Getting 1 million followers on LinkedIn is no easy feat, but it is certainly possible with the right strategy and execution. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 722 million members. While the majority of users have under 500 connections, influencers on the platform have successfully grown their audiences to the millions.
Having a large following on LinkedIn can significantly boost your personal brand, establish you as an industry thought leader, generate leads for your business, and create opportunities for partnerships and collaborations. But you’ll need more than just posting content to make it happen.
In this comprehensive guide, we will provide actionable tips and growth hacks on how to get 1 million followers on LinkedIn.
Why You Should Want 1 Million LinkedIn Followers
Here are some of the key benefits of having 1 million LinkedIn followers:
- Become an industry influencer – A million followers will make you a recognized authority and opinion leader in your field.
- Enhance personal brand – It will significantly amplify your personal brand and reputation.
- Increased reach for content – You can reach a vast audience with your content and messaging.
- Generate leads – A huge following allows you to generate more leads, traffic, and business opportunities.
- Partnership opportunities – Big brands will be more interested in collaborating with you.
- Monetization – You can potentially monetize your influence through sponsored content, affiliate marketing, etc.
- Career opportunities – It makes for an impressive resume and can open doors to speaking, consulting or new career options.
While gaining a million LinkedIn followers takes tremendous work over the long-term, the benefits make it an worthwhile endeavor for established professionals, thought leaders, and personal brands.
How to Gain Your First 10,000 LinkedIn Followers
Getting those initial 10,000 followers is the hardest part when starting from zero. But once you have that critical mass of engaged followers, it becomes much easier to propel your growth to 100k, 500k and eventually 1 million.
Here are proven strategies to gain your first 10,000 LinkedIn followers:
Have a compelling personal profile
- Write an informative yet succinct headline – include your position, industry, and area of expertise
- Craft an engaging summary section highlighting your background, skills, achievements and unique value proposition
- Showcase thought leadership content through long form posts and links to external articles
- List your skills, credentials, volunteer work and causes
- Use a professional profile photo – friendly headshot on a plain background
An excellent profile establishes credibility and gives people a reason to follow you.
Network and connect
- Proactively connect with those you know – friends, colleagues, classmates, associates, etc.
- Join LinkedIn groups related to your industry and engage in conversations
- Follow companies and thought leaders in your space
- Endorse skills for your connections and get endorsed back
- Don’t send generic connection requests – personalize with a note
Connecting with those in your network is the first step towards building an audience. Aim for quality connections, not just quantity.
Engage with content
- Share articles, videos, posts that provide value to your connections
- Comment and react to posts from your connections and target followers
- Post regular updates – commentary, insights, links to resources related to your expertise
- Ask questions to spark insightful conversations
- Join hashtags related to your industry, share your perspectives
Valuable engagement helps raise your visibility and gets you noticed. But always focus on quality over quantity of engagement.
Leverage your existing channels
- Promote your LinkedIn profile on your website, business cards, email signature, etc.
- Encourage website visitors, email subscribers, event attendees to follow you on LinkedIn
- Repurpose quality content from your blog, podcast or other channels onto LinkedIn
- Cross-promote your top performing LinkedIn posts on other social media accounts
Leveraging existing assets and channels allows you to reach more of the right people quickly.
Run LinkedIn ads
- Run Sponsored Content and Text Ads targeted to your ideal audience – followers, group members, job titles, interests etc.
- Leverage lead generation and website visit objective ads to attract high-quality followers
- Analyze results and continuously refine targeting, content and calls-to-action for optimal performance
- Allocate at least a small paid advertising budget to accelerate growth
LinkedIn advertising allows you to proactively reach and engage relevant profiles beyond just your existing network.
How to Grow from 10,000 to 100,000 Followers
Once you have around 10,000 engaged followers, you can start implementing strategies to get to that next level of 100,000 followers and beyond.
Here are some key ways to expand your audience on LinkedIn:
Target ideal follower personas
- Analyze your current followers – what do they have in common in terms of job titles, skills, industries, interests, location etc.
- Determine 2-3 “ideal personas” you provide the most value to
- Craft content that specifically appeals and resonates with those personas
- Use LinkedIn’s advanced targeting to reach those personas with ads and content
Defining and targeting ideal personas will get you followers who are genuinely interested in your expertise and content.
Increase high-quality content output
- Publish long-form posts 300+ words sharing insights, how-to’s, case studies, research etc.
- Post at least 2-3 times per week – experiment with different days/times
- Repurpose content from blog posts, presentations, videos etc.
- Go live or post short timely video commentary using LinkedIn native video
- Ask intriguing questions to spark engaging discussions
Valuable content is the fuel for growth. Focus on quality and consistency.
Leverage influencer collaborations
- Partner with relevant influencers for co-authored posts, podcast interviews, backlink swaps, endorsements etc.
- Contribute quotes or expertise to their articles
- Repost and engage with their content
- Maximize reach by collaborating with influencers in non-competing niches
Influencer partnerships allow you to tap into new audiences and get credibility boosts.
Optimize your profile and posts
- Include relevant keywords throughout your profile – especially in the headline and summary
- Use keywords naturally in your long-form posts for better discovery
- Include links to your website and offers in your profile
- Add high-quality graphics, images, stats, links and hashtags to posts
- Leverage call-to-actions in your posts – Follow, Learn More, Contact Us etc.
Optimizing your presence with keywords, media, links, and CTAs makes you more discoverable and influential.
Run targeted ad campaigns
- Leverage LinkedIn’s Detailed Targeting options – job title, industry, skills, groups, interests, content topics etc.
- Test different objectives – Brand Awareness, Website Visits, Lead Gen Forms
- A/B test different creative, copy, CTAs, landing pages
- Focus ad spend on your best performing content and landing pages
- Re-target visitors from your website to nurture them into followers
Well optimized LinkedIn ads allow you to expand reach and accelerate follower growth.
How to Get From 100,000 to 1,000,000 Followers
Getting to that first 100k followers is the steepest part of the journey to 1 million. If you can reach 100k, you’re well on your way, but will need persistence, creativity and resources to keep growing.
Here are tips for pushing from 100,000 to the 1 million follower milestone:
Grow your content distribution channels
- Start a blog, podcast, YouTube channel and other media platforms
- Build email lists, Facebook groups, Slack communities to engage followers
- Get more targeted website traffic to your owned media channels through SEO
- Repurpose all high-value content through multiple channels
Expanding your owned media channels gives you more surfaces to push content that brings in followers.
Collaborate with corporate brands
- Partner with brands for co-marketing campaigns, sponsorships, influencer programs
- Offer your expertise for thought leadership content
- Promote their products/services to your audience if it provides value
- Ensure the partnerships align with your personal brand values
Partnerships with corporate brands expand your reach to new audiences. But maintain your authenticity.
Get press and media coverage
- Leverage your audience size to get featured in industry media, publications, podcasts etc.
- Craft compelling story angles tied to your expertise and achievements
- Distribute press releases when you hit key milestones – launching a company, product, content series etc.
- Hire a PR agency to actively pitch you for relevant earned media opportunities
Media coverage lends you increased credibility and authority which attracts new followers.
Invest in paid advertising
- Allocate a sizable budget for LinkedIn ads – test different objectives, placements and creative
- Experiment with lead gen forms, website conversion ads, retargeting ads
- Consider sponsoring relevant LinkedIn content, newsletters or groups
- Leverage Facebook/Instagram advertising to target larger mainstream audiences
- Work with an ad agency if needed to manage large scale multi-platform campaigns
Paid advertising at scale is often necessary to gain massive mainstream reach across platforms.
Network in the real world
- Attend influential industry conferences and events as a speaker/sponsor
- Meet your community online and offline through local meetups
- Host your own exclusive events – workshops, masterminds, conferences etc.
- Hand out business cards and direct people to follow you on LinkedIn
Real world networking allows people to connect with the human behind your brand and online profile.
Conclusion
Gaining 1 million engaged followers on LinkedIn is an ambitious goal but completely achievable for professionals who are able to build authority, deliver value, and execute an effective growth strategy leveraging content, partnerships, PR and advertising.
While it requires significant work over an extended period of time, the brand awareness benefits of having such a massive audience can be transformational for established thought leaders, personal brands and companies.
Focus on serving your niche audience exceptionally well, expanding your reach across channels and platforms, collaborating with influencers and brands, and investing in promotion. If you stay consistent with providing value, your million follower milestone will shift from aspiration to reality.
