Happy Friday and Happy (almost) Halloween! Here’s what we’re chatting about this week.

• How to get a Top Voice badge on LinkedIn. You’ve seen the badges start to appear on other people’s profiles. Here’s how to get your own.

• You should be taking purposeful pauses. Why taking breaks is an essential part of the workday.

📢 How to get a Top Voice badge on LinkedIn.

If you’ve been on LinkedIn recently, then you’ve probably noticed a new badge popping up on people's profiles. This is because of their recently launched Top Voices program.

Today, we’ll dive into the program and tell you everything you need to know about Top Voices and how to become one.

What is Top Voice?

It’s a badge LinkedIn awards to creators who “make it easier for our members to identify and follow valued and quality content on LinkedIn from experts around the world.”

The program has two levels.

1) Top Voice

2) Community Top Voice

Don’t mistake these for verification markers confirming that someone is who they say they are. LinkedIn has a different process for that. These badges are more exclusive and only handed out to a select few people.

We’ve already heard from several people with Top Voice badges that their following has seen a significant boost ever since the badge appeared on their profiles.

So, if you’re serious about wanting to establish yourself as a thought leader in your space, the badge is worth having.

Here’s a breakdown of how to earn one.

Getting a Community Voice badge.

Let’s start with the easier of the two.

Earlier this year, LinkedIn rolled out collaborative articles, and along with that, they launched the Community Top Voice badge. Collaborative articles are “AI-powered conversation starters” developed with the LinkedIn editorial team. LinkedIn members are then invited to respond to the articles with their stories and thoughts.

The Community Voice badge is for LinkedIn users who make noteworthy contributions to collaborative articles for specific categories.

So, the key to winning this badge is straightforward — contribute to collaborative articles.

LinkedIn sends out invitations to people the system deems qualified so that they can contribute. They appear in a user’s notification area and look like this:

But if you haven’t received any invitations, don’t worry. It’s still possible for you to add your contributions.

Here’s how:

1) Browse this list of collaborative articles.

2) Pick an article you want to contribute to.

3) Add your experience and thoughts.

Scroll through the AI-generated subheadings until you find a section you want to respond to. If none of the sections jump out, you can go to the “Here’s what else to consider” section and add your thoughts there.

You’ll notice that most articles have hundreds of contributors, so it’s worth taking some time to craft a post that adds value and is unique to you. Share personal anecdotes or experiences to make your answers stand out.

Unfortunately, LinkedIn doesn’t say how many collaborative articles you need to contribute to in order to be awarded a community badge. But we have heard from our contacts with badges that they responded to 5-6 articles per day for a couple of weeks before a badge appeared on their profile.

Keeping the badge

Once you receive a badge, you’ll have it for at least 60 days. But after that:

“In order to keep the badge beyond 60 days, your contributions must remain relevant, original, and additive,” LinkedIn says. “Members must continue to find your contributions within that particular skill set noteworthy, and you continue to abide by our Professional Community Policies.”

Getting a Top Voice badge

Getting this badge is a lot more difficult. It’s a top-tier badge reserved for “senior-level experts and leaders.” Top Voice recipients are vetted and hand-selected by the LinkedIn editorial team.

If you’re serious about winning this badge, you must dedicate significant time and energy to creating content on LinkedIn and engaging with other platform users. You’ll also need to amass a substantial number of followers.

To start working your way towards this badge:

• Make sure your profile is optimized.

• Define your target audience and what you want to say to them.

• Create high-quality and value-added content on LinkedIn.

• Maintain a frequent and consistent posting schedule.

📰 In the news this week.

📈 Must know SaaS marketing trends for 2024.

▶️ TikTok continues its assault on YouTube by testing 15-min videos.

🤖 OpenAI now lets ChatGPT have full internet access.

🔢 How to create an SEO report.

❓ 2/3 of tech buyers think B2B marketing is too vague.

🧠 You should be taking purposeful pauses throughout your day.

Taking rest periods during the workday is critical to high performance.

Microsoft recently published research showing that breaks between meetings can significantly reduce stress, even if those breaks are just 10 minutes.

“Our research shows breaks are important, not just to make us less exhausted by the end of the day, but to actually improve our ability to focus and engage while in those meetings,” said Michael Bohan, senior director of Microsoft’s Human Factors Engineering group.

And taking breaks not only lowers stress but also improves performance.

If you want to take things up another level, take a walk during your breaks. Research shows that walking can improve your mood and boost creativity by up to 60%.

😂 Marketing meme of the week.

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