Hey folks 👋

So, if you had told me ~two years ago that Linkedin would one day be my favorite social media platform, I'd have laughed my head off.

And yet… here we are.

A recent poll we ran on, er, LinkedIn revealed many of our followers feel similarly (we may have been preaching to the converted there, to be fair, so I've included a similar poll below).

One of my favorite new features of the platform is its Community Top Voices badge. This, plus their original Top Voices program, feels a lot like what the blue tick on Twitter X, Instagram, and Facebook could have been. A stamp of approval from the platform saying, 'Hey creator, we see you and the great work you're doing on here. Thanks!'

I've written about the new Community Top Voices program (and how to earn your badge) in this week's Deep Dive, with more detail on the Buffer blog. 🤓 Onwards!

💌 In this issue:

• 🏆 Deep Dive: How I earned my LinkedIn Community Top Voice badge in one week
• 👀 We want to see you clearly: Are you spending a lot more time on LinkedIn than you used to?
• 🤖 Use this AI Assistant prompt to generate specific ideas in Buffer
• 📱 Mitra recommends a fun, trending audio
• 📣 The latest social news, features, and bonus reads

Have a great weekend, and we'll see you next Friday!

Warmly, 

Kirsti & the Buffer team

☑️ The poll of the week

Are you spending more time on LinkedIn than you used to?

Definitely!

Not really

 🖊️ Deep dive: How to become a Top Voice on LinkedIn

LinkedIn recently introduced a secondary tier to its Top Voices program — and it's a game-changer.

Not to be confused with the coveted blue Top Voice badge, the gold Community Top Voice offers creators a chance to get LinkedIn's stamp of approval for their contribution to the platform. While the blue badge is the most prestigious, the gold badge is still pretty impressive — and much easier to get.

How to become a LinkedIn Community Top Voice

The key to becoming a LinkedIn Community Top Voice is relatively simple, albeit a bit of work: contribute to collaborative articles.

Collaborative articles are generated by AI (with a bit of help from the LinkedIn Editorial Team), and form the backbone of hundreds of pieces of content you can weigh in on. All of the articles are categorized into very specific niches, so contributing to them will earn you a badge within that niche.

To do so:

• Head over to this list of collaborative articles
• Choose an article you want to contribute to
• Weigh in with your own thoughts and experiences

I did this consistently for about a week, and woke up to find two shiny new badges on my profile.

The catch: the badges only last 60 days, so you'll have to keep up the good work if you'd like to hold on to them.

🔓 For more on the whole LinkedIn Top Voices program — including the top-tier blue badge — check out the full article on the Buffer blog, below.

 🏎️ Four creators speeding up their growth with Buffer

We pride ourselves on being an excellent tool for entrepreneurs and business owners to grow on social media — and our users were more than happy to back us up.

• Erik Berglund on LinkedIn: "I've been able to consistently post for the last five months. I've never posted this frequently, and I've saved a ton of time while doing it. I likely save four+ hours a month by using Buffer."

• Onlinemarketinges: "On TikTok we went from 110k to 310k with Buffer!"

• Reid on Twitter: "Doubled follower count and engagement has gone up 4x."

• Marian on Instagram: "I've saved weeks of time and have increased my engagement by 50 percent."

Want to fast-track your growth? Click the link below to get started with Buffer.

👇 The latest from the blog

• How I Designed a LinkedIn Thought Leadership Content Creation System: Harshala Chavan shares a simple content creation system for her work on LinkedIn.

• The Creator's Guide to YouTube Shorts Analytics: Key metrics and how to interpret them to optimize your content for better performance and growth.

• Here's Exactly How This Founder Spent $17,000 to Get Her Tea Business Off the Ground: Allison Ullo founded Leaves of Leisure to fill a gap in the market. Here's how she's working to make it a success.

🤖 A prompt for Buffer's AI Assistant

Use this prompt to get Buffer's AI Assistant to help educate your audience on history related to your industry or niche. For example, the growing popularity of the keto diet to what we know today. Just make sure you confirm every response generated is accurate!

The Prompt

Write a Historical Exploration [Platform & Format] Post on [Topic]

• Topic: "Specify the topic you are interested in exploring. This could be a technology, trend, individual, event, or other significant subject matter."
• Timespan: "Define the historical time frame you'd like to cover. For instance, 'from its inception to present' or 'between 1900 to 2000'."
• Geographical Focus: "Indicate if there's a particular region or country that should be the focus, or if the exploration should be global."
• Key Events: "List any key events or milestones you want to be included in the exploration."
• Perspective: "Specify any particular perspective or angle you'd like the post to have. For example, social impact, technological advancements, cultural shifts, etc."
• Tone: "Specify the tone (e.g., informative, contemplative, critical, etc.)"
• Target Audience: "Indicate the demographics or interests of the audience this post is intended for (e.g., academics, professionals, enthusiasts, etc.)"

📱Social tip of the week from Mitra, Buffer's Social Media Manager 

Trending audio alert 🎧

This is a fun time-lapse trend where you can put together a series of photos or brief clips to show off your products. It's a short video, so it should only take a few minutes to put together.

Check out this example from @thejuncturevtg! Pro tip: Hit the "Use template" option that you'll see when viewing this example to make creating this Reel super quick and easy!

👉 Here's the audio

📣 What's happening in social?

TikTok will soon allow you to