LinkedIn very smartly got buy-in from some of the greatest world leaders and business leaders (Barack Obama, who at the time was running for re-election), David Cameron, Jack Welch, and Richard Branson were amongst the first group. Obviously politicians are driven by their ability to influence, and Branson & Welch driven by brand and ability to teach respectively.

Once they had the incredible core, it was easy to go to other leading CEO's, authors and thinkers, asking them to participate and giving them credibility-by-association with the initial group.

As a prolific Influencer, I have benefitted from association with Branson & co, driven over 20 million pageviews, and secured thousands of books sold and leads generated. But the #1 impact has been the actual real-life relationships I've gotten with brilliant thinkers, gamechangers and CEO's such as Adam Grant, Gretchen Ruben, AJ Jacobs, and Craig Newmark.

The feedback that the LinkedIn audience provides is also unheard of anywhere in history on or off the web. Some of my articles generate thousands of comments, while most generate hundreds. For a writer, feedback is currency.

So even though linkedin influencers aren't paid, and even though most are extremely busy - it's been a great net experience for me, and for the 40ish influencers I've met over the past year.