As opposed to those in the social mediaverse who routinely threaten to unfriend/unfollow/disown pals who perpetually pepper them with invites to join the professional networking set, Rep. Ron Kind has not only found a use for LinkedIn, he’s been ushered into an elite club: the “Influencers.”  

The nascent program, which appears to have launched in late 2012, provides LI “thought leaders” the opportunity to exponentially grow their audience by giving them maximum exposure on the platform’s newsy “Pulse” pages.  

“The LinkedIn Influencer program invites top voices in the professional world to reach professionals across LinkedIn. This is an invitation-only program, so Influencers must be invited by LinkedIn to participate,” the company explains in a recent post.  

A Kind aide confirmed that the Wisconsin Democrat joined the ranks of the megaphone-enabled commenters last summer.

“It is always a goal of Rep. Kind’s to improve and expand his outreach and increase transparency in his decision-making process. Influencer offers the opportunity to give more information through longer pieces and appeals to people who are looking for a greater depth of opinion,” Team Kind said of the no-holds-barred communication channel.  

Kind has taken to his online soapbox four times in the past year, garnering thousands of views on topics ranging from the congressional fight over extending unemployment benefits to a rallying cry to protect voting rights. His stumping has earned him over 3,300 followers.  

Which means he’s gonna have to send out a TON more LI invites if he expects to catch up to some of the political heavies in the Influencer game:

• President Barack Obama (1 million-plus followers)
• British Prime Minister David Cameron (approximately 888,000 followers)
• Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon (365,000 followers)

Now if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got to go purge our spam folder …