Ready for a 100 Day Challenge?
LinkedIn has quickly gone from being the most boring platform on the Internet to the one with the most opportunity for growth. Especially for creators. It’s simpler than ever to grow on Linkedin.
I detailed this huge shift in a case study where I revealed how I became a thought creator on LinkedIn 100 days. I detailed the opportunity to become a thought creator, the prep work you need, and the mindset required to accomplish a 100 Day Project on LinkedIn. But I didn’t go into depth about what you need to focus on during each period of the 100 days.
Yes, we break up 100 days into chunks of 30 days intervals.
So if you’re here searching for the solution to become a thought creator in 100 days, let’s give you one. This article outlines the 100-day timeline I used to grow my community on LinkedIn.
Not my just my LinkedIn connections, or my network, or my following.
Yes, those grew as well.
But the strategies that I will lay out here go beyond vanity metrics. To gain traction in the next 10 years, you must focus on building a community. And these steps will show you how.
Let’s get into it.
How to grow on LinkedIn: 0–30 days
☝️ 1. Find Your Purpose
If you think you might not be able to make it through 100 days, take a good look at yourself and get real. The reason for all mediocrity is the tyranny of soft expectations. You can’t expect to learn how to grow on LinkedIn without having a purpose that will guide you. A 100 Day Project, invented by Michael Beirut, is an excellent way to begin even if you don’t know what you’re doing. You can use the 100 days to become more consistent, get growth, find out about the platform. Or do all three or more. It’s you who defines the metrics of success. Just make sure you define them in the first place and stick to them.
😤 2. Work on Your Arrogance
You might think you’re too small, or the platform is against you, or that you already have a “community” and that you know a thing or two. Don’t mistake what you think you know to be the truth. This is our blind spot and your arrogance talking. It’s something we can’t see, but others can. And it’s also the thing that kills community before you even start to build one. To be a successful thought creator, you must build a community. And the only way to do that is by letting go of your preconceived notions. A halt in growth usually stems back to a problem with arrogance. Try not to stunt it before you even get started.
🏓 3. Put Some Effort Into It
The only thing you need to worry about in your first month is getting started. Build up the habit of consistently showing up every morning and engaging within the first two hours of pressing publish. If you’re international, choose a time that works with the US or UK mornings to start off with. You can always change this later depending on the audience you target. My take is, the more I post, the more opportunities I get to appear in people’s feeds (sometimes over and over again).
⏰ 4. Deliver For Your Audience
You need to show up with the mindset of providing value in the most simplified way people can understand. Focus on what people respond to because you will use that to your advantage in the second month. Remember that everything is an energy exchange. Celebration, inspiration, and motivation are the most sellable energy there is. Don’t waste people’s time with 1300 characters of boring crap or weird images and video. Solve problems and share insights.
💙 5. Connect With People
You’re going to be spending time on LinkedIn, focus on connecting with the right people. Do this by commenting on other people’s posts in your network or 2nd-degree connections. Connect with them. Take it to the DMs and tell them how much you enjoy their feedback and insights or posts. Start the dialogue and be proactive. These connections will help you get in touch with the right opportunities later, and might even support your content too. My take is, the more genuinely I reach out to people, the more genuine the response is.
✍️ 6. Write From Your Heart
Practice getting better at writing. Writing is what fuels LinkedIn and will take you further even beyond this app. It’s one of the most versatile and powerful skills there is to learn. So invest in getting good at it. Use frameworks and grading scales to make you better at writing. But also make sure that you only use them to make you better at what you feel like saying in the first place. My take is, if I write meaningfully, I can slowly build a community of amazing, like-minded people who actually like what I write and want to support my content.
💥 7. Post Compelling First Liners
Do not write stale content that you wrote for your college English paper. Write for the Internet. Make it easy to follow, easy to consume, easy to like. If you work on your hooks, there will be a much better chance that people will click “see more…” and help your dwell time, which is the length of time someone spends reading a post and a metric LinkedIn favors. If they do this, the chance of engagement is higher. No one gets anywhere with a boring first impression. You need to come out of the gate with something to say.
🗓 8. Don’t Work Too Hard
Let’s admit it. It’s a lot of work to think through, create, distribute and engage on this platform. But if you’re willing to get habitual with it, there are so many more creative opportunities that come later. Approach every day like it’s your first-day posting. And when you consistently do this for at least 30 days, you’ll not only have built up a habit but you’ll be focused on what is working. My take is, if I want to be consistent and to actually enjoy engaging, I needed to plan ahead of time and I need to make it fun.
How to grow on LinkedIn: 31-60 days
🧪 9. Hone In On Your Niche
During the second month, you want to focus on doing more of what works. If you’ve been consistent until now, people will start responding to a certain kind of content and what will be helpful for them. Keep sharing more variety of that type of topic, but don’t let it box you in from sharing something more personal about you. Allow people to make an association with you and the type of content you create. If you understand your narrow content pillars and what works, there are endless conversations you can create.
👊 10. Make Posts Punchier
At this point, if you haven’t built up a small following of people interested in your work, you’re not making compelling enough content. You might want to go back to the basics of writing shorter posts for a better reading experience. Cut to the chase. Make the message clearer. And deliver it with impact. Have a mic drop line in the end. When you do this, you give people a feeling to leave after reading. People like to comprehend things quickly so talk about one thing only and write it in fewer words to leave a mark.
🌟 11. Use Popular Hashtags
Hashtags on LinkedIn do *not* work the same way as they do on Twitter or Instagram. Only use about 3–5 hashtags. Keep them at the bottom of your post so they’re not taking away from the reading experience. Use hashtags that have at least 100K followers on them. You can see a list of popular hashtags here. This ensures that more people will get a chance to see your content who normally don’t. And the new eyeballs you get on your content is important for growth as a thought creator.
🤗 12. Appreciate Your Tribe
If you haven’t been doing this by now, you should. Content and community *both* matter. When you take time to respond to every comment with something thoughtful, that influences goodwill in the community you are building. DM the people who comment on your posts the most. Send them some love and appreciation. My take is, the more you send out individual attention and love through comments and DMs, the more it comes back to you in support.
⏰ 13. Accept All Connections
If you’re looking to grow, you need to know more people. And the consistency of good content will attract all kinds of people. Some people are particular about who they accept into their network. Maybe they were spammed or got an inappropriate request. Don’t take those too seriously and remove the connection if you must. My take is, connections can DM you. And when you DM, you increase the likelihood of the both of you viewing each other’s posts. If someone doesn’t write a personal invite to you, accept them with open arms anyway.
💸 14. Invest Some Cash
It’s completely free to use LinkedIn. You don’t need money to get you going. But there’s a point where you might want to accelerate your growth. You can do that by purchasing courses like Story Converter by Ash Rathod or The Operating System by Justin Welsh. These were courses that I feel confident to put my name behind because of the value they gave to me. You might also want to invest in LinkedIn Premium as well. One thing is for sure, if you grow too fast, it might alert the algorithm to then send you a note to invest in their subscription services.
📊 15. Check Your Analytics
So many people are scared to look at their analytics, but they just tell a story of what’s been going on. And looking at them gives you more control to change the narrative. Creating an account with Sheild will give you all kinds of insight into your past content. It will tell you what days and times get more traction, the demographics of people who view your posts. And the right around the 60-day mark is an excellent time to look at your analytics and validate and sharpen your intuition.
🌴 16. Brand Your Posts
When you’re trying to build a community as a thought creator, it’s something that quickly attracts more of the right people to you. Having unique identifiers sets your posts apart with a brandable mark. Having an emoji is a great and minimal signature. Some people add their own hashtags for people to follow and see all past content. When you do this, you have more people who can click on your name and follow you and connect. If you put in hard work to make your posts better, create the impression so people know where to find more of you.
How to grow on LinkedIn: 61–90 days
📔 17. Share More Stories
Great storytelling is the sign of a great creator. We value great storytelling wherever go. In cinema, in social media videos, in sharing new insights, in talking about our work. Stories capture attention because they make everything easy to follow along with. They have emotion to keep it entertaining. And they tell you someone new you didn’t know before and share a lesson that you can leave with. Stories help us follow along when we don’t know what’s going on. Even if you hint at a bigger story, give people a reason to follow along.
🍱 18. Test A Wider Content Mix
You can be totally successful using just text posts if you’re a good writer. Same thing with carousels or graphics if you’re a good designer. But different kinds of content formats get more reach. Ask yourself, what type of content format is getting the most reach or engagement and can I get better at using that content medium? Great writing does best on this platform, but try spicing it up with images, video, carousels, GIFs, memes, and see what your audience likes. Variety is the spice of life.
🗞 19. Chat About Linkedin News
On your home page in the upper right-hand corner is a space for all the latest and most popular stories on LinkedIn. When they reach LinkedIn news, there is already a spike in the conversation happening that then alters the algorithm. If you use similar keywords and tells a relevant and potent story that adds to the conversation already happening, LinkedIn will push that content to more people for more reactions. My take is, if a news story is relevant to your experience, knowledge, and audience, be a part of the conversation and get more reach.
🤝 20. Connect With Influencers
When you’re a small fish in a big ocean, you’ll need to get on the radar of influencers. Now is a good time to reach out to some larger influencers. Ones that have 3–5–10 times more than the following you have. There is no harm in sending a personal invite, appreciating the creator, and asking what times they usually post so you can support them better. They end up being really helpful in gaining more opportunities. Connecting and commenting on larger accounts in your niche will help you meet more people interested in your niche.
💬 21. Create A DM Strategy
If you’ve gained a lot of views and engagement on your content, people will start reaching out to you. You want to make sure that you have a system to funnel business inquiries so you can capitalize on your effort so far. Connecting with people is great. Commenting is even better. But taking it to the DMs is where the money happens. Make sure you are not sounding like a pitch when you introduce yourself. Instead, use the opportunity to ask what their goals are and share any relevant information that shines a light on how you can be of help.
😅 22. Stay Cool During The Dips
When you start gaining traction, there will be some days where you experience lower views, comments, reactions than normal. That’s okay. We can’t control or always understand why the algorithm might not favor some content over others. This can feel like we’re being singled out or people don’t like us. But it’s simply not true. Hard work pays off, and these are just growing pains with you as a creator and the algorithm. Sometimes you won’t get the response or reach you were expecting. So keep cool and think about your post for tomorrow.
🥰 23. Share Something Personal
You wouldn’t think this, but getting personal is the secret sauce on how to grow on LinkedIn. Many people believe that this is an issue because they fear LinkedIn becoming the next Facebook. Meaning that it’s a place of meaningless content that provides no value. But you can get personal and be of value. When you tell a personal story, share the struggles you overcame and the lessons you learned. Your network values personal experience to understand more of how people make a livelihood. Your community also values getting to know you. My highest performing posts were actually personal stories that had nothing to do with work or what I sell.
⚙️ 24. Optimize Your Systems
This is something you can constantly keep doing. But a 3-month period will help you look at what it is you’re doing and what you can do better. Look to see where there are bottlenecks in your content systems. You want to look at smoothing out any friction that’s coming up in your flow. Can you shorten doing things? Can you make things more fun? Can you step up your game? These are questions that will help you build a long-term game plan so you can get monetized for your efforts later. When you do this, you start to learn How To Create Ultra Content Systems.
How to grow on LinkedIn: 91–100 days
This is a big event. You’re in the last ten-day stretch. There are probably some things you’ll want to think about that you haven’t yet. This leads me to the last step.
🪞25. Reflect Back On Your Growth
When you’ve spent a great deal of time doing something… even if it’s just 100 days, it’s a big deal. The actions you’ve taken and the habits you’ve built become a part of you. It’s time to decide what you want to do going forward. You don’t have to wait until the end to do this. You’re better off doing it more times than just once. But take time to look at all the growth you made and all the value you created. That is something to be proud of.
Look back at the time you spent and ask yourself:
- Would I be willing to continue on after this much growth?
- Am I willing to double down on my daily strategy?
- Can I post twice a day and accelerate my growth?
- How else can I partner with others to get more traction?
- Can I narrow down my content pillars even more?
- Can I focus on creating a system that frees up my time? (more details below)
The answers to these questions will help you see just beyond this time frame you’ve invested so much time with. It can be the beginning of even more things.
This is a good time to bottle up your insights. Just like I did here with this article. You can put them into a condensed format other people can read and gain knowledge from. People really like to see the breakdown of people’s journeys. It makes them wonder and get inspired to do the same thing.
When I took a look back at all the work I did. It gave me a sober reminder of what I wanted to do more of with my time. How I wanted to create more and inspire and teach. And 100 Days on Linkedin helped me to see how to chase after it as a thought creator.
Should you try this out?
If you’re really asking this question then yes. Hell YES. What have you got to lose?
No really. Let’s actually work out the main objections here:
Do you not have time to create content?
I said this too before I started. You can set yourself up for success by planning ahead and creating boundaries. You can create all your content ahead of time in about 1–2 hours depending on your writing skills and content pillars. You also don’t need to spend longer than 30 minutes a day engaging and commenting if you know what you’re doing. Focus on building efficient systems and maximizing.
Do you not have money to put towards creating?
There’s a lot of people low on cash, but that can also make you far more creative. You can start off for free and do so much, especially with all the information I gave you here for free. When you have cash, think of what that money could do in giving you the insight to accelerate your authority.
Do you not have the energy to be on LinkedIn?
This is why you need to build fun into your strategy. How could you make this fun for you? What would be the payoff so it would be worthwhile? Thinking about this beforehand will shape your strategy and posts so that you gain more energy for the time you put into it.
Do you not know what you will do after 100 days?
Don’t quit before you even get started. You have 100 days to figure it out. I had no idea what I was going to do. But around Day 50, I decided I was going to re-up another 100 Days. And this time, I would share more insights about my upcoming course, Personal Philosophy Principles.
If you have any other objections, let me know what they are in the comments. I bet you it’s just a load of BS keeping you from more value and growth.
Need help with growing on LinkedIn?
Okay, so if you’ve made it this far, you’re officially part of the Monster Gang. Congrats, and I’m glad you’re here. You’re a true value squeezer. You’re in it to win it and that is sh*t I respect. If you’re ready to do the 100 Days on LinkedIn, I’m excited for you.
And if you need more support beyond what I gave you here, hit me up for consulting.
Or join my Super Friends Community an intimate group of thought creators committed to becoming a niche of one and expanding their personal monopoly as top creators in the world.
If this is something you’re interested in, connect with me on LinkedIn to learn more on how you can apply.
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