LinkedIn Creator Mode: Flick The Switch On or Ignore While They Sort It Out?

‘Whether you’re a business owner or professional, LinkedIn is a fantastic place to reach new clients and customers. It has always been a great place to network and, more recently, it has been evolving as a place to learn about your subject area from the wealth of content that is posted there every day. It’s with this in mind that LinkedIn probably developed Creator Mode, but like many things LinkedIn does, it hasn’t really delivered.’

Maryrose Lyons, Oct 2021

2022: Do we recommend you activate Creator Mode?

The short answer is to give it a try and monitor it. There can be some big benefits to Creator Mode and it depends on what your overall goal is with LinkedIn as to whether these are important to you.

Big Bonuses of LinkedIn Creator Mode

LinkedIn Live
The door opens for you to do LinkedIn Live. Up until now, it has been difficult to access LinkedIn Live. Live broadcasting has proven beneficial for many businesses on the other social platforms (eg. Facebook and Instagram - whose feed isn’t cluttered up at 6pm daily!?). If you are coming over to LinkedIn from Facebook as a business, being able to continue live streaming to show your product or demonstrate your brand is a plus.
LinkedIn Newsletters
You get to send LinkedIn Newsletters to your Network — another previously hard-won feature. LinkedIn members can subscribe to your newsletter and are notified about new articles that you choose to share. It’s a great way to grow and build your audience. Newsletters are rolling out to Company pages with more than 500 followers. Don't overlook growing your email list even if you switch to LinkedIn newsletters. It's important to own your contacts, and with LinkedIn you are renting!
Invitation to Follow
Another benefit of LinkedIn Newsletters is that LinkedIn will invite your followers and connections to subscribe to your newsletter and promote your newsletter to other relevant readers. You will get real-time feedback and comments from your readers to help you understand more about them and what they are consuming.
Organic discoverability
Creator mode is free. Turning on Creator Mode enhances organic discoverability because your content will be seen by those interested in the topic even if you have no audience, no connections, no followers.

Some other benefits of Creator Mode that may excite you

Follow not Connect
The “Connect” option changes to “Follow” so rather than building Connections, you develop Followers. It’s faster for people to do one click to follow you, so it might be more conducive to building your audience at speed. (You can still Connect via with people who are on Creator mode, it's just one extra step to get to that button)
Your profile displays a little differently:
You can select topics you want to be known for. These go to the top of your profile — building your credibility and authority around certain topics.
You can add 5 hashtags that signal your key interests at a glance.
Your follower count is shown, not your connections.
There’s the option to add a short 30 second video instead of your profile picture to quickly communicate what you’re all about to viewers. Check out Maryrose’s!
You may become eligible to be featured as a suggested Creator to follow. That would put your profile in front of more people who may be interested in what you do.

And hot off the press there is a brand new feature that certainly improves the offer

…‘Invite to Follow’.

There is a new LinkedIn feature being rolled out as reported by @Richard van der Blom in early January 2022. An ‘invite to follow’ option is being seen at the end of some Creator Mode users’ posts which will further encourage following. Richard says “a little add-on but with huge impact to grow your follower base”.

However, it does not seem to be hitting everyone. It seems you only get the option of following that person using the hashtags they have added in Creator mode. This applies to everyone who is not a first-degree connection.

Sounds Good But Is LinkedIn Creator For You?

New Graduate

New to LinkedIn.

Not yet posting own content.

50+ connections.

Our Advice:
As a new graduate, your main objective is to increase your connections and views of your profile. LinkedIn will help you develop your career. For now, Creator mode is not for you.

Build those connections with college network and new work. Hit that 500+ as your first goal.

Business Owner

Regularly posts own content.

Has LinkedIn profile but hasn’t fully utilised it to generate business yet.

500+ Connections .

Our Advice: As a business owner, you need to connect and engage with your target customers. You could try Creator Mode to quickly become known on LinkedIn for your subject area but you must be willing to create content regularly. Turning on Creator mode may turn you on, but if content creation isn't your thing, leave for the moment.

Corporate Manager

Uses LinkedIn daily.
Comments regularly, posts occasionally.

500+ Connections.

Our Advice: As a well-networked individual, now might be a good time to grow your following as a thought leader/subject matter expert. Growing an audience to increase the reach of your content and your name can only bring good results! Whether you are looking to make a job move, or your eyes are on promotion, Creator Mode will make you more visible by hiring managers or senior managers and will help you stand out in search results. Go for it!

For some, the jury is still out on Creator Mode.

If you are building a network, reasons you might not want to use Creator mode.

Urgh, when you try to Connect with someone who has Creator Mode turned on, you get this off-putting message

You can Private Message with Connections, you cannot Private Message with Followers.

And our previous concerns still stand…

Adding hashtags to your profile to quickly signal your topics of interest to viewers sounds like an interesting idea at first. But if you’re already using hashtags when you post content, there isn’t a huge value add here. We recommend using 3 hashtags in posts, by the way, you can drop them naturally into the caption or add them at the end of the post. Some people prefer adding at the end of the post so as not to compel people to click away while reading.
Featured Vs. Activity Sections. At face value, switching up the focus by bringing your content to the top of your profile sounds like a good idea. But that’s not the case in reality. Without Creator Mode turned on, people who view your profile will see:
• Profile Picture
• Bio
• Activity (i.e. your posts, comments & likes)
• Featured
There’s not much of a huge difference for anyone who takes the time to look at your profile properly. Connect Vs. Follow
Richard van der Blom’s LinkedIn research 2021 revealed that Creator Mode causes you to receive 3 times fewer invitations to connect.
If you’re connected with someone on LinkedIn, there is the added benefit of being able to message them, and DM’s are a key metric for people who are serious about growing their business through LinkedIn.
Is it a benefit to drive follows and not connections? If LinkedIn had made significant changes to the algorithm to favour those you follow vs. those you’re connected with, or if it distributed creators’ content across the platform more widely, then it could have a significant impact. But it didn’t. Creator Mode does not increase the reach or engagement of your content