If you created your LinkedIn account a while ago, have been posting decent content, and adding new connections after meeting people in person, you could have just hit 5,000 followers or pretty close. That’s the easy bit done.
There’s a benefit to your account being this size. LinkedIn’s algorithm favours content from accounts with highly engaged followers. The data shows that accounts with under 5,000 followers (58% of LinkedIn creators) often achieve an engagement rate of nearly 6% per post, which is significantly higher than the 3% seen by accounts with over 100,000 followers.
So you want to build your account beyond 5,000 followers, but you want to keep your engagement rate high. You want to break through a follower plateau and hit the next level while making it worth your while.
Growing beyond 5,000 requires fundamental shifts in how you create, engage, and think about growth. Let’s get intentional about growing on LinkedIn.
Proven tactics to grow beyond 5,000 followers on LinkedIn
Turn rivals into allies
Those accounts getting all the attention already did the hard work. They found your people. Now stop competing and start complementing. Look at what they never talk about. Maybe they skip the messy parts of running a business. Maybe they avoid pricing discussions. Those gaps become your opportunities. Create content that makes their audience need both of you.
Message them directly. Propose a follower swap where you each shout out the other’s email list. Run a series where you tackle the same challenge from opposite angles. Partner with three so-called “competitors” and you could triple your growth in three months. Unless you’re offering identical services to the exact same audience, you’re not competing. You’re building an ecosystem. Your rivals have what you want. Turn them into partners and watch both accounts grow.
Create compound content
Your audience followed you for your specific take, not recycled LinkedIn wisdom. They can get generic tips anywhere. Share the weird stuff only you know. The pricing model that shouldn’t work but does. The onboarding process you invented after losing three clients. The framework you built from your biggest failure. Give your methods names. Document them so precisely someone could steal them.
When you package expertise into systems nobody else teaches, every share expands your reach. Call it the “7-minute meeting method” instead of “meeting tips.” Show the exact steps, the specific results, the measurable outcomes. A post about a unique sales process could get shared hundreds of times when people see an approach they’ve never considered. Your unique methods are your growth engine. Stop hiding them.
Stop posting alone
The LinkedIn algorithm gave you a free ride to 5,000 followers. That ride’s over. Now you need allies with bigger accounts who share your audience. Find creators with 10,000-20,000 followers in adjacent spaces. Comment meaningfully on their posts for a week. Then propose something they can’t create alone.
Add messaging that serves both audiences. Maybe you know productivity systems and they know team management. Write comments combining both, and build out carousels from the comments that do well. Host a LinkedIn Live debating opposite approaches. Your 5K sees you partnering with someone they admire. Their 15,000 discovers fresh perspective. One collaboration beats fifty solo posts. Pick partners who make your content better, not just bigger.
Post more often
If you’ve gotten this far by posting once or twice a week, it’s time to scale up. There’s almost a direct relationship between posting frequency and LinkedIn account size, so you might as well get involved. Every post gives you a chance to hit people with your strong beliefs and ethos in a brand new way. You never know what might land.
Staying consistent on LinkedIn isn’t easy. You need a proven way of creating great content three to five times a week. But crack that content system and you’ll likely see consistent, week-on-week growth. Scale far beyond 5,000 followers in no time at all.
Focus on your DMs
Every DM holds a content idea. That founder asking about your recent results represents hundreds with the same question. The consultant confused by your tech stack speaks for a silent segment. Your inbox shows you exactly what your audience needs.
Screenshot the best questions and turn them into posts. Share your detailed answer then expand with context. This guarantees relevance because real humans asked for this exact information. Track which DM topics generate the most engagement. Build weekly series around those themes. You could grow from 5,000 to 20,000 by turning DM conversations into content. Your inbox already has your next viral post.
From creator to curator: build your LinkedIn to the next level
Build past 5,000 followers by throwing everything at LinkedIn and not stopping until you are growing by thousands every month. Other people have done it, and it’s possible for you.
Share others’ brilliance with your unique lens. Explain why it matters. Add the context your audience needs. Become the filter that saves them time while establishing your takes as worth trusting. Post better stuff, more often. Suddenly, you’re everywhere, adding value to conversations you didn’t start. People find you and follow, and the number grows from there.
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