LinkedIn has launched its Creator Accelerator Program in India today, here’s all there is to know about it

• LinkedIn has announced the launch of its Creator Accelerator Program in India, to support 200 creators to grow their communities and build engaging content.
• The 10-week incubator-style program will provide creators with coaching, recognition, resources, and a financial grant to bring their ideas to life.
• India is the second market where LinkedIn has rolled out the program, after its launch in the US.
• Leading LinkedIn creators Ankur Warikoo, Radhika Gupta, Pooja Dhingra, and Nuseir Yassin have come on board as mentors on the program.

In September 2021, LinkedIn had announced a $25 million investment in creators globally through the Creator Accelerator Program (CAP), a 10-week incubator-style program to help people grow their audience and engage with the platform’s community. Following the US launch, LinkedIn is launching the program in India today.

LinkedIn’s program comes at a time when the creator economy in India is booming. While social media was increasingly becoming important in our lives over the past decade, things got just the push it needed during the pandemic. With all of us stuck at home, businesses had to come online and reach out to their consumers through digital. This was the time when social media became the most important touchpoint, be it cooking tutorials, home workout videos or home music gigs, these platforms came to our rescue. With people spending more and more times on these platforms, advertisers realized the massive opportunity. And that’s when content creators, who had been using these platforms to build their audiences, came into their own.

If a recent report by INCA, GroupM’s brand-safe influencer and content marketing solution unit is to be believed, the influencer market, which was said to be around Rs 900 crore by the end of 2021, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 25% till 2025 to reach a size of Rs 2,200 crore. So the opportunity is massive!

LinkedIn has now brought CAP to India to help creators grow their impact on the platform. The Creator Accelerator Program is a 10-week incubator-style program through which LinkedIn will offer 200 creators a financial grant, access to LinkedIn tools, creator-to-creator networking opportunities, coaching workshops, and mentorship opportunities with LinkedIn thought leaders Ankur Warikoo, Radhika Gupta, Pooja Dhingra and Nasir Yessein.

“Creation on LinkedIn is about the opportunities that can happen when our members connect. Our vision is to create ‘Opportunity through Connection’,” explained Ashutosh Gupta, India Country Manager at LinkedIn. “When people create engaging content on LinkedIn, it leads to conversations, and the more conversations take place, the more opportunities are created for all members on the platform. This could be through a job lead, a key insight, an exchange of ideas, or a new skill. LinkedIn is a trusted platform where creators can build their audience in a relevant, professional context with direct access to brands, other professionals, and institutions and have the potential to create long-term business opportunities for themselves on the platform,” he added.

LinkedIn will bring on board creators from a diverse range of backgrounds, experiences, and expertise to be a part of the program, who can create a variety of content using LinkedIn tools such as video, newsletters, and short-form posts. The platform is also encouraging Hindi language creators to participate in this program.

“The creators will be shortlisted on the basis of their ability to build passionate communities, unique content, and spark discussions around a variety of professional topics such as skills, future of work and mental health, and find ways to engage with LinkedIn’s 85+ million members in India in a meaningful way,” shared Gupta.

The idea of bringing some of the mentors closer to the growing creator community is to help them learn from their journeys. On a few challenges that he faced when he started out on his content-creation journey, Warikoo said, “For me, it was testing with different content types, different media formats and understanding the pulse of the audience - what they reacted to favourably and what they dismissed.” On why he decided to mentor for the program, he added, “Having experienced a fulfilling content creation journey on LinkedIn for over 7 years, I wished for other creators to realise the power of content and LinkedIn as a platform. Through this role I hope to share lessons so that they do not make the same mistakes I made.”

We asked Radhika Gupta, MD and CEO, Edelweiss AMC about a few tips she could share with creators. She said, “The number 1 tip that I have is, you should be authentic. I know it sounds very simple, but really do what works for you. It’s also important to be focused on a particular space. You don’t want to be someone who’s commenting on food, work-life balance, sports, finance and everything. Be focused and really write what comes to your heart. We often think that you need earth-shattering or ground-breaking discoveries to post content. I think you need simple, honest content that comes from the heart, that can resonate with the reader. Another thing critical in the creator journey is consistency. One of the things I have learned is that you have to constantly keep posting content. That doesn’t mean that you do something every day. It also doesn’t mean that you do something once in two months. Moreover, LinkedIn is a professional platform and one should be very appropriate. And once you get started and you experiment, you’ll figure out what works and what doesn’t work for you. So I would really encourage you to get started, write something authentic. Try to do it consistently, and find one or two spaces that you are going to be focused on.”