LinkedIn Publishes New Guide on Influencer Marketing for B2B Brands

LinkedIn has published a new guide on how B2B brands can utilize creator partnerships, and how influencer marketing in B2B differs from the B2C space.

Creators have become a bigger focus for LinkedIn of late, with the platform looking to offer more incentives to keep its top voices posting to the app. Brand partnerships are another aspect of this, and its 22-page “Working with B2B Creators” guide provides a range of data-backed notes and pointers to help B2B organizations maximize their creator outreach.

You can download the full guide here (with email sign-up), but in this post, we’ll take a look at some of the key notes.

First off, the report looks at the variance in approach for B2B influencer marketing, and what B2B buyers use social media for.

As you can see, LinkedIn is unsurprisingly top of the list for B2B buyers, but as LinkedIn notes:

“B2B buyers don’t just consume creator content casually or passively. They integrate it purposefully into their buying process, leaning on it as a trusted form of endorsement at every important stage of discovery and decision-making.”

So rather than providing entertaining content, you need informative experts who can elevate the reputation of your products to this professional audience.

On that front, LinkedIn provides a range of stats, based on a survey conducted by GWI, as to what B2B buyers are seeking from influencer content.

There are also notes on preferred content formats:

Yeah, unsurprisingly, video is top of the heap. LinkedIn has been pushing video as much as it can, with more and more people now responding to video posts, as opposed to static updates.

In addition to this, LinkedIn also provides pointers on how to create effective Thought Leader Ads:

As well as step-by-step notes on how to partner with relevant experts:

LinkedIn’s also shared an overview of some of the people whom LinkedIn considers top professional voices in the app:

It’s using these as examples of professional creators that you can check out to see what they share, but your chances of working with these folk are not incredibly high. Like, if you can get Steph Curry to say your that product has helped him improve his shooting form, definitely go for that, but he’s included here as more of an example (even though he’s only posted on LinkedIn 7 times this year).

Which is the only element that I somewhat disagree with in this guide.

LinkedIn has long bought into the cult of “thought leadership,” and all that this entails, so essentially, the focus here is right up LinkedIn’s alley, in promoting these stalwarts of professional expertise and insight, who regularly share long-winded, inspirational-style posts to the app.

And they do generate engagement, and some of these folk do share valuable business advice. But they often also overlook several key considerations, like the fact that they happen to be uniquely good at content creation, or that they make money off of saying these things, as opposed to, you know, running a day-to-day business.

Will those be the most effective partners for your brand?

Look, some of them may be, and there’s definitely something to be said for partnering with established experts who have done the work in your niche, and you should research those specific voices in your influencer marketing planning.

But again, some of them are just talkers, people who can produce good-looking video, and speak in verbose language that sounds really impressive, but is ultimately useless for most regular people.

But then again, they do get engagement and reach, and maybe that’s what you really need in promoting your products either way. I would just be wary of those who have made millions off of giving advice, as they can also be off-putting in their own way.

Overall, however, LinkedIn’s guide provides some valuable pointers for B2B influencer marketing, and partnering with the right creators to help elevate your brand and marketing efforts.

You can download LinkedIn’s “Working with B2B Creators” guide here (with email sign-up)