LinkedIn creator tools explained
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There is no single creator switch any more: the standalone "creator mode" on/off toggle was removed from profiles in March 2024. The pieces that mattered — Follow as the primary button, profile topics, newsletters and post analytics — now sit on ordinary profiles.
What happened to creator mode
For a few years LinkedIn had a visible toggle that rearranged your profile and unlocked a set of publishing features. the standalone "creator mode" on/off toggle was removed from profiles in March 2024. That is why so many walkthroughs point at a switch you cannot find: the switch is gone, the features are not.
Because LinkedIn has renamed and moved this surface repeatedly, treat any specific menu path — including the ones below — as something to confirm in your own account rather than copy blindly.
Follow versus connect: the one that actually matters
following is one-directional and needs no approval, while connecting is mutual and has to be accepted. A connection is a relationship; a follower is an audience. Both see your posts, but only one requires you to approve anything.
a "Make follow primary" toggle under Settings & Privacy → Visibility → Followers makes Follow your profile's main button, leaving Connect in the More menu. This is the highest-leverage change on the list, and it matters because of a ceiling most people hit late: a personal profile is capped at 30,000 connections, while follower counts are uncapped. If you publish regularly, you want the visitors who like your writing to become followers and keep your connection slots for people you will actually talk to.
| Follow | Connect | |
|---|---|---|
| Approval needed | No | Yes |
| Direction | One-way | Mutual |
| Sees your posts | Yes | Yes |
| Counts against a cap | No | Yes |
Topics, Featured and newsletters
profile topics are gone — LinkedIn removed profile hashtags from the intro section in February 2024 — the honest use for these is to tell a visitor in three words whether you are worth following, not to chase reach.
a Featured section can pin selected posts, links or documents near the top of your profile. Use it for the two or three things you want a cold visitor to read first: a talk, a case study, the post that best represents how you think.
newsletters let members subscribe once and then be notified about every edition you publish. That subscription prompt is the strongest distribution mechanic LinkedIn hands out, and also the easiest to waste — a newsletter you publish twice and abandon leaves a dead section on your profile.
- Pick topics you can post about weekly for a year, not the ones with the biggest audience.
- Refresh the Featured section whenever the work you want to be hired for changes.
- Only start a newsletter if you already have a cadence you have kept for two months.
What you can measure
all members get creator analytics: post impressions and engagement, plus follower growth and demographics. Impressions are the least useful of these. Follower growth and the demographics breakdown are the two worth checking monthly, because they tell you whether the right people are arriving, not merely how many.
A practical read: if impressions are up and followers are flat, the posts are travelling to people who do not want more from you. That is usually a topic problem rather than a format problem.
What is worth doing
The tooling is not the hard part — cadence is. Every creator surface LinkedIn ships rewards the same behaviour: post consistently on a recognisable subject, so that a profile visit converts into a follow.
- Make Follow the primary action if you publish more than you network.
- Say what you write about in the headline, not only in the topic list.
- Keep one clear subject per month rather than five interests in rotation.
Cadence is where most people fail rather than ideas, which is why an AI LinkedIn content creator that drafts and queues posts in your own voice is usually the missing piece rather than another profile setting.
Frequently asked questions
- Where is creator mode on LinkedIn?
- It is no longer a toggle. the standalone "creator mode" on/off toggle was removed from profiles in March 2024, so look for the individual settings on your profile instead of a single switch.
- What is the difference between following and connecting?
- following is one-directional and needs no approval, while connecting is mutual and has to be accepted. Followers see your posts without either side approving anything; connections are a mutual relationship.
- How do I get a Follow button on my profile?
- a "Make follow primary" toggle under Settings & Privacy → Visibility → Followers makes Follow your profile's main button, leaving Connect in the More menu. Turn it on if you publish more often than you network.
- Is there a limit on connections or followers?
- a personal profile is capped at 30,000 connections, while follower counts are uncapped. That asymmetry is the main argument for pushing visitors towards Follow if you publish often.
- Are LinkedIn newsletters worth starting?
- Only with a cadence you can keep. newsletters let members subscribe once and then be notified about every edition you publish, which is powerful when you publish reliably and awkward when you stop.
- What analytics do I get as a creator?
- all members get creator analytics: post impressions and engagement, plus follower growth and demographics. Follower growth and audience demographics tell you more than impressions do.
- Do creator features change how my posts are ranked?
- Do not assume so. LinkedIn does not publish ranking mechanics, and no profile setting substitutes for posting consistently about one recognisable subject.
Related guides
Platform behaviour changes often. Everything on this page was checked on 2026-07-28; anything we had not re-checked is marked unverified rather than stated as fact. More LinkedIn guides.