How to Find Influencers on LinkedIn and Connect With Them

Reading Time: 9 Minutes

GRIN also recommends this free guide:

How to Find Influencers Guidebook

Download Guide

Influencer marketing has the potential to give your brand a tremendous boost online. This is perhaps the reason why it has become very popular among digital marketers and brands.

It has gained traction on almost all major social media platforms, and LinkedIn is one of them. People may use LinkedIn to find jobs and discover companies. However, through influencers, you can market your brand there as well.

Many companies and potential employees have accounts on LinkedIn. If you’re able to collaborate with an influencer on the platform, you can spread the word about your brand and your products easily.

However, finding genuine influencers is no easy task. You need to be wary of fake influencers who buy likes and followers and dupe brands into collaborating with them. Partnering with such influencers can have a variety of negative effects.

Here’s how you can find influencers on LinkedIn and connect with them for your influencer marketing campaigns.

1. Define Your Niche and Positioning

To find influencers on LinkedIn, you need to first understand what you offer to your industry. For that, it is essential to define your niche and position in your industry.

This will give you a clear idea of the value that you bring to the table. Without having an idea of your value, it is difficult to promote yourself to others.

You need to figure out your unique selling proposition (USP). This can help you figure out the factors that can give you an edge over your competitors. Doing this can also give you a better idea of how to position yourself when you plan to find influencers on LinkedIn and approach them.

2. Perform a Manual Search on LinkedIn with Keywords

The simplest way to find influencers on LinkedIn is by searching for them on the platform. For this method, you need to first come up with a list of keywords relevant to your industry and business.

You can find these keywords with the help of a keyword research tool such as the Google Keyword Planner.

Once you have a list of relevant keywords, conduct searches for them on LinkedIn. This will give you a list of all the people who have used those keywords.

You can then check their profiles out to get a better idea of what they do. Check out their articles and activity on the platform. How many followers do they have? Do their posts get a lot of likes and comments? This will give you a better idea of their reach and engagement.

This will help you find influencers on LinkedIn who you might want to collaborate with. These are the ones you should reach out to for collaborations. Once you connect with them, let them know why you’re contacting them. Also share some information about your influencer marketing campaign with them. Don’t forget to tell them what’s in it for them if they partner with you.

Some influencers may get back to you quickly with positive replies while others may reject your offer. However, some of them may not respond to you at all. You can follow up once or twice with people who don’t respond after a few days.

3. Perform a More Sophisticated Search Using Software

Another way to find influencers on LinkedIn is by using influencer marketing software such as GRIN. You can search for influencers on LinkedIn using specific keywords and phrases. You can also narrow the results down even further based on their location and age.

The best part about this platform is that all of the influencers who are listed are verified. This way, you won’t have to worry about fake influencers. GRIN not only helps you to find influencers on LinkedIn but even helps you manage your campaigns.

Right from finding influencers to figuring out your ROI, GRIN can help you do it all. It makes influencer marketing easier and more effective.

4. Search by Authors

LinkedIn is a great publishing platform apart from a place to network. Everyone can write content on LinkedIn and get it in front of millions of eyeballs. You can use this feature to your advantage to find influencers on LinkedIn.

All you need to do is click on the search bar and select “Content.” You can then search for relevant keywords. This will give you a list of articles, including the most popular posts for that keyword. The authors of these posts are the people you should take note of and potentially connect with.

How to Find Influencers on LinkedIn and Connect With Them 1

Image via LinkedIn

5. Determine the Influence of an Individual Through the Engagement on Their Posts

Once you’ve found the authors of popular posts in your niche, you should look at their profiles. This will show you a list of all of the posts that they’ve written on LinkedIn.

Under each post, you’ll be able to see the date of publishing along with the number of views.

Some people may post regularly. However, their reach and engagement matter the most. If they are posting regularly and people aren’t seeing their posts, there’s probably no use collaborating with them.

Those authors who have a higher view count and more likes are likely to be prominent figures in their niches. The likes are indicative of high engagement while the views indicate a greater reach. This way, you can find influencers on LinkedIn who have good engagement rates.

6. Find Influencers Through LinkedIn Groups

Yet another way to find influencers on LinkedIn is by looking through LinkedIn Groups. For this, you need to select “Groups” from the dropdown menu next to the search bar. When you search for your relevant keywords, you’ll find groups related to each particular keyword.

While a majority of the groups may be private, there might be some public groups as well. The private ones are marked with a lock and require approval from the moderator to join. The groups are sorted by their activity and membership size. Try joining the top groups in your industry and niche.

How to Find Influencers on LinkedIn and Connect With Them 2

Image via LinkedIn

Once you’ve joined a group, you’ll be able to see the top contributors in the group. They are the people who post the most content in that particular group.

You can further check the most popular posts in the group by clicking on the “Popular” tab. From there, you’ll get an idea of all of the people who are posting content regularly and getting high engagement.

These are the people you should reach out to. This way, Groups can help you find influencers on LinkedIn.

7. Use Persuasive and Compelling Messages for Outreach

Finally, once you find influencers on LinkedIn, you should reach out to them. During the outreach, you should craft persuasive messages that they cannot ignore. These messages should stand out and make them want to collaborate with you.

Your goal should be to start genuine conversations with them. Converse naturally with them and provide value to them. You could compliment them for their success or even comment on their posts.

Remember, you’re not the only one reaching out to them. Your message will stand out only if it is interesting and engaging.

Final Thoughts

91% of marketing executives believe that LinkedIn is the best place to find high-quality content. This should be reason enough for you to want to find influencers on LinkedIn. You should define your niche and then conduct manual searches to find influencers relevant to your brand.

You can also use software like GRIN for this. Searching Groups and authors can help you find influential people on LinkedIn as well. Just make sure that you create a compelling message when you’re reaching out to them.

Learn more about influencer marketing: Influencer Marketing 101

Updated: July 2023

Was this article helpful? Give it a share!

Want to be the first to know what’s new in the creator economy?

Our team keeps a finger on the pulse, so you’re always working with the latest information.

Get the GRIN newsletter for all the trends and insights you need to grow your business.

Written by GRIN Contributor

GRIN is the pioneer behind the world’s first Creator Management platform built to support every brand’s journey to connecting with consumers through authentic creator relationships. Thousands of the world’s fastest-growing brands—including SKIMS, Warby Parker, Allbirds, Mejuri, and MVMT—use GRIN to make creators feel like trusted, empowered partners and work with them to build their brands into household names.

white GRIN logo

All-in-one creator management platform helping ecommerce companies build more valuable brands through the power of creator partnerships.

© Grin Technologies Inc. 2024. All rights reserved.

Introducing
GRIN's Discovery Suite

Discover

Supercharge Your
Influencer Discovery Efforts

GRIN favicon

GRIN's NEW
Discovery Suite

Supercharge Your Influencer Discovery Efforts

GRIN's NEW
Discovery Suite

Introducing

GRIN's

Discovery Suite

Compare the Time of a Manual Process vs. GRIN

Compare the Time of a Manual Process vs. GRIN

GRIN favicon

GRIN + Uber Case Study

How did one person build Uber's robust TikTok community from scratch?

Find out here
GRIN logo

+

Uber logo

Introducing GRIN
Professional Services

Our team of experts is ready to drive the results you need.

Learn more