LinkedIn Feature Spotlight: Collaborative Articles

What Are Collaborative Articles? 

 Collaborative Articles are articles published by LinkedIn with insights and perspectives added by the LinkedIn community. 

These articles begin as AI-powered conversation starters, developed within LinkedIn’s editorial team, and are completed with insights from LinkedIn members with corresponding skills and expertise.

Earn a Top Voice Badge

By meaningfully contributing to these articles, LinkedIn users can earn a Top Voices badge on their profile. 

There are two versions of Top Voices badging - 1) The blue Top Voices badge or the light gold Community Top Voices badge. 

The blue Top Voices badge is part of an invitation-only program featuring senior-level experts and leaders. This replaced the LinkedIn Influencer Program in October 2022. These are the top thought leaders in business, according to LinkedIn. 

The light gold Community Top Voice badge can be earned by anyone on the platform, based on making noteworthy contributions to collaborative articles, and corresponds with a specific skill on your profile (e.g. Management). 

Some details -

You must make three contributions in a specific skill to be eligible to earn the badge for that skill.

You can earn badges for multiple skills. If you earn more than one badge, they will be combined into one badge on your profile. 

There is no limit to the number of skills you can earn a badge for.

Note that the Community Voice Top Voices Badge is only active for 60 days after you earn it. To keep the badge beyond 60 days, your contributions must remain relevant, original, and additive to the conversation. 

Contribute to Collaborative Articles 

For contributors, LinkedIn identifies members likely to be experts in a specific topic based on their work experience, skills proficiency, and prior engagement on the platform.

The good news is you may already have this access if you're active on the platform. 

So how can you contribute to an article and earn badges?

1) Be sure to keep your Skills Section updated on your profile. You can have up to 50 skills overall and should spend some time connecting them to your About section and the corresponding Experience sections of your profile. The specific skills on your profile equate to the badges you can earn (i.e. if you don't have Leadership as a skill, you can not earn that badge). 

2) You can proactively search through LinkedIn Collaborative Articles and find relevant options to contribute to here. If you do not see “Add Your Perspective,” you do not yet have contribution access. To be considered for contribution in the future, you can engage with the articles by liking or reacting to them.

3) If you are already approved to contribute, you will also see Collaborative Articles to contribute to in the recommended articles at the top of your feed. 

Should You Contribute? 

Like most new platform features, there are benefits for users who participate in them before they become more widely used (as is still the case with Collaborative Articles). 

Participating in collaborative articles will increase your profile's visibility whether or not you achieve a Top Voices badge. 

Your network will be notified about your contributions just as they are regarding your other engagement and posting activities. Your contributions will also be seen by other contributors and those who look to these articles for learning and growth. 

The larger question is if this is a good fit for your current goals and LinkedIn strategy. 

At New Terra Digital, we understand that each person’s LinkedIn experience, goals, and current strategies are unique and offer strategy sessions where you lead the conversation. If you’d like to schedule a 30-minute session, you can do so here. 

Also, we offer numerous resources and guidance through our social media channels and newsletters - LinkedIn, Instagram, Newsletter sign up.