Wood carving, swimming, wilderness survival, pioneering, and leatherwork, as an Eagle Scout, I’ve always been into badges, but that’s only one reason I’m into LinkedIn’s Top Voice badges.
We’ve long been stuck between a post linking to a website and a thoughtful in-platform take. Pick up your phone, open a social app, wait for something to catch your eye, and oh no, that links to a website, too much commitment. Plus, I wanted micro-content, not a blog post on CES 2024 and how it might break records! Keep scrolling and find something that better fits your mood.
You’re familiar with how we’ve been passively consuming content for years. Getting a ‘scroll in’ is the modern-day version of picking up the newspaper. However, you might not be familiar with the idea of passive content creation. Linking out content to other mediums isn’t a bad thing, but too many links taking users away from the platform isn’t good for business.
Social media networks make money through advertisements. The goal is to get you to spend as much time as possible on their platform to serve you as many ads as possible. So, when you link to content that takes you away from that platform, social platforms do not fire up on it. Not to mention, it doesn’t create the most visually pleasing post, and some might even call it boring.
What can be done to get people posting, sharing and commenting on content that keeps users on a platform, given there’s no chance the numerous sponsored ads are leaving? User-generated content has to carry the burden, meaning it needs to be very attractive and engaging. Platforms invest more time and money than you can dream of in developing features to display content and their tech better. But it’s up to the users to create content to support those features.
To breathe life back into your feeds, LinkedIn rolled out the Top Voice and Community Top Voice badges. Don’t confuse this with verification, these badges are designed to highlight the most active and thoughtful users on the platform. They cannot be bought, you really need to take the time to understand and consistently use the platform to earn these.
From founders and CEOs to executive coaches to strategy directors, senior-level experts and leaders can use this tool to leverage their titles and showcase the thinking that put them in their positions. As they say, if you got it, flaunt it!
This is what I love: to be selected for one of these prestigious badges, you must meet criteria that makes LinkedIn a better and more valuable community for your followers and your industry! Specifically, you simply cannot just post content onto your feed.
A Top Voice –
- Chooses a topic to dive into
- Collaborates on an article relevant to their skills with other experts
- Adds a unique perspective to the contribution (We can help)
- Interacts with others in their feeds and their industry by liking, reacting and commenting on their content
- Produces content, insights and engagement consistently*
*Once you earn the badge, to keep it beyond the first 60 days, you gotta keep at it! Your contributions must be original and relevant for better or worse, LinkedIn members need to find them insightful (measured by the engagement you get).
Why make this investment? For starters, thank you for producing content people want to consume. You are making social media better by being intentional with what you share! I will be there to like and comment on your post, I promise. Aside from engagement from yours truly, LinkedIn will also repay you handsomely by:
- Taking you to the top – 95% of users do not have a Top Voice badge, aka, you are now in the VIP lounge. It’s not the numbers game it used to be on social. Sure, you can still post as often as you please, but use a variety of posts! Post on your own feed, rock a thread with a great comment or get a conversation started in an industry group. How you deliver your thoughts is just as important as the thoughts themselves.
- Building authority in your ‘skill’ section – Contributing valuable and helpful content to a collaborative article helps everyone on the platform. LinkedIn will gladly show you and your profile off to thank you by giving your content and your profile more visibility.
- Credibility – Your ideas and expertise are on display for everyone to see. Users will no longer need to inspect your experience to value your take. However, it’s always fun to see how the top voices got to where they are today!
- Expanding your connections – Users are more likely to request and accept connections from users who have a badge. Social selling has always been the most powerful method to build a sales pipeline, but it’s hard to stand out on a platform when every company and user is competing for eyeballs. Let this badge help you grow your network and pipeline!
I’ve long said if you were looking for the best social media platform from a B2B ROI perspective, LinkedIn would take the cake. Aside from having the best targeting, you legit upload your resume to your profile, LinkedIn continues to take great steps to improve the experience for its users and its most active creators. It won’t be easy, but will you help LinkedIn fight the good fight by investing in building community and making newsfeeds valuable?
Get in touch with us to make the most of your LinkedIn presence!
