By Charlie Luck, guest contributor
LinkedIn is a growing hub of business to business interaction — a place where you can market your brand on a global scale. Over the last year, the company has worked to improve opportunities for marketers to have a stronger voice, with the rollout of more dynamic features like promoted video, and most recently, carousel ads.
Unlike other social media, LinkedIn is first and foremost a site for businesses and professionals, and its uniqueness has brought in the attention of a wide audience. According to Kissmetrics, LinkedIn boasts upwards of 350 million users from all over the world. Nearly half of those users use the site at least once a day.
Using LinkedIn to market your brand could open doors for you in the realms of business partnerships, potential consumers, and increased visibility.
What method is likely to boost your brand’s visibility on LinkedIn?
There are many ways to go about marketing and promoting your brand on LinkedIn, but one popular method has taken the social media marketing world by storm in recent years. According to Forbes, around 84% of marketers are planning to launch one or more influencer marketing campaigns within the year. Influencer marketing aims to garner increased consumer interest by using a popular social media celebrity to strategically share and create posts that feature or mention your brand.
Related: LinkedIn Advertising – A Guide for B2B Marketers
Using influencer marketing techniques on LinkedIn could open doors for long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships where your brand is being put under the eyes of receptive prospects.
How can LinkedIn work with influencer marketing?
While LinkedIn does have typical social media features, the overall goal of LinkedIn is to connect professionals and businesses.
You could try the traditional method of influencer marketing in the sphere of LinkedIn, but finding a LinkedIn “celebrity” may be a difficult feat.
Related: How Fit Is Your Content Marketing Strategy?
Instead, you can think of LinkedIn as your way “in” to influencer marketing. For the millions of users around the world using LinkedIn, there is a portion of the community that you could consider to be potential influencers for your brand.
LinkedIn is about professional connections, and unlike most social media sites, it is quite standard to reach out and connect with strangers. With users viewing each connection on the site as a potential business boost, communicating with potential influencers can be easier and more natural than reaching out to them on sites like Facebook or Twitter.
How to engage influencers on LinkedIn
In order to start connecting with potential influencers, build up your own page followers. You want to show off your brand in the best way possible, so those you contact can get a great look at what you offer and who you are as a professional. Make sure you detail all the important and unique elements of your brand. You want your page to look as complete, professional, and legitimate as possible.
Connect with groups
Once you’ve finished your page, start connecting with groups. Groups are a great way for you to find businesses and professionals in your brand’s field or area of interest. You can join groups or create your own. But remember — there is a limit on the number of groups you can be in, so make sure you’re selecting ones that have the potential to connect you to influencers and other potential business colleagues.
Be professional
Whatever method you take to begin a conversation with a potential influencer, just remember to approach them professionally and courteously. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get a positive response at first—or even one at all. It can take time to find the right influencer, but once you do, you can be sure your brand will receive an increase in visibility.
Take your time, make connections, and be professional. LinkedIn may provide you a great platform, but you have to the do the work!
