How do you connect with influencers on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn has become an incredibly powerful platform for building relationships with influencers. With over 722 million users worldwide, LinkedIn offers access to professionals across all industries and career levels. As an influencer marketing tactic, connecting with influencers on LinkedIn can help raise brand awareness, increase engagement, and drive website traffic.

Why Connect with Influencers on LinkedIn?

There are several key reasons why connecting with influencers on LinkedIn should be part of your social media strategy:

• LinkedIn profiles are optimized for search – Influencers want to be found on LinkedIn. So they optimize their profiles for discoverability. This makes finding and researching potential influencers much easier than other networks.
• Open rates for InMail are high – LinkedIn reports open rates of up to 90% for InMail messages. This channel gives you an effective way to reach out to influencers at scale.
• LinkedIn is the social network for B2B – 94% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn generates the most ROI for them. If your business is B2B, LinkedIn should be your #1 influencer marketing channel.
• Share useful content with your network – Leverage your LinkedIn connections to share an influencer’s content with your network. This helps build relationships while expanding the influencer’s reach.

Simply put, LinkedIn provides direct access to exactly the audience you want to target – working professionals and industry experts. As long as you approach influencer outreach respectfully, many will be open to partnering with your brand.

How to Identify the Right Influencers to Connect With

With over 722 million users, who do you connect with? Here are 5 tips for identifying the influencers that best align with your brand on LinkedIn:

1. Look for relevant keywords – Search by industry keywords, job titles, employers, and more to find influencers discussing topics relevant to your business.
2. Check out their engagement – Scan their LinkedIn posts to see what types of content generates the most likes, comments, and shares. Higher engagement indicates a more loyal audience.
3. Ensure their audience matches yours – Do their followers and network connections align with your target audience? There should be a strong overlap.
4. Review recommendations and mentions – Who is recommending them or mentioning them on LinkedIn? The more recommendations, the more influential they likely are.
5. Join LinkedIn Groups – Pay attention to the most active members in relevant LinkedIn Groups. These are often industry experts worth connecting with.

While follower count matters, you want to evaluate LinkedIn influencers more holistically based on the engagement and authority they command within their niches.

Best Practices for Connecting

Here are some top strategies to follow when reaching out to influencers on LinkedIn:

1. Personalize your message – Do your research and craft a unique message referencing their specialty and why you want to connect.
2. Highlight what’s in it for them – Don’t make it all about you. What value can you provide to this influencer? Promoting their content? Useful industry insights? Position it as an opportunity for both parties.
3. Keep it short and sweet – Respect their time and get to the point quickly. Two to three paragraphs is ideal for an initial LinkedIn message.
4. Offer to jump on a call – After breaking the ice, offer a short exploratory call to discuss a potential partnership. This builds the relationship faster.
5. Add value first – Before asking for anything in return, share their content, like and comment on their posts, and endorse their skills.
6. Stay patient but persistent – Not every influencer will reply right away. Follow up if they don’t respond after a week or two.

The goal is to make your message intriguing enough for them to want to learn more. With the right approach, many influencers are happy to connect on LinkedIn.

Effective Tactics to Deploy

Once connected, there are several impactful tactics you can deploy to partner with your new influencer connections on LinkedIn:

Co-create content

Collaborate with an influencer to co-create content. This could include:

• Co-authoring a LinkedIn article
• Featuring them as a guest on your company page or blog
• Interviewing them for a podcast or videocast
• Having them speak at a company event

The content possibilities are endless. Just make sure the partnership is clearly promoted on both sides.

Run a LinkedIn contest/giveaway

Who doesn’t love a good giveaway? Consider partnering with influencers on contests and sweepstakes.

For example, team up with several influencers in your industry to promote a LinkedIn giveaway for a chance to win your product/service, a coupon, gift card, or other relevant prize.

To drive entries, you can require entrants to follow you and the other influencer accounts, share the giveaway post, etc.

Establish an affiliate program

Create an ongoing partnership by setting up an affiliate program. This incentivizes influencers to regularly promote your brand to their audiences.

The exact structure is flexible based on your goals. You may pay them a flat monthly fee, per lead generated, or per sale driven. The key is making it rewarding for both them and your brand.

Sponsor their content

If you really want to get an influencer’s attention, offer to sponsor their LinkedIn content. Rather than asking them to share your brand, you pay to promote their expertise.

For example, you could sponsor a downloadable guide or video created by the influencer. This shows you value their thought leadership, not just their promotion.

Request recommendations/endorsements

A recommendation or skill endorsement from an influencer goes a long way. Don’t be afraid to request this after you’ve built a relationship.

The boost to your brand’s credibility and authority is well worth it. Pro tip: Offer to write the recommendation yourself to save them time!

Measuring the ROI of Influencer Partnerships on LinkedIn

Before investing in influencer partnerships, you need to know how to track their effectiveness. Here are key LinkedIn metrics to measure:

Engagement on Co-Created Content

Analyze shares, likes, and comments on any co-created LinkedIn content with your influencers. High engagement indicates their audience is resonating with the partnership.

Referral Traffic

Use UTM tracking codes to measure referral traffic driven from an influencer’s LinkedIn content to your website. This helps quantify the value of their promotion.

Affiliate Sales Conversions

For affiliate programs, track sales using affiliate/coupon codes to see which influencers are driving conversions.

Leads From Sponsored Content

If sponsoring an influencer’s post, use a unique UTM or coupon code to identify resulting leads or sales.

Brand Mentions

Monitor brand name mentions following influencer partnerships. An increase reflects growing brand awareness.

Considering using a social listening tool like Mention or Hootsuite to track mentions and see their potential reach.

By regularly evaluating these metrics, you can determine an ROI for your top performing influencer relationships and optimize your partnerships over time.

Conclusion

Influencer marketing on LinkedIn can produce impressive results, but only if executed strategically. By identifying and vetting the right influencers, personalizing your outreach, and developing value-driven partnerships, your brand can gain significant credibility plus exposure to new audiences.

Just remember – the influencer-brand relationship should be mutually beneficial. With the right approach, connecting with influencers on LinkedIn can become an invaluable part of your marketing strategy.