How I got to 100,000 followers on LinkedIn [true story]

So last week I got to 100K followers on LinkedIn… and had to take a cheesy picture to celebrate.

Thankfully it wasn’t too windy that day…

And in this email I’ll share with you my exact roadmap on how I got here – so that you learn the shortcuts from me having taken the long way around. 😉

(You may want to save this email).

I’ll break it down into the three years that I’ve been active on LinkedIn, and what helped me grow the most each year:

Year 1:

• I started writing on LinkedIn actively in Feb/March 2022.
• In the beginning I wrote about anything and everything – things I was working on, books I’d read, realizations I’d had, lessons I’d learned.
• There was no focus – because I was just getting started.
• For the next 3-4 months, I only heard crickets and saw tumbleweed.
• But this wasn’t discouraging because
  a. I still had two full-time jobs as a PR director and a filmmaker at the time, and
  b. As I came from a marketing and branding background, I had told myself that this is the long game and I’d only see results in a year or more.
• I started getting positive feedback on my posts about public speaking – which was one of my big passions in life.
• I started engaging on other posts multiple hours a day every day + consuming all the free guidance I could find on copywriting and creating hooks for LinkedIn.
• I started making videos about public speaking by month 6.
• Got highlighted by LinkedIn Video Spotlight multiple times, and LinkedIn approached me to do LinkedIn Learning courses on public speaking.
• TLDR:
  * Niched down in year 1 to public speaking
  * Started creating videos – and it differentiated me from all the written posts on LinkedIn.
  * Gained early credibility on the platform by becoming an official LinkedIn Instructor.
  * Follower count at end of Year 1: ~20K
  

A screenshot from 2022- yes Jasmin and I were friends even back then!

Year 2:

• I kept creating videos on public speaking lessons and stories.
• I was seeing results in the form of clients reaching out to me, wanting to work with me.
• I was able to quit both my full-time jobs and go full-time as a public speaking coach.
• However, LinkedIn wasn’t prioritizing videos at this point, so I balanced out one videos a week with 4 other written posts.
• I also expanded my focus from just public speaking to overall communication skills to appeal to a wider audience.
• Started adding in stories about me with images so that people get a feel for who I am, what I stand for.
• I did a lot of experimentation this year – creating videos out of LinkedIn posts that did well, lots of LinkedIn lives and audio events, and keeping up with engaging every single day.
• I tried out different post formats – carousels did well this year so went all in on that + collaborated with other creators on carousel posts, to mutually grow our audience.
• TLDR:
  * Went all in on carousels.
  * Expanded from narrow niche to broader niche.
  * Added in personal stories to keep me relevant, not just my knowledge.
  * Ranked #1 on Communication Skills on the new Favikon rankings.
  * Follower count at end of Year 2: ~45K
  

Year 3:

• Evolved and adapted my content with the platform – cheatsheets were big this year, so I created dozens and dozens of them.
• Early 2024 – video still wasn’t being promoted by the platform, I still kept creating videos as they had a strong impact on my audience (and potential clients).
• Late 2024: LinkedIn finally started promoting videos through it’s new Video feed and I went all in. Since I’d been creating videos for the past 2.5 years, I had the setup and content creation system for it ready to go.
• This was the first year I saw big viral hits with my video posts – with some posts surpassing 10-17 million impressions.

• TLDR:
  * Adapted to the platform – first by posting cheatsheets and then by going all in on videos.
  * Kept up with engagement and collaborating with bigger creators.
  * Follower count at the end of Year 3 (by Feb 2025): 100K
  

That’s it on the journey so far – hope this roadmap was helpful for you rockstar!

P.S. I’ve been working on my Speak as a Leader program – we’re ON for launching in April. I’ll share more in my next email!

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