If you have a Facebook account you might “follow” some people so you can keep up to date with what’s happening with them but you might not be connected to them as a friend. In LinkedIn this feature has been reserved for celebrities and notable business figures like Richard Branson. These people are called “Influencers”.

So what does this change mean for you?

It means that you too can be an influencer, not only with your peers, but as an industry leader,  which also means your content and what you have to say is going to become more important, and it’s not just for the rich and famous. Content through thought leadership and curatorship means that you can now have more of an impact and build your personal brand bigger than ever. It is being rolled out to 25,000 people first and then the rest of us get to share the limelight. The best thing about this, is that it can expose you and your perspective to people who are outside your 1st, 2nd and 3rd level connections.

So the question I’m being asked is “Why don’t they just connect?”.

Whilst you might only connect with people you know, which isn’t unusual and in fact the LinkedIn User Agreement says this is the purpose of LinkedIn (believe it or not!). So someone can follow you and keep in touch with your opinion without exposing you to their more private world. Not everyone has 500+ connections. Take Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo. She only has 138 connections.

So, how can you best build your brand with this new feature?

1. Keep up to date with changes in your industry and share your perspective

2. Share your ideas and thoughts on what others are saying in relation to your brand (i.e if you’re in leadership development keep ‘on brand’ by sharing your thoughts and experience in developing leaders and other experts in leadership development)

3. Follow other Influencers who you’d like to follow. The more you watch and read it will stimulate your own thinking

4. Leverage the content that your marketing teams have written- share news from your website. For example if  you’re a recruitment manager for a company share the careers page updates of your site.

So keep an eye out for when this goes live for you. I’ll be watching closely!