How to go from 0 to 100,000 followers on LinkedIn: What I did

Summary

In this video, the creator shares their remarkable journey from 2,000 to over 113,000 LinkedIn followers, achieving 30 million views in a year. They discuss the importance of experimenting with content, staying within one's expertise, and maintaining consistency despite challenges. The creator emphasizes the significance of a strong content strategy, leveraging personal skills like design, and the delayed impact of content marketing. They conclude with seven key lessons learned, encouraging viewers to start their own LinkedIn growth journey.

Takeaways

• 🚀 Started with a small following and grew to over 113,000 followers and 30 million views within a year by leveraging LinkedIn.
• 🔍 Initially used LinkedIn to generate leads for a business, emphasizing the importance of purpose over fear of judgment.
• 🔄 Experimented with various topics and formats early on, but learned to focus on areas of expertise for authenticity and credibility.
• 🌟 Built a personal brand by associating expertise with personal identity, making it easier for people to think of the individual when they think of the expertise area.
• 📉 Experienced a loss of momentum, highlighting the need to continually push and reinvent content strategies to stay relevant.
• 🔁 Emphasized the importance of consistency, even during periods of low engagement, as a key to long-term growth.
• 💡 Learned that insights, not just formats or hooks, are crucial for creating engaging content that stands out.
• 🎯 Took content strategy seriously by developing content pillars, a narrative, and a clear point of view to resonate with the audience.
• 🎨 Incorporated diverse skills, such as design, into LinkedIn content creation to enhance visual appeal and differentiate the content.
• ⏳ Recognized that the impact of content marketing is often delayed, advising patience and persistence for long-term success.

Q & A

How many followers did the speaker have in January 2022?

The speaker had 2,000 followers in January 2022.

What was the speaker's primary goal when starting to post on LinkedIn?

The speaker's primary goal was to generate leads for their agency.

What was a significant lesson the speaker learned from their initial phase of posting on LinkedIn?

The speaker learned to experiment but to stay within their expertise zone, writing about topics they truly care about and have knowledge in.

How did the speaker define a personal brand?

A personal brand is defined as how people perceive you, and when it's strong, people think of you when they think about your area of expertise.

What happened in April 2022 that indicated the speaker's content was gaining traction?

In April 2022, the speaker's posts started to take off, with some reaching 80 to 100 engagements, and they began to get leads.

What did the speaker do to regain momentum after experiencing a loss of engagement?

The speaker kept posting every day, focusing on the creation process rather than the outcome, and maintained consistency.

What was the impact of one of the speaker's posts about chat GPT that got over five million impressions?

The post taught the speaker the importance of providing fresh, unique, and interesting insights in their content.

What two lessons did the speaker learn from the phase where their content really took off in June 2023?

The speaker learned to take content strategy seriously and to incorporate various skills, like design, into their LinkedIn posts to create unique content.

What was a significant milestone the speaker celebrated in October 2023?

The speaker celebrated reaching 50,000 followers on LinkedIn in October 2023.

What is the delayed impact of content marketing on LinkedIn according to the speaker?

The speaker explains that the results of posting on LinkedIn have a delayed impact, with opportunities arising two to three months after the content is published.

What are the seven lessons the speaker shared in the video?

The seven lessons are: 1) Experiment while staying within your expertise zone. 2) Keep posting and reinventing your content. 3) Consistency is key. 4) Focus on insights, not just formats and hooks. 5) Take content strategy seriously. 6) Utilize all your skills in your LinkedIn strategy. 7) Be patient for results, as they are delayed.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Journey to LinkedIn Success

The speaker recounts their remarkable growth from 2,000 to over 113,000 LinkedIn followers, attributing this to a strategic content approach. Initially, they started posting to generate leads for their agency, disregarding initial judgments and focusing on business needs. They experimented with various topics and formats, eventually realizing the importance of sticking to their area of expertise in marketing and growth strategies. The speaker emphasizes the need to experiment but stay within one's zone of expertise to build credibility and engagement.

05:03

🔄 Overcoming Obstacles and Consistency

Despite initial success, the speaker experienced a loss of momentum due to complacency. They learned the hard way that continuous effort and reinvention are crucial to maintain engagement. The speaker then went through a challenging period of low engagement but persevered, posting daily and focusing on the creation process over immediate results. This phase taught them the value of consistency and discipline in content creation. Eventually, a post about chat GPT garnered significant attention, highlighting the importance of discussing fresh and unique insights. The speaker continued to post consistently, leading to a significant increase in followers and recognition in their industry.

10:03

🌟 Building Authority and Leveraging Skills

The speaker's content strategy evolved, incorporating a strong narrative with clear points of view and a defined enemy, which significantly boosted their content's appeal. They also began incorporating infographics, leveraging their design skills to enhance their posts visually. The speaker emphasizes the importance of a serious content strategy and utilizing one's diverse skills to create unique content. They reflect on the delayed impact of content marketing, where efforts today yield results in the future. The speaker's journey culminated in reaching 100,000 followers and experiencing numerous benefits, such as increased inbound leads and opportunities, validating the effectiveness of their LinkedIn strategy.

Keywords

💡LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional networking platform where users can connect, share content, and find job opportunities. In the video, the speaker discusses their journey from having 2,000 to over 113,000 followers on LinkedIn, highlighting the platform's role in building their personal brand and generating business leads.

💡Personal Brand

A personal brand refers to the image and identity that an individual projects professionally. In the context of the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of building a strong personal brand on LinkedIn, which led to them being recognized as an authority in their industry and attracting leads and opportunities.

💡Content Strategy

Content strategy is a plan for creating, delivering, and governing content. The speaker shares their content strategy, which involved experimenting with different topics and formats, and eventually focusing on growth marketing, which helped them gain traction and followers on LinkedIn.

💡Engagement

Engagement on social media refers to the interactions users have with content, such as likes, comments, and shares. The video discusses the importance of high engagement for gaining visibility and leads on LinkedIn, and how the speaker's content strategy aimed to increase engagement over time.

💡Consistency

Consistency in content creation means regularly posting and maintaining a steady presence. The speaker stresses the importance of consistency, mentioning that they continued to post daily even during periods of low engagement, which eventually led to growth and success on LinkedIn.

💡Experimentation

Experimentation in the context of content creation involves trying different topics, formats, and styles to see what resonates with the audience. The speaker talks about their initial phase of experimentation on LinkedIn, which helped them discover the types of content that performed best.

💡Growth Marketing

Growth marketing is a marketing strategy focused on increasing the number of customers or users of a product or service. The speaker positioned themselves as an expert in growth marketing, which became the central theme of their content and personal brand on LinkedIn.

💡Lead Generation

Lead generation is the process of attracting and converting interested parties into potential customers. The video mentions that the speaker's initial goal for posting on LinkedIn was to generate leads for their agency, which they successfully achieved through strategic content creation.

💡Inbound Leads

Inbound leads are potential customers who find a business through content marketing, such as blog posts or social media. The speaker discusses how their consistent posting and content strategy on LinkedIn resulted in an increase in inbound leads for their business.

💡Infographics

Infographics are visual representations of information, data, or knowledge. The speaker mentions incorporating infographics into their LinkedIn posts, leveraging their design skills to create visually appealing content that resonated with their audience and boosted engagement.

💡Delayed Impact

Delayed impact refers to the time lag between taking an action and seeing its effects. The speaker explains that the results of their content marketing efforts on LinkedIn had a delayed impact, with increased visibility and opportunities coming months after consistent posting.

Highlights

Growth from 2,000 to 113,000 LinkedIn followers within two years.

Achieved 30 million views on LinkedIn in the past year.

Started posting on LinkedIn in January 2022 to generate leads for an agency.

Ignored initial concerns about others' opinions to focus on business needs.

Analyzed the platform and experimented with different topics and formats.

Learned the importance of posting about topics within one's expertise.

April 2022 saw the beginning of significant engagement and lead generation.

Defined and built a personal brand around growth marketing.

Lost momentum due to complacency and insufficient effort in content creation.

Consistency is key, even during periods of low engagement.

A single post on chat GPT in February 2023 gained over five million impressions.

Emphasized the importance of fresh, unique, and interesting insights in content.

Reinvention of content strategy and formats is necessary to maintain momentum.

Added infographics to posts, leveraging design skills to enhance visual appeal.

June 2023 marked a significant upswing in content performance and authority building.

October 2023 reached the milestone of 50,000 followers.

By May 2024, the follower count exceeded 100,000.

Highlighted the benefits of a strong LinkedIn presence, such as increased opportunities and faster responses.

Stressed the importance of a content strategy with clear pillars and a narrative.

Encouraged leveraging multiple skills to create unique and engaging content.

Noted that results from content marketing have a delayed impact, requiring patience.

Offered a LinkedIn Master Class for further guidance on growing a LinkedIn presence.

Transcripts

in January 2022 I had 2,000 followers

and today I have over

113,000 followers and in the past year I

got 30 million views on LinkedIn so I

went from unknown to a high Authority in

my industry thanks to LinkedIn but of

course it was not easy to achieve this

so in this video I'm going to break down

the whole story and you're going to

understand how I went from 2,000 to over

110,000 followers and I'm going to share

everything how did I start what mistakes

did I make what content strategy did I

use how I built my personal brand and

also what were my top performing posts

that led me to where I am now so it all

started in January 2022 I started

posting on LinkedIn because I had to

generate leads for my agency that I had

back then and from the start I really

didn't care about what others would

think about me posting on LinkedIn

because I knew I had to do it for my

business so I really didn't care about

what others were thinking and this is

something very important because you

cannot start posting if you worry too

much about what other people are

thinking so to launch my LinkedIn post I

analyzed the platform I was looking at

other creators the trends and so on and

I simply started posting by

experimenting on different topics I

talked about marketing About Management

about leadership about business but also

about other topics topics such as

history and so on so I really

experimented with broad topics trying

few formats and I recommend you to start

by experimenting on different type of

posts and different type of topics but

here is a lesson that I learned because

I even wrote about things I didn't know

about I wrote about how to be a manager

and not a leader even if I was not

really good in management and Leadership

so when I noticed that I started to

experiment more on the topics that I

knew about such as marketing and more

especially growth marketing so here is a

lesson for you that I got from my first

phase you need to experiment but make

sure that you write and publish about

topics that you really care about that

you have an expertise in and where you

can answer questions comment and so on

so experiment but don't step out too

much of your expertise Zone talk about

topics that you know about that you love

and where you have a good track record

so after 4 months in April 2022 my post

started to take off I got good

engagement I even got some post with

around 80 to 100 engagements I was

starting to get leads because when you

start posting you get leads on LinkedIn

around after 3 months and what happened

is that I started to build my personal

brand here is a quick definition of a

personal brand it's about how people

perceive you and when you have a strong

personal brand here is what happens when

they think about your expertise they

think about you and when they think

about you then they think about your

expertise so at that time I positioned

myself on the topic of growth marketing

because that was what we were selling in

my agency so when people needed a growth

marketer they would think about me and

when they thought about me they also

thought about growth marketing so that's

when I started to build my personal

brand around marketing and growth

marketing so at that time I was around

4,000 followers and it was going well

but at some point I really lost my

momentum I think what happened is that I

thought I made it I thought that I had a

good content strategy and that my posts

were doing well so I didn't put enough

efforts in my posts because of that and

so I lost my momentum so I got a lower

engagement less leads and also less

Revenue obviously so here is a lesson

for you that I got from this phas you

need to always keep pushing and always

reinvent yourself your formats your

posts or even the topics you're talking

about because the algorithm the market

the trends and people are always

changing so you always need to adapt so

after I lost this momentum it was really

hard for me I went through what we call

the valley of Despair it was really hard

from July 2022 to January 2023 during 6

months I had really low engagement yes

during six months it was really hard but

you know what I kept posting every day

and today I'm thanking myself for that

because at that time I thought okay you

are not getting a lot of Engagement now

people are not really interested anymore

so that means it's getting harder so I

thought let's see if you can keep

pushing even if you don't have a fast

feedback loop and the dopamine out of

the engagement this is where I really

Built My discipline I was posting every

day during six months even if I was not

getting the results that I was expecting

so I put my focus on the creation

process rather than the outcome which

where the engagement their Impressions

and the leads and the revenue so I kept

posting I kept analyzing the result

iterating based on the results and even

if I had low engagement and not so good

results I kept posting and this is an

important lesson that I got from this

phase is that consistency is the name of

the game no matter how good you are or

how good your content is if you are not

consistent meaning creating content and

posting on a regular basis your account

will not grow and especially when it's

hard you need to stay consistent

otherwise you will abandon so make sure

to be disciplined have a Content plan

and stick to it step by step and stay

consistent so when you have low results

you can expect better results step by

step and then 6 months after low

engagement in February 2023 something

big happened one of my post got more

than five Millions Impressions on

LinkedIn the post was about chat GPT

that launched GPT plus the funny thing

is that I wrote this post in 20 minutes

and it was just an analysis of the

potential Revenue made by GPT plus and

because it was the day after the

announcement it got a lot of Engagement

it was shared everywhere even on the

Press so it taught me a very important

lesson is that what is important when

you are writing a post it's of course

the formatting is important the call to

action the hook but more importantly

what Insight are you talking about with

this post I talked about a very specific

Insight a very trendy one and because of

that people really liked and enjoyed

reading it so here is a lesson for you

when you are ideating your content you

need to have an Insight that is fresh

unique and interesting don't try to copy

everyone else or you would be a copycat

and don't write content that is like a

commodity that can be found anywhere

else but after these big posts something

bad happened is that I lost my momentum

for the second time this time I don't

know why but I think this post gave me a

good momentum for like three weeks but I

lost it again after that but the good

thing is that as I explained earlier I

kept being consistent I kept posting on

LinkedIn every day and this is when the

real takeoff happened so finally in June

2023 my LinkedIn content really took off

and I started to build my authority in

my industry thank to this social network

here is the truth in June 2023 I started

to take it very seriously so I built my

content strategy I created my content

pillars I had a real narrative with a

strong point of view fighting a real

enemy so this is why my content took off

by the way if you are interested to

create your LinkedIn content strategy

and to find your narrative your point of

view your content pillars and build your

Manifesto you can have a look at my

LinkedIn master class in the

descriptions so you can learn exactly

how to do that also at this time I

started to add infographics in my

LinkedIn posts and actually I always had

this skill because I've been a designer

for eight years but I thought that

design was different from LinkedIn I

thought it was two different skills but

when I added infographics into the mix

people really started to enjoy my

content because it was really visual so

here are two lessons for you that I

learned from this phase the first one is

you need to take your content strategy

seriously you should not post randomly

and the second lesson is that you should

have a look at all the skills that you

have and try to reuse them for your

LinkedIn content so have a look maybe

you are good at design or at video

making or building public take your

skills and include them inside your

LinkedIn content strategy so over the

summer of 2023 I added around 15,000

followers to my LinkedIn account with

around three months of posting and so in

October 2023 I celebrated my 50,000

followers with this post it was a very

important milestone for me and after

that I kept posting and pushing my

LinkedIn content even further at this

time everything started to accelerate I

got more inbound leads more podcast

invitations more revenue and also I

built my personal brand and my authority

in my industry every day I was

generating around 65,000 views and

getting around 200 to 300 followers per

day it really felt like all the efforts

that I put in the past 6 months were

really paying off and this taught me a

very important lesson that you have to

know as well is that in content

marketing and also on LinkedIn when you

are posting something today you will get

the results in three months it has a

delayed impact on your business or on

your career so you start publishing now

and you harvest the opportunities in 3

months that's why it's very important

for you to start right now if you are

interested to build authority to get

inbound demand and to build your

personal brand that's why you should

have a look at my LinkedIn Master Class

if you want to achieve this so finally I

hit 100,000 followers in May 2024 and I

celebrated with this post now that I

have around 113,000 followers obviously

I'm still the same person and I'm still

a marketer but I have a lot of different

benefits that come thanks to this I get

around 20 messages per day of different

opportunities people from around the

world I receive plenty of inbound leads

every week when I send a message in

direct message or by email people answer

to me within 24 hours or 48 hours and

they often tell me that they love my

content and that they've been following

me for a long time so that proves that

I'm helping them and in exchange they

are okay to talk with me and I even

noticed that when I sent a message to

meet someone they are really interested

to meet me for example I was traveling

in Europe and when I arrived in a big

city in Europe I sent a direct message

to someone who is a chief marketing

officer in a big Corporation and within

48 hours they replied to me and proposed

to have a coffee together so you see

this is really a great asset for you

your career or your business and

obviously it helped me to generate

Revenue because I can sell my offers

within this distribution Network and

know my solo business makes multiple

five figures per month thanks to this

audience on LinkedIn so obviously you

don't need 100,000 followers to get all

those benefits if your target is 10,000

or 20,000 followers that's a very good

objective as well what matters is what

topic you're talking about your content

strategy who is seeing your post are

they in your target audience does your

content strategy contributes to your

business growth those are the important

questions beyond the number of followers

all right that was my story about how I

went from 2,000 to over 113,000

followers and now I'm going to recap the

seven lessons that I told you within

this video first you need to start by

experimenting Don't Fear the Judgment of

others but stay within your expertise

Zone second always keep posting and

Reinventing Your content even when you

are winning third consistency is the

name of the game so you need to keep

posting even when it's getting hard

fourth the formats the hooks are

important but more importantly you need

to find insights and talk about insights

that are interesting unique and fresh

five you need to take your content

strategy seriously and to have a set of

content pillars a narrative a point of

view and an enemy in order to create

good content six if you have different

skills you should add them to the

LinkedIn Post in order to create unique

content so if you are good at video or

design make sure to include it inside

your LinkedIn strategy and the last

lesson number seven the results are

delayed so you need to be patient when

you start publishing today you will

start getting results within two or

three months all right that's the end of

this video if you want to have more

information about how to grow on

LinkedIn you can have a look at the

LinkedIn master class in the description

I'm sure it will help you to grow your

number of followers but more importantly

to create and apply your content

strategy and make sure to subscribe to

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