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 looking for 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 beneficial jobs I’d be a high applicant for and allowed me to succeed in out to hiring managers straight, even when I wasn’t related to them.
I didn’t find yourself as a content material author at Buffer due to LinkedIn (that was all the way down to a enjoyable Instagram publish, apparently sufficient), however I undoubtedly discovered it priceless 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 targets on LinkedIn shifted. I like creating content material on the platform, plus I’ve simply launched a podcast for B2B entrepreneurs that I’m eager to, properly, market. In a nutshell, I wish to generate engagement and develop my viewers — may LinkedIn Premium assist with that, too?
It simply would possibly. I’ve observed an uptick in banner adverts promising the whole lot 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 the whole lot it is advisable learn 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 concerning 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 power to message somebody you’re not already related with.
- Profile view insights: See precisely who has considered your profile throughout the final 90 or three hundred and sixty five days (relying in your plan) except that consumer can also be on Premium and has set their profile to non-public.
- Non-public searching: Entry to public, semi-private, or non-public mode to maintain your id hidden whereas searching different profiles.
- AI Profile writing assistant: A comparatively new characteristic that can 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 possibly can activate to make it doable for anybody to get in contact with you, whether or not you’re related 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 possibly can see profile views, folks searching, extra superior search filters, and saved leads. The dearer plans are focused at salespeople and recruiters.
This screenshot from my improve part in LinkedIn breaks it down very well. I’m based mostly in South Africa, so the pricing is in South African Rand (ZAR).
As a part of the LinkedIn Premium sign-up, LinkedIn beneficial the Marketing strategy for my wants. I went with that plan to make sure this evaluation was as complete as doable.
Are you able to get LinkedIn Premium free of charge?
Technically, sure! You’ll be able to check out a LinkedIn Premium account free of charge 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 need to enter your bank card particulars (however it’s fairly straightforward to cancel earlier than you’re charged if you happen to 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 can assist you profit from all the brand new performance you’ve gotten 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.
- Below Subscriptions & funds, click on Change subsequent to Premium Subscription.
- Reply the prompts, and LinkedIn will suggest a plan that fits your wants (you possibly can select any, although!)
- Observe 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 can present you precisely what instruments you possibly can entry, plus the right way to use them. Click on on the Me dropdown menu > Premium options.
LinkedIn Premium: My expertise as a creator
LinkedIn is now not only for jobseekers — it’s develop into a strong platform for creators, due to the rise of the private model. Nonetheless, LinkedIn’s Premium subscriptions are squarely geared toward jobseekers, salespeople, and recruiters, with instruments explicitly constructed to fulfill their wants.
That mentioned, a few of these options may come in useful if you happen to’re seeking to create content material and construct a following on the platform.
Right here’s a have a look at these and the way I’d suggest utilizing them.
Profile view insights
Profile views are among the best LinkedIn Premium options. First, seeing precisely who’s you is a great deal of enjoyable. However most significantly, this characteristic will be an attention-grabbing one to control as a creator, too.
I see the oldsters heading over to my profile as an indicator of click-through price. There’s no easy technique to tie profile views again to a selected piece of content material, after all, however it’s helpful to get an image of the sort of folks your content material is attracting.
Profile views provide extra of a deep dive into the precise folks 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. Whilst you can solely see the id of a small share of the oldsters who view your profile with a free LinkedIn account, you possibly can nonetheless get a stable breakdown of follower demographics — supplied you’ve gotten 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 an identical 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 the event 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 instances — speaking to hiring managers or potential clients — although they’re much less overtly helpful for creators.
However if you’re constructing a following, tapping into the audiences of others generally is a win-win for each creators. In truth, social media collaboration is likely one of the ways well-followed creator Aarushi Singh beneficial in her latest Buffer visitor publish 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. With 5 credit per 30 days 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 (if you happen to play your playing cards proper) plan a collaborative technique.
Is there a workaround for non-premium customers?
Sure — a fairly good one, too. LinkedIn presents a (extra restricted) technique to contact of us outdoors your community with a fundamental account: personalised connection requests. All it requires is hitting the Join button on one other consumer’s profile after which clicking Add word.
You’ll be restricted to 300 characters, however it’s an incredible springboard. And as soon as that consumer 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 will be an effective way to direct followers to your link-in-bio or touchdown web page. That is significantly useful if you happen to monetize your work by way of consulting, a publication, or one thing comparable.
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 may be one other nice choice right here for these utilizing the free model of LinkedIn. Whereas the button gained’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 proud of 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 evaluation your present headline and bio and make options to enhance it. I discovered the outcomes to be mediocre.
The headline options weren’t groundbreaking — however, I reasoned, the AI-recommended key phrases would possibly give me a leg up on the subject of LinkedIn search. I opted for the one beneath.
The about part AI suggestion was respectable. Whereas it was extra formal than I’d have favored, it didn’t have that clearly AI-generated tone. The suggestion additionally wasn’t one hundred pc correct (probably all the way down to gaps in my profile), however with a number of tweaks, it might have been good to go.
That mentioned, I’m somewhat keen on my present, pithy about part, and I really feel prefer it showcases my talent as a author slightly higher than the AI’s tell-don’t-show choice. I opted to maintain my outdated about part:
Is there a workaround for non-premium customers?
LinkedIn has no options that would work as an alternative choice to the AI profile assistant. Nonetheless, it’s best to have the ability to get comparable outcomes with an exterior AI device like ChatGPT, supplied you give it sufficient data in your immediate.
My content material efficiency on LinkedIn Premium
LinkedIn guarantees 2.6X quicker hiring and 4X extra profile views — however not that content material by Premium members can be favored by the LinkedIn algorithm.
However, as social media platforms transfer more and more in direction of a pay-to-play future (Meta Verified for Instagram and Fb appears to be headed that manner), 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 get rid of variables.
Right here’s a have 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 publish carry out exceptionally properly, 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 seemed precisely as anticipated — LinkedIn Premium appeared to haven’t any impact on my publish impressions.
Engagement
My engagement numbers painted an identical image. I purpose 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 powerful enhance in profile views — 28 p.c — which I consider 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 the event 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 would possibly profit creators, however there are some nice workarounds free of charge LinkedIn customers that can have an identical impact.
In the event you’re seeking to develop your following and enhance engagement as you share content material on the platform, turning on Creator Mode is much extra highly effective than Premium.
It provides you entry to a ‘observe’ 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 all the way down to Assets, and click on on Creator mode.
You’ll probably 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 seeking to develop your following on LinkedIn? Be a part of us within the Buffer group, the place we’re studying collectively and supporting one another.
