Thank you to my friend and brilliant colleague Jennifer Darling for today’s guest post.
LinkedIn recently rolled out a new function called “Creator Mode.” There’s been little information from LinkedIn about this new function, but I turned it on to experiment and found one thing I love and one thing I didn’t. I’ll share those both with you here.
First, let me show you where you’ll find Creator Mode. It is located on your profile page in Your Dashboard, under your stats. See below:
When you toggle it to on, a pop up window will display and allow you to select the hashtags you want your content to be associated with when it’s posted. If you aren’t seeing Creator Mode on your personal profile yet, don’t worry! This feature is in Beta and is rolled out to the more highly active LinkedIn users first (which is a case for you increasing your social selling index and activity!).
What I LOVE about this function: I noticed when I turned it on that immediately my “Features” section was moved above my “About” section and below my header. This is AWESOME. The Features section is one of the absolute best sections of LinkedIn where you can put two pieces of your best marketing to convert buyers visiting your profile. Read more about the Features section and my suggestions on what to put in it.
The Features section is a goldmine on LinkedIn and has now become PRIME REAL ESTATE along with a customer-focused banner and headline.
What I DON’T love about this function: when you turn Creator Mode on, LinkedIn changes your settings so that when visitors want to connect with you, they are only allowed to Follow you. I don’t like that AT ALL. I want people in my first-person connections. You can read more about the differences between Connections and Followers here.
You can manually override this setting and put it back to allow connections. That’s what I did and it’s my preference. I want to know who’s in my network. You will find this under your profile “Settings and Privacy.” Select “Visibility” from the menu on the left of your screen. Next choose “Visibility of Your Profile” and move the toggle OFF where it reads “Make Follow Primary.” See below:
That’s it! Make that change, and you’ll be back to accepting Connections and growing your network!
And don’t forget, you can use social media throughout your presentation as well, it is not just for lead generation! 😉
About the Author: Jennifer Darling is a revenue-generating machine and in-demand keynote speaker, she led her teams to record-breaking results in sales. During the recession, her team posted a +40% swing in the national average in advertising sales and made more money than ever before (she even helped her boss earn his bonus to buy a new Audi, yay him). Jennifer knows what works to turn frigid calls into smokin’ hot prospects. She is loaded with ideas that break through the traditional molds and create innovative solutions to stand out. Jennifer is one of the world’s foremost LinkedIn experts, and the ONLY one who has 20+ years of advertising and sales experience. Jennifer has trained thousands of salespeople and business professionals to optimize and maximize their LinkedIn results. She is the author of Increase Your Sales Leads with LinkedIn: 52 Tips for Sales Success.
