It’s not the primary time I’ve tried out LinkedIn Premium — however it’s the first time I’m approaching the platform’s paid subscription as a creator.
Whereas actively trying to find my new position in early 2023, I took benefit of the free trial of LinkedIn Premium, then prolonged it for an additional few months. As a job seeker, the advantages have been nice — the platform really useful jobs I’d be a high applicant for and allowed me to succeed in out to hiring managers straight, even when I wasn’t linked to them.
I didn’t find yourself as a content material author at Buffer due to LinkedIn (that was right down to a enjoyable Instagram submit, curiously sufficient), however I positively discovered it precious in my job search. I landed a number of interviews due to the service and would extremely suggest it to these in search of a brand new alternative.
However, after nabbing my dream position at Buffer, my objectives on LinkedIn shifted. I really like creating content material on the platform, plus I’ve simply launched a podcast for B2B entrepreneurs that I’m eager to, effectively, market. In a nutshell, I wish to generate engagement and develop my viewers — may LinkedIn Premium assist with that, too?
It simply may. I’ve seen an uptick in banner adverts promising all the things from AI help to elevated profile views — and I used to be curious to place it to the check.
So, on the outset of 2024, I signed up for LinkedIn Premium once more and made it my mission to reply the query: “Is LinkedIn Premium price it for creators?”
Right here’s all the things you have to find out about utilizing LinkedIn Premium to construct your private model, enhance engagement, and develop your following.
What you get with LinkedIn Premium
First, let’s discuss in regards to the LinkedIn instruments and options you’ll unlock with LinkedIn Premium. All of the issues listed beneath can be found with all 4 tiers of the premium plans (extra on this beneath):
- LinkedIn Premium badge: A gold badge in your profile.
- InMail credit: The flexibility to message somebody you’re not already linked with.
- Profile view insights: See precisely who has seen your profile throughout the final 90 or 12 months (relying in your plan) until that person can be on Premium and has set their profile to non-public.
- Non-public looking: Entry to public, semi-private, or personal mode to maintain your id hidden whereas looking different profiles.
- AI Profile writing assistant: A comparatively new characteristic that may aid you polish up the headline and about part in your profile.
- AI message drafts: AI assist in composing messages (solely obtainable within the U.S. now).
- LinkedIn Studying programs: Entry to LinkedIn’s intensive library of on-demand programs per week.
- Open profile: A setting you’ll be able to activate to make it potential for anybody to get in contact with you, whether or not you’re linked or not.
LinkedIn Premium pricing
How a lot does LinkedIn Premium price? That is dependent upon which plan you go for. LinkedIn Premium plans vary from $20/month to over $100/month. Costs will rely in your area.
Your choices, so as of price:
- LinkedIn Premium Profession
- LinkedIn Premium Enterprise
- LinkedIn Gross sales Navigator
- LinkedIn Recruiter Lite
The first variations between the plans are how far again you’ll be able to see profile views, individuals looking, extra superior search filters, and saved leads. The costlier plans are focused at salespeople and recruiters.
This screenshot from my improve part in LinkedIn breaks it down rather well. I’m primarily based in South Africa, so the pricing is in South African Rand (ZAR).
As a part of the LinkedIn Premium sign-up, LinkedIn really useful the Marketing strategy for my wants. I went with that plan to make sure this overview was as complete as potential.
Are you able to get LinkedIn Premium at no cost?
Technically, sure! You’ll be able to check out a LinkedIn Premium account at no cost as a part of their 30-day free trial of the service.
There are a number of Ts and Cs, although. LinkedIn Premium’s free trial is barely obtainable to customers who’ve by no means subscribed earlier than, and also you’ll additionally should enter your bank card particulars (nevertheless it’s fairly simple to cancel earlier than you’re charged in case you determine the plan shouldn’t be for you).
How to join LinkedIn Premium
I used to be actually impressed by LinkedIn Premium’s onboarding course of. It’s extremely easy, and there are many ideas and sources obtainable that will help you take advantage of all the brand new performance you could have entry to.
First, I’ll stroll you thru how to enroll.
- Log in to LinkedIn.com.
- Click on the Me profile icon on the high proper of your homepage.
- Select Settings & Privateness from the dropdown menu.
- Select Account preferences on the left pane.
- Beneath Subscriptions & funds, click on Change subsequent to Premium Subscription.
- Reply the prompts, and LinkedIn will suggest a plan that fits your wants (you’ll be able to select any, although!)
- Comply with the prompts on the web page to complete.
Now, it’s time to discover. You’ll obtain a welcome e-mail from LinkedIn, and it’s a good suggestion to discover the sources they direct you to.
There’s additionally a useful web page that may present you precisely what instruments you’ll be able to entry, plus how you can use them. Click on on the Me dropdown menu > Premium options.
LinkedIn Premium: My expertise as a creator
LinkedIn is not only for jobseekers — it’s develop into a strong platform for creators, due to the rise of the non-public model. Nonetheless, LinkedIn’s Premium subscriptions are squarely aimed toward jobseekers, salespeople, and recruiters, with instruments explicitly constructed to fulfill their wants.
That stated, a few of these options may turn out to be useful in case you’re trying to create content material and construct a following on the platform.
Right here’s a take a look at these and the way I’d suggest utilizing them.
Profile view insights
Profile views are the most effective LinkedIn Premium options. First, seeing precisely who’s taking a look at you is a great deal of enjoyable. However most significantly, this characteristic may be an attention-grabbing one to keep watch over as a creator, too.
I see the parents heading over to my profile as an indicator of click-through fee. There’s no easy technique to tie profile views again to a particular piece of content material, in fact, nevertheless it’s helpful to get an image of the sort of individuals your content material is attracting.
Profile views supply extra of a deep dive into the particular individuals your content material or headline conjures up sufficient to click on over to your profile and take motion. To see this, head over to Profile > Analytics > Profile views.
From there, click on on ‘Present extra Premium analytics’ to get a breakdown of the highest corporations, areas, and industries who’ve checked out your profile.
Is there a workaround for non-premium customers?
Kind of. When you can solely see the id of a small proportion of the parents who view your profile with a free LinkedIn account, you’ll be able to nonetheless get a stable breakdown of follower demographics — supplied you could have Creator Mode turned on (it’s fully free and never tied to any LinkedIn Premium subscription).
For viewers demographics in LinkedIn’s analytics, go to Profile > Analytics > Followers, and also you’ll see the same breakdown (although that is for brand new followers, not simply views). You’ll be able to filter these by job title, location, and trade, too.
InMail credit
In case you’re on the hunt for a brand new job or working in gross sales, LinkedIn’s InMail messages system has some fairly apparent use circumstances — speaking to hiring managers or potential clients — although they’re much less overtly helpful for creators.
However whenever you’re constructing a following, tapping into the audiences of others could be a win-win for each creators. Actually, social media collaboration is without doubt one of the ways well-followed creator Aarushi Singh really useful in her current Buffer visitor submit on how she grew on LinkedIn. These may take form in loads of methods — companion carousel posts, LinkedIn Lives, collab movies — however all that requires constructing a relationship first.
That’s the place InMails are available in. With 5 credit monthly on the LinkedIn Premium Profession plan and 15 on the LinkedIn Premium Marketing strategy, you’ll have greater than sufficient to get in contact with different creators in your area of interest {and professional} community and (in case you play your playing cards proper) plan a collaborative technique.
Is there a workaround for non-premium customers?
Sure — a reasonably good one, too. LinkedIn provides a (extra restricted) technique to contact of us exterior your community with a primary account: customized connection requests. All it requires is hitting the Join button on one other person’s profile after which clicking Add word.
You’ll be restricted to 300 characters, nevertheless it’s an important springboard. And as soon as that person accepts your connection request, their DMs are open to you.
Customized button
LinkedIn Premium members can create a custom-made button for his or her profile, which may be a good way to direct followers to your link-in-bio or touchdown web page. That is notably helpful in case you monetize your work by way of consulting, a e-newsletter, or one thing related.
To edit yours, navigate to your profile, then click on the Edit button (the pencil icon) on the highest proper. Scroll to the underside of the pop-up to seek out the Edit customized button choice, then select Premium customized button.
The button textual content choices are:
- Go to my retailer
- Go to my web site
- View my portfolio
- View my weblog
- Ebook an appointment
Is there a workaround for non-premium customers?
Sure! There’s one other nice choice right here for these utilizing the free model of LinkedIn. Whereas the button received’t seem as prominently in your profile because the Premium model, the free customized button is extra customizable. You’ll be able to select no matter textual content you’d wish to be clickable and nonetheless use any hyperlink.
LinkedIn’s AI Profile assistant
All of the profitable LinkedIn creators I’ve spoken to have burdened the significance of your LinkedIn profile. I’m already pretty pleased with mine, however I used to be excited to see if LinkedIn’s AI may assist make it actually stand out.
As a part of this characteristic, the AI will overview your present headline and bio and make strategies to enhance it. I discovered the outcomes to be mediocre.
The headline strategies weren’t groundbreaking — however, I reasoned, the AI-recommended key phrases may give me a leg up in relation to LinkedIn search. I opted for the one beneath.
The about part AI suggestion was first rate. Whereas it was extra formal than I’d have preferred, it didn’t have that clearly AI-generated tone. The suggestion additionally wasn’t one hundred pc correct (seemingly right down to gaps in my profile), however with a number of tweaks, it might have been good to go.
That stated, I’m reasonably a fan of my present, pithy about part, and I really feel prefer it showcases my ability as a author a bit higher than the AI’s tell-don’t-show choice. I opted to maintain my previous about part:
Is there a workaround for non-premium customers?
LinkedIn has no options that would work as an alternative to the AI profile assistant. Nonetheless, it’s best to be capable of get related outcomes with an exterior AI instrument like ChatGPT, supplied you give it sufficient info in your immediate.
My content material efficiency on LinkedIn Premium
LinkedIn guarantees 2.6X sooner hiring and 4X extra profile views — however not that content material by Premium members will likely be favored by the LinkedIn algorithm.
However, as social media platforms transfer more and more in the direction of a pay-to-play future (Meta Verified for Instagram and Fb appears to be headed that means), I felt it was price testing to see if LinkedIn Premium affected content material efficiency.
I saved my content material technique and cadence the identical throughout my two-week Premium trial to remove variables.
Right here’s a take a look at my analytics:
Impressions
I noticed a drop in my impressions throughout this era, however that was one thing I’d been anticipating. A number of weeks prior, I’d had a LinkedIn submit carry out exceptionally effectively, and I used to be nonetheless feeling the tail-end of that nice efficiency within the run-up to this experiment.
With that within the combine, I felt that my impressions appeared precisely as anticipated — LinkedIn Premium appeared to haven’t any impact on my submit impressions.
Engagement
My engagement numbers painted the same image. I motive that this drop has extra to do with the content material that got here earlier than this and little or no to do with LinkedIn Premium.
New followers
This quantity was fascinating to me since my content material was clearly not reaching as many individuals as I had been within the weeks prior — and but, I used to be changing extra. Whereas I can solely theorize why that is, I think it might have one thing to do with a rise in profile views beneath.
Profile views
I noticed a formidable enhance in profile views — 28 p.c — which I imagine is the one metric impacted by subscribing to LinkedIn Premium.
My content material doesn’t appear to be getting a lift as a LinkedIn Premium subscriber — however it seems that my profile did. In different phrases, I think these new profile viewers weren’t discovering my content material of their feeds, however discovering my profile in LinkedIn’s search.
The decision: is LinkedIn Premium price it for creators?
In case you’re in search of a brand new job, LinkedIn Premium will certainly provide you with a leg-up.
However as a creator, I don’t suppose LinkedIn Premium is price the associated fee. A handful of options may profit creators, however there are some nice workarounds at no cost LinkedIn customers that may have the same impact.
In case you’re trying to develop your following and enhance engagement as you share content material on the platform, turning on Creator Mode is way extra highly effective than Premium.
It offers you entry to a ‘comply with’ button in your profile, deeper analytics, that customizable button, LinkedIn Dwell, newsletters, and extra.
Turning it on is very easy, too. Go to your LinkedIn profile, scroll right down to Assets, and click on on Creator mode.
You’ll seemingly additionally discover extra worth within the articles on rising on LinkedIn proper right here on the Buffer weblog. These are a few of my favourite sources:
Are you trying to develop your following on LinkedIn? Be part of us within the Buffer neighborhood, the place we’re studying collectively and supporting one another.
