Stop Trying to Become a LinkedIn Influencer
Why does the term "influencer" bring up all the feels for those of us intent on using LinkedIn to build our personal brands, attract new customers, and grow our businesses?
I think there's a bit of confusion because we assume all influencers are thought leaders.
Nada. Not the case.
Some influencers are thought leaders, but many of them have simply hit the followers jackpot, gained some fame, and end up wasting all that "reach" on regurgitation.
There's a *massive* difference between an INFLUENCER and a THOUGHT LEADER in the industry.
Real thought leaders don't go around calling themselves "a thought leader," but they DO exercise mastery when they create and share their content.
For some reason, it sounds different than everybody else. They have an uncanny ability to shift perspective, attract effortlessly, and help their people initiate REAL change in their professional or personal lives.
Which would you rather be?
In this episode of Mondays with Mindi, we discuss EXACTLY what it takes to become a thought leader on LinkedIn (hint: it's NOT the number of followers you have) and how to take that next step towards sharing thought leadership content with your people.
Real thought leaders don't go around calling themselves "a thought leader," but they DO exercise mastery when they create and share their content.
For some reason, what they say or how they say it or how they go about communicating an idea -- just sounds different from everybody else.
They have an uncanny ability to shift perspective, attract effortlessly, and help their people initiate REAL change in their professional or personal lives.
The question is: which would you rather be?
Influencers vs Thought Leaders
Have you ever come across someone in your niche or industry that is in a similar role as you, been in business for a similar length of time -- but has a gazillion followers?
*raises hand*
On the outside, it looks like they may be very influential in the space.
If you’re like me, you immediately feel a little bit discouraged (or envious) because they are THE COMPETITION.
You may start combing their content, subscribing to their emails, opting into their launches, following them on the channels.
What’s their secret? If you could just reverse engineer their process to become an influencer, then you’d have a steady stream of business opportunities.
They MUST have a TON of clients or customers, if they have that many followers, right?
Funny thing is that if you actually get behind-the-scenes with many of these influencers, and they showed you their actual revenue… you’d be surprised!
They may have superficial influence and get a lot of engagement on their content (feeding that dopamine high) but it doesn’t always translate to generating revenue.
I had a recent conversation with one of the very first people invited to become an OFFICIAL LinkedIn influencer “way back when” the feature first become available.
He’s got 300K+ followers on LinkedIn, but he was struggling to figure out how to actually turn his “influence” into conversations or engagement on his posts.
Most of his content had a half dozen likes - yeah, pretty low engagement for an audience of 300K and an international bestselling book!
Technically, he’s an influencer. But is he changing the hearts and minds of his audience? Is he influencing the way they do business? Impacting them beyond his notoriety?
It’s hard to tell. Maybe he’s a thought leader, but we’ll never know because his people are not ENGAGING with him. He’s also not having the conversations he wants to have with his audience to get their feedback.
He’s an influencer. He’s probably a thought leader, but even he doesn’t if he is because his audience isn’t talking to him.
On the one hand - we have viral videos of influencers from TikTok’ers with tons of engagement but little effect on their audience’s changing of perspective.
On the other hand - we have a bonafide LinkedIn influencer who has written a thought leadership type of book, but is not getting any feedback from his readers to find out if he’s actually changing perspective.
What to do here?
Thought Leadership Begins with Mastery
In a recent episode of Brandon Lucero’s podcast (highly recommend his work, by the way!) he actually mentioned a concept around using mastery of whatever is your specialty to become a thought leader, rather than just going for being an influencer.
And about Brandon, he actually lives what he teaches. If you try to follow him on social media channels, you will see that his follower count and even some of the “organic” engagement on his posts is lower than you might expect for a multi-seven figure business owner.
But he’s a thought leader.
His approach to creating content is different than others I’ve seen, though he uses many of the same mechanisms (think podcast, FB ads, IG ads, stories, etc.)
I think what’s different about him is that he’s not showing up to entertain you. He may use an entertaining way to get your attention, but his content is jammed with ideas and concepts that totally flip whatever you thought about an industry norm on its head.
In my mind, he’s a thought leader.
He knows exactly how to build demand for his products in a way that doesn’t feel salesy, encourages people to self-select, and doesn’t rely on becoming an influencer to get it done.
This is what I call a bit more scrappy and going against the grain, and I LOVE this approach.
It’s also a similar approach for how I work with my clients and how I coach my students using The LinkedIn Accelerator framework.
Becoming a true-blue thought leader requires that you do the deep thinking, that you understand your industry norms, that you’re willing to go against what everyone else is doing/saying -- but only after you’ve proven that your process works.
It’s gutsy.
It’s kinda’ like “coming out” for the first time and really embracing who you are.
A thought leader comes out, no matter the consequences and realizes there will be an upside.
An influencer stays in the closet, because it’s comfortable and familiar.
5 Steps to Thought Leadership Content
Let’s talk about how you can take that next step towards crafting thought leadership content -- not just going viral on LinkedIn because you can take a pretty picture or post a poll that gets a hundred likes.
This is all about changing peoples’ perspectives and helping them to see something they assumed to be unequivocally true thought another lens.
#1 - You must master your craft
This takes time - not always the 10,000 hours that is often quoted - but you need to actually generate results before you make a big deal talking about your unique approach.
You must test your process in working with people who are open to a new way of thinking.
You must continue to develop and iterate your process over time - it’s never stagnant.
#2 - Know your industry norms
What do people in your industry believe already?
You have to know what these industry norms are before you can flip them on their head.
For example, this entire Livestream is about flipping the idea that you need to become an influencer on its head to say that becoming a thought leader is better!
Once you know “what everyone else believes” about a topic, you can figure out how to approach that same belief from multiple angles.
#3 - Figure out what you believe
Before you can help other people shift their perspective, you must know what YOU believe about a certain topic.
Be very specific and clear on your beliefs for your work, your industry, your profession, your business
Once you know what you undoubtedly believe, you can speak with more confidence to that topic
#4 - Share content that builds demand
Thought leaders focus on building demand - which means that your followers ARE buyers or will want to become buyers in the future
When you share content that allows them to self-select, you’ll notice that your sales process is not salesy at all
Great content builds demand for “going deeper” with you because they are starting to get to know, like and trust you
#5 - Deepen your existing connections
Even if you’re just getting started, you likely already know 3-5 people who are in your LinkedIn network that would support your work.
Stay on their radar - engage with them proactively.
Get into your DMs with them.
These are likely the people who will be willing to test your process as you’re working on mastery, or willing to spread the word about your work. It should be a continuous process!
In conclusion, your goal is to create more meaningful 1:1 connections with people the people you want to serve by adding them to your LinkedIn network and reaching out to them in a way that feels human.
My challenge for you -- think about ONE industry norm that drives you crazy because you have a different perspective. Think about how you could create a piece of content that would get people in your audience to challenge that belief for themselves.
If you’re looking for that extra edge to figure out how to become a thought leader on LinkedIn to get more clients or grow your business, get on my waitlist for The LinkedIn Accelerator where I’ll be doing a free kickoff training to help you flesh out your LinkedIn strategy.
