Does influencer marketing work on LinkedIn?

Influencer marketing has become an increasingly popular tactic for brands looking to reach targeted audiences on social media. LinkedIn, with over 722 million users, offers a unique platform for B2B influencer marketing. But does influencer marketing actually work on LinkedIn?

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing involves partnering with influential people on social media to promote your brand and content. The influencers create content featuring your products/services and publish it on their social channels, leveraging their audience and credibility to drive awareness, traffic, and conversions for your brand.

Compared to traditional advertising, influencer marketing relies on earned media and personalized recommendations from influencers. Their audiences view influencers as trusted experts and trendsetters, making them powerful advocates for brands.

Why use influencer marketing on LinkedIn?

With over 55 million registered companies and 45 million senior-level influencers, LinkedIn provides access to a highly professional and influential audience. LinkedIn users look to the platform to stay updated on industry news, build their professional brand, and make B2B purchasing decisions. This presents a major opportunity for brands leveraging LinkedIn influencer marketing.

Here are some key benefits of LinkedIn influencer marketing:

• Targeted reach: LinkedIn has detailed user demographics and interests data to help identify and segment your target audience.
• B2B focus: LinkedIn is highly business-focused, enabling you to connect with working professionals and industries that are relevant to your brand.
• Trust and credibility: Influencers on LinkedIn are viewed as subject matter experts, lending credibility to your content and brand.
• Native advertising: Sponsored content matches the native LinkedIn feed, leading to high engagement rates.
• Purchase influence: LinkedIn users represent potential customers, especially for considered B2B purchases.

Types of LinkedIn influencers

LinkedIn has diverse influencer types to help brands reach different audiences and objectives:

Industry experts

These are recognized thought leaders in their field like authors, analysts, and journalists. They frequently publish long-form posts and are ideal for content promotion.

Company insiders

Employees who build a personal brand and following while working for a company. They provide an “inside view” and can humanize your brand.

Micro-influencers

Professionals with a small but targeted audience size of under 100k followers. Micro-influencers generate high engagement and credibility with niche audiences.

Celebrity influencers

Public figures, speakers, and authors with large followings, useful for raising brand awareness. However, engagement rates may be lower.

Power middle

Mid-level executives and managers with extensive networks. The “power middle” can reach broader professional audiences.

What makes an effective LinkedIn influencer marketing campaign?

To drive results with your LinkedIn influencer marketing, incorporate these best practices:

• Set clear campaign goals and KPIs to track (brand awareness, content engagement, leads generated, sales influenced etc.)
• Research your target audience and identify relevant influencers who align with your brand and can reach that audience.
• Look beyond vanity metrics like followers/connections only. Evaluate influencer’s actual engagement and credibility with their audience.
• Compensate influencers for their work through free products, paid sponsorships, donations etc. Incentives lead to higher-quality, dedicated promotions.
• Give influencers creative freedom to put their unique spin on content while conveying your key brand messages.
• Develop multi-channel content formats (articles, videos, live Q&As etc.) that resonate with each influencer’s followers.
• Promote influencer content through multiple touchpoints like email, organic social posts, and paid ads.
• Track performance through UTM tags and campaign-specific links to gauge traffic, conversions, and ROI.

Examples of successful LinkedIn influencer marketing campaigns

Here are some real-world examples of brands running effective influencer marketing campaigns on LinkedIn:

Adobe

Adobe partnered with LinkedIn Learning instructors to create sponsored video tutorials on Adobe products like Photoshop and Premiere Pro. The #LearnAdobe campaign generated over 4 million video views and positioned Adobe as a leader in creative software education.

Oracle

Oracle collaborated with technology thought leaders and CIOs to produce a steady stream of organic and sponsored stories that highlighted Oracle’s role in digital transformation. This strategic narrative helped Oracle earn quality leads.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite worked with micro-influencers in social media management to create 160+ pieces of original text, image, and video content. The campaign generated 2.1x higher engagement than benchmarked rates.

BambooHR

BambooHR partnered with HR and workplace culture experts to produce videos, e-books, and blog posts. Their campaign reached 500K+ people and built credibility in HR software.

Gyana

AI startup Gyana created an interactive video series with influencers focused on AI in 2021. The videos amassed over 100K views and positioned Gyana as an AI leader.

Measuring the ROI of LinkedIn influencer marketing

It’s crucial to measure your LinkedIn influencer marketing ROI to justify the investment and optimize future campaigns. Metrics to track include:

Content engagement

Engagement metrics like likes, comments, shares, and click-through rates gauge how well your branded content resonated.

Audience reach

The number of unique people who viewed your content indicates awareness lift.

Conversions and leads

Track form fills, downloads, purchases, and other goals set to calculate hard ROI.

Traffic

New visitors driven to your website or LinkedIn page show content promotion success.

Sentiment

Comments reveal how your brand/content is perceived by the influencer’s audience.

Conclusion

Influencer marketing delivers proven value and results on LinkedIn when executed strategically. It enables brands to tap into the credibility of industry experts to engage professionally-minded audiences throughout the buyer’s journey – from awareness to consideration to purchase.

With the right influencer partnerships, compelling content formats, and performance tracking, LinkedIn influencer campaigns can become a game-changing channel within your integrated B2B marketing strategy.