LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform, with over 800 million members worldwide. With its focus on career networking and professional connections, LinkedIn has become an invaluable tool for finding jobs, recruiting talent, promoting businesses, and expanding professional circles.
One of the core features of LinkedIn is the ability to connect with other professionals in your industry or location. When you connect with someone on LinkedIn, they become a connection in your network. However, being connected does not necessarily mean they are a follower of yours in the traditional social media sense.
What is the difference between a connection and a follower on LinkedIn?
On most social networks like Facebook or Twitter, when you follow someone, you subscribe to receiving their posts and updates in your feed. Being a follower indicates an active interest in a person’s content.
LinkedIn connections are different. Connecting means you have established a professional relationship with that person that is validated by both parties. It does not automatically mean you or they will see each other’s posts or activity.
In fact, unless you actively follow a connection’s profile or engage with their content, you may not see their posts at all after connecting. LinkedIn’s feed algorithm shows content based on how often you interact with connections, not merely the fact you are connected.
LinkedIn Connections
When you connect with someone on LinkedIn, it means you are directly connected within their professional network. This gives you access to some benefits, such as:
- Viewing their full profile, including work history, education, skills, and recommendations
- Messaging them directly
- Seeing any connections you have in common
- Getting introduced through a shared connection
Connections indicate a mutual agreement to be affiliated professionally on LinkedIn. It does not necessarily mean an ongoing relationship or interaction will occur. Many LinkedIn users connect with associates, coworkers, classmates and other acquaintances without expecting deeper engagement.
LinkedIn Followers
To gain followers on LinkedIn, you need to actively publish content. Followers are LinkedIn members who subscribe to your posts and updates specifically. You gain followers when other users “follow” your profile and posts.
Having followers means your posts will show up in your followers’ feeds. They have demonstrated interest in your professional insights, career updates, published articles, or other content you post. Users can follow you without being directly connected to you.
Followers represent a more engaged level of connection, though on a much smaller scale than most other social networks. Where other social platforms have follower counts in the thousands or more, most LinkedIn users have relatively few followers compared to their total connections.
How many of your LinkedIn connections follow you?
Unless your account has viral engagement, most LinkedIn members have a significantly higher number of connections versus followers. This is because connections happen for networking purposes, while followers are gained when users are interested in your content stream.
According to LinkedIn, the average number of followers for most members tends to be about 5-10% of your total connections. However, this varies widely depending on how active you are in posting content on LinkedIn.
For example, someone with 500 connections and who rarely posts may only have 25 followers. But someone who publishes LinkedIn articles, comments on other posts, and shares updates multiple times per week could have 150+ followers from that same 500 connections.
Typical Follower to Connection Ratio
| Total Connections | Typical Followers |
|---|---|
| 100 | 5-10 |
| 500 | 25-50 |
| 1,000 | 50-100 |
| 10,000 | 500-1,000 |
| 50,000 | 2,500-5,000 |
As you can see from the table, the more connections you have, the more your potential follower base grows. However, the proportion of followers to connections tends to stay small for most users unless deliberate efforts are made to boost followers.
How to gain more LinkedIn followers
If you want to increase your follower count on LinkedIn, you need to focus on posting engaging content. Here are some tips:
Publish Long-form Articles
Posting long-form articles and thought leadership content is one of the best ways to attract followers. Share your professional expertise through posts that provide value. Articles should be at least 500 words or more.
Comment Frequently
Engage with other people’s content by liking and sharing posts, and commenting thoughtful responses. Be active daily in discussions and groups. This raises your visibility and prompts others to follow you.
Ask Questions
Pose interesting questions to your connections to spark dialogue. Ask for opinions, perspectives, and advice. This creates more chances for engagement.
Participate In LinkedIn Groups
Join relevant professional groups and participate in conversations. Offer advice and insights. Being an active group member increases your professional authority.
Follow Contacts Who Provide Value
Follow contacts who share useful content. Then, engage with their posts by liking, commenting, and sharing to stand out. They will be more likely to follow you back.
Use Rich Media
Incorporate images, videos, presentations and other multimedia into your posts when possible. This adds visual interest that attracts more engagement.
The more value you deliver through your ongoing participation, the more your connections will convert to followers. But be patient – building followers takes time and consistent effort.
Should you buy LinkedIn followers?
Some companies offer services to boost LinkedIn followers quickly by selling fake follower accounts. However, this is not a good idea for several reasons:
- Fake followers do not engage with your content, so they have no real value.
- Purchasing followers violates LinkedIn’s terms of service.
- It looks inauthentic and damages your reputation if discovered.
- Your posts will not reach real human followers, limiting visibility.
- You cannot convert fake followers into business opportunities.
Instead of buying followers, your time is better spent creating posts, interacting in discussions, and forming real connections. This leads to genuine, active followers over time.
Key Takeaways
Here are some key points to remember about LinkedIn connections vs followers:
- Connections indicate a professional relationship but not necessarily engagement.
- Followers choose to receive your content in their feed and interact more.
- Most people have a much higher number of connections than followers.
- Followers typically comprise 5-10% of total connections.
- Sharing valuable content frequently attracts more followers.
- Buying fake followers is ineffective and harms your reputation.
Instead of focusing on follower counts, think of your connections as a network of professional associates and your followers as those most interested in your insights. Provide consistent value to both groups through your posts, comments and content to increase engagement organically over time.
Conclusion
While LinkedIn connections indicate mutual affiliation, only a small subset will actively follow your content unless you consistently post engaging material. To boost followers, share your expertise through long-form articles, be active in discussions, ask good questions, participate in groups, and interact thoughtfully with other profiles. Remember – real connections and followers take time to build through consistent participation. Focus on providing value, and the followers will gradually follow.