How to become a LinkedIn Top Voice: what LinkedIn actually says

You cannot earn a LinkedIn Top Voice badge by hitting a threshold. The programme is invite-only, LinkedIn's editorial team decides, and the one Top Voice badge you could once earn through your own effort was retired on 8 October 2024.

That is the part most guides still get wrong. Plenty of advice published since then tells you to grind contributions to collaborative articles and collect a gold badge. Those badges stopped being awarded almost two years ago.

There is still one concrete action available, and LinkedIn documents it plainly: you can nominate yourself. This guide covers what the badge means now, the five factors LinkedIn says it weighs, how the nomination works, and the questions LinkedIn pointedly does not answer.

Can you become a LinkedIn Top Voice?

Not by qualifying for it. LinkedIn states that "Top Voices is an invite-only program, and LinkedIn reviews content shared on the platform to identify new and emerging Top Voices."

What you can do is put your name in front of the people who decide. LinkedIn's help page says you can nominate yourself or another member using a form, and that it "reviews nominations quarterly and looks for exemplary voices who meet the highest standard of consistent, authentic, and trusted knowledge sharing."

So the honest framing is that this is a shortlist you can ask to join, not a level you can reach. Everything else you do is evidence for that review rather than progress toward a score.

What does LinkedIn Top Voice mean?

A Top Voice is a member LinkedIn's editorial team has invited into a recognition programme, marked by a blue badge on their profile.

LinkedIn describes Top Voices as "a select group of global experts, leaders, changemakers, public figures and innovators on LinkedIn," and says the programme recognises members "who consistently demonstrate expertise and leadership in their respective fields in ways that educate, inspire and inform the larger community."

The badge is a signal of editorial selection. It is not a follower milestone, and LinkedIn does not publish a follower requirement anywhere in its Top Voices documentation.

What happened to the gold Community Top Voice badge?

LinkedIn retired it. Contributors could once earn a gold Community Top Voice badge automatically through collaborative articles, and LinkedIn discontinued that on 8 October 2024.

In its own words, LinkedIn decided "to retire the gold Community Top Voice badge (gold badge) and discontinue the ability to earn them automatically through contributions to collaborative articles starting October 8, 2024." Existing gold badges expired within 60 days of being awarded, and no new ones have been issued since.

The reason LinkedIn gave was quality control: it found "it is challenging to maintain the highest quality standards for our Community Top Voice badges, as they are currently awarded automatically to contributors, and not manually awarded by our team."

Critically for anyone reading older advice, LinkedIn confirmed at the same time that "there are no changes to our Top Voice (blue badge) program, which is invitation-only and led by LinkedIn's editorial team."

If a guide tells you to farm collaborative articles for a badge, check its date. That route closed in 2024.

How does LinkedIn choose Top Voices?

LinkedIn lists five factors it considers, and says the list is not exhaustive.

• Platform presence: creating consistent content and regularly engaging with the community
• Quality and originality: high-quality contributions with originality and authenticity in voice and style, from members with "a distinctive voice and unique perspectives"
• Subject matter expertise: insights on professional topics, which may include news, commentary and analysis relevant to a particular industry, company or local economy
• Safety, trust and professionalism: profiles, content and interactions that abide by LinkedIn's Professional Community Policies
• Prominence: editors may also grant badges to members with "an outsized influence in their local market's economy, job market or industry"

That last factor is worth sitting with. Prominence is not something you can work toward from a standing start, and LinkedIn naming it as a route makes clear that editorial judgement, not activity volume, is doing the deciding.

How do you nominate yourself as a Top Voice?

Submit LinkedIn's nomination form, which is linked directly from its Top Voices help page. The same form covers nominating yourself or another member.

LinkedIn reviews nominations on a quarterly cycle. It does not publish how many nominations it receives, what proportion succeed, or whether nominees are told the outcome, so treat submission as entering a review rather than starting a process with a defined end.

Before you submit, it is worth making the profile and recent activity match what the review is looking for, because LinkedIn says it reviews content shared on the platform. A nomination pointing at a thin or inconsistent feed is asking editors to evaluate the wrong evidence.

What does LinkedIn recommend if you want the badge?

LinkedIn publishes six best practices, with the caveat that "any member has the opportunity to reach a wide audience with their posts on LinkedIn, whether or not they are a Top Voice."

One line in that list disqualifies a common approach outright. LinkedIn states that "members who primarily or exclusively promote paid services are not considered." If your feed is mostly offers, the badge is off the table regardless of reach.

Consistency is the factor you can actually measure. If you want to see whether your posting cadence and engagement hold up over months rather than weeks, our comparison of LinkedIn analytics tools covers what the native view leaves out, and our engagement rate benchmarks give you something to measure against.

How long does a Top Voice badge last?

Badges are assessed and renewed twice per year, and a new Top Voice keeps the badge for at least six months.

LinkedIn says members "will remain a Top Voice for at least six months, and are eligible for badge renewal as long as they continue to meet the core program requirements." It also reserves the right to add and remove members outside the usual admission periods at its discretion.

Removal is explicit rather than theoretical. LinkedIn "will remove Top Voice status from any member who does not consistently meet LinkedIn's Professional Community Policies."

Do LinkedIn Top Voices get paid?

LinkedIn does not say. Its Top Voices documentation contains no mention of payment, compensation or monetisation for badge holders, so any figure you see quoted elsewhere is not coming from LinkedIn.

The only money-related line in the programme documentation runs the other way: members who primarily promote paid services are excluded from consideration.

If you are looking at LinkedIn as an income route rather than a recognition one, the badge is the wrong target. The people earning from the platform tend to be doing it through audience and offers, which is the pattern visible among the top LinkedIn creators.

How do you show or hide the Top Voice badge?

Edit your profile intro and toggle the badge there. On desktop, click the Me icon, then View Profile, then the Edit icon in the introduction section. Scroll to the Top Voice Badge section, pick the badge from the dropdown, and confirm Show badge in my intro is checked, then save.

On mobile, tap your profile photo twice to reach your profile, tap the Edit icon in the introduction section, and follow the same steps.

One consequence is easy to miss: LinkedIn notes that if you hide a Top Voice badge from your profile, "it will not show in your Skills section" either. Hiding it removes it from both places, not just the intro.

Is the Top Voice badge worth chasing?

As a goal, no. As a byproduct, possibly. The badge is awarded on editorial judgement over a twice-yearly cycle, with prominence as an explicit factor, so the amount of it under your control is limited.

LinkedIn itself makes the more useful point, which is that reach does not depend on the badge: any member can reach a wide audience with their posts, Top Voice or not. The behaviours LinkedIn lists as badge criteria are the same behaviours that build an audience without one, which means following them is worthwhile whether or not the invitation ever arrives.

The practical version is to post consistently on a defined subject, keep it non-promotional, engage after publishing, and submit the nomination once your recent activity actually represents you. Then stop thinking about it. If you are still setting up the profile side of that, our guide to creator mode on LinkedIn covers the settings that affect how your content surfaces.

FAQ

How do you become a LinkedIn Top Voice?

By invitation from LinkedIn's editorial team, with self-nomination as the one action available to you. LinkedIn describes Top Voices as an invite-only programme and reviews content on the platform to identify candidates, but it also publishes a nomination form and reviews submissions quarterly.

How many followers do you need to be a LinkedIn Top Voice?

LinkedIn does not publish a follower requirement. Its Top Voices documentation lists platform presence, quality and originality, subject matter expertise, professionalism and prominence as the factors it considers, and mentions no follower count anywhere.

Can you still get the gold Community Top Voice badge?

No. LinkedIn retired the gold Community Top Voice badge on 8 October 2024 and stopped awarding new ones. Existing badges expired within 60 days of being awarded, and the blue Top Voice programme was unaffected.

How long does it take to become a LinkedIn Top Voice?

LinkedIn does not publish a timeline. Badges are assessed and renewed twice per year and nominations are reviewed quarterly, so those cycles set the earliest possible cadence, but LinkedIn states no expected duration between activity and invitation.

Why is my Top Voice badge not showing?

Check whether the badge is toggled on in your profile intro. The badge only appears when Show badge in my intro is checked in the Top Voice Badge section of the edit intro panel, and hiding it also removes it from your Skills section. Badges are also time-limited, since they are reassessed twice a year and can be removed if content stops meeting the Professional Community Policies.

Do LinkedIn Top Voices get paid?

LinkedIn does not state that Top Voices are paid. There is no mention of payment or compensation in the Top Voices programme documentation, and the only money-related criterion excludes members who primarily promote paid services.

Can you nominate someone else as a Top Voice?

Yes. LinkedIn's nomination form covers nominating another member as well as yourself, and the same quarterly review applies to both.

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Sources: LinkedIn Top Voices, Community Top Voices (Gold Badge), Show or hide Top Voice Badge on your profile. LinkedIn help pages checked 10 September 2026.