vital Platform for Professional Branding

LinkedIn has emerged as an indispensable platform for professionals seeking to establish their personal brand, connect with industry peers, and boost their business prospects. Aarushi Singh, a consultant, achieved remarkable success by amassing 30,000 followers on LinkedIn, ultimately transforming her solo consulting business from zero to $100,000 in annual revenue.

A Journey from Corporate Engineering to LinkedIn Success

Aarushi Singh embarked on her journey as a content marketing consultant in 2018, leaving behind her 9-to-5 corporate engineering job. Recognizing the significance of LinkedIn for client acquisition and global brand connections, she dedicated several years to experimenting and learning the strategies that led her to 30,000 LinkedIn followers. Here are the five essential strategies she shared:

#1 – Cultivating Your Unique Point of View

To stand out on LinkedIn, it's imperative to develop a distinctive Point of View (POV) that sets you apart from the crowd. Merely echoing others or relying heavily on AI-generated content can hinder the creation of consistently engaging posts. Incorporating your personal experiences into your content makes the process more authentic and sustainable. To identify your unique POV:

• Reflect on your core values and beliefs, emphasizing what you care about passionately.
• Explore if you possess a contrarian perspective on industry norms.
• Leverage your personal experiences, interests, and unique quirks to showcase your individual perspective. While it may take some trial posts to refine your voice, a strong POV helps craft authentic content that resonates with your audience.

#2 – Harnessing the Power of Video Content

Video posts tend to drive higher engagement on LinkedIn. Fortunately, user-friendly editing tools like VEED and Riverside make it accessible to create compelling videos, even without advanced video skills. Consider sharing career experiences, personal stories, or product demonstrations. For optimal performance:

• Keep videos between 1 and 3 minutes for better viewer retention.
• Maintain a consistent template and design.
• Ensure high-quality audio.
• Captivate viewers within the first few seconds.
• Include subtitles and avoid relying solely on LinkedIn's captioning.
• Accompany videos with a text summary and a clear call-to-action.

#3 – Collaborative Networking

Building an audience and establishing credibility from scratch can be challenging. Collaborating with established creators who already have a following can help you tap into their networks, offering benefits such as expanded reach, enhanced credibility through association, and learning from their content processes. Collaboration options on LinkedIn include:

• Creating joint video or carousel posts.
• Tagging each other in content.
• Leaving thoughtful comments on each other's posts.
• Co-hosting a LinkedIn Live discussion.
• Seeking to be featured or mentioned in their content.

#4 – The Art of Content Repurposing

While creating original content is crucial, repurposing your own material can be highly effective. As LinkedIn doesn't show posts to all your followers, repurposed content broadens its reach and reinforces your core messaging and expertise. Different repurposing strategies include:

• Exploring different angles of one main topic.
• Converting content to various formats, such as text to video.
• Enhancing and improving older posts.
• Re-sharing evergreen posts that still resonate.

#5 – Upholding Consistent Branding

A cohesive brand enhances recognition, trust, and affinity. Two vital elements to consider are your tone of voice and design. For design consistency, employ templates to ensure a unified visual identity throughout your LinkedIn banner, posts, graphics, and other assets. Select colors and fonts that reflect your brand personality. When defining your tone of voice, decide whether you want to convey a formal, friendly, casual, or authoritative tone, and maintain consistency in your communication.

Bringing It All Together

With the right strategies tailored to your goals and audience, growing a substantial and engaged LinkedIn following is attainable. Focus on providing value, building relationships, and exercising patience. Make use of tools like Buffer, Canva, and VEED to streamline your content creation process. Importantly, avoid adopting unsustainable “growth hacking” tactics, such as posting daily or overly aggressive commenting. Authentic engagement and sustainable growth stem from the quality and uniqueness of your content.

Key Takeaways on Growing Your LinkedIn:

• Develop a distinctive Point of View rooted in your experiences and interests.
• Create compelling video content complemented by text summaries.
• Strategically collaborate with others to expand your reach.
• Effectively repurpose and enhance older content.
• Uphold consistent branding and tone of voice.
• Prioritize value, relationships, and sustainable growth strategies.

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