Why Use LinkedIn Influencer Marketing
LinkedIn is smaller than Facebook or Instagram. But don’t forget that LinkedIn is business-oriented. Most users there really mean business, even if some keep posting silly cat videos.
Here’s how the case for LinkedIn influencers stands:
- Many company executives and decision-makers are on LinkedIn, and they follow influencers in their industry. This is not necessarily the case on other social platforms, where the focus is often on connecting with consumers.
- Influencers on LinkedIn carry weight. It’s not just their business-oriented approach that matters, but the content they create and share. Content on LinkedIn tends to be longer and more in-depth. Content on this platform requires more effort–both to be created and to be consumed.
- LinkedIn generates 80% of all B2B leads generated on social media. To be clear: it’s responsible for more B2B conversions than Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram put together.
The bottom line is that for many businesses, LinkedIn influencers are a better fit than Facebook or Instagram influencers.
How Does Influencer Marketing on LinkedIn Work?
Influencers create and publish sponsored posts, articles, or videos mentioning you and linking back to you. This can bring you massive exposure and improve your brand image. To get there, though, you need to go through a few steps.
Know Your Audience and Objectives
It all starts with you, not with them. Influencers on LinkedIn come in many varieties, and some are a lot more useful than others.
To find the right match, you need to understand your audience and know what you want to achieve. You also need to set a budget and key performance indicators to measure progress.
Find the Right Influencers
Depending on your objectives, you can look for influencers with anywhere from 1,000 to 150,000 followers. You can aim for bigger, sure, but very popular influencers can be hard to get on board.
Here are some ideas for finding influencers:
- Start from your existing connections or clients.
- Check what influencers your customers follow.
- Use niche keywords or hashtags to find influencers through LinkedIn’s built-in search feature.
- Join related LinkedIn Groups and look for influencers there.
When considering influencers, don’t look only at their follower count but also at the quality of their connections. Check their activity and engagement levels.
You also want to explore their content a bit. Follow them for a while if you have time to make sure they are a good fit for you. If you do this, they may notice you. Engaging with them will then become easier.
Tip: Finding and filtering influencers can be time-consuming. You may want to use an automation tool to extract data.
Engage with Influencers
Once you have a shortlist of influencers, you can approach your top choices. You may want to start with people you are already connected to. You can message them directly.
Otherwise, you may have to upgrade to LinkedIn premium to send them an InMail on the platform. Is this upgrade worth it? InMails have a very high response rate. Often, they are the fastest way to reach an influencer.
Always send a well-crafted message. Remember that most professionals on LinkedIn are there for business–and that they are busy. Informal or generic messages may not get you a response.
The Wrap Up
Reaching out to LinkedIn influencers sooner rather than later can be a sound marketing decision. Right now, the network is not yet oversaturated with influencers like other social media platforms.
What’s more, influencers can become long-term connections and help you explore new marketing opportunities on the platform and beyond it. On a network where most users are in business mode, forging valuable collaborations shouldn’t be too hard.
In the end, you won’t know the true value of LinkedIn influencers for your brand until you work with some of them. Better get started sooner than later.
