Lately, my LinkedIn feed has seen an uptick in sponsored posts by great B2B influencers. As someone who prides themselves on being at the forefront of B2B influencer marketing, naturally I’ve taken note. One campaign that stood out to me was done last month by Hootsuite. After doing my very best at some internet sleuthing, I’ve pulled together my findings and of course my POV. If you enjoy seeing this, let me know in the comments and I’ll keep doing them.

So, grab a cup of coffee & dig in!

Case Study: Hootsuite

Leaning in to LinkedIn Influencers

Brands are getting smart with LinkedIn influencers. We are starting to see several brands test the waters – Zendesk, Adobe, and Zapier, to name a few. The recent Hootsuite campaign caught my eye though, and so did the results.

Hootsuite ran a LinkedIn influencer campaign last month. Their target was clearly social media managers/teams. They teamed up with ~8 LinkedIn influencers to share what their recent study found – that SMMs loved their jobs, they just needed more support & better pay.

Why was this important?

If you are in the circles of SMMs on LinkedIn, you see the content talking about how they don’t get much respect, are asked to perform an inordinate amount of tasks – posting, content creation, strategy, copywriting, etc. – and are underpaid. It would, in fact, lead you to believe that many of them are on the verge of quitting.

But without real numbers to support these claims, they are just feelings. Well, HootSuite’s first-ever Career Report for Social Media Managers surveyed 3800+ social professionals, addressing these feelings head-on.

And more than that, their most popular content leaned into a trend from B2C – “Guy with a Sign.” Something SMMs would recognize instantly.

Well done, HootSuite.

The Data:

Interested in the numbers?

This was a manual pull – just some LinkedIn searching and public-facing metrics. So, I may have missed a few things, but here is what I found.

The Takeaways:

LinkedIn’s long tail is improving. For about 50% of the creators, their engagements doubled over the course of 4 weeks. For confirmation, just look at the time stamps on your homepage feed.
Follower count does not guarantee performance.
The right audience + right content = home run regardless of follower count. Just look at those repost numbers. a true sign of hitting the right audience.

Curious About Activating on LinkedIn?

The Social Standard is a full-service B2B & B2C influencer marketing agency driven by setting the standard for the industry and then reaching even higher. Our team is obsessed with finding the right influencers for our partners. But we are way more than just matchmakers. We are strategists that develop effective campaigns to delight, inspire, entertain and hit business goals. From concept to seamless execution, we work with clients such as Adobe, FiatChrysler, Zendesk, Motorola and others, positioning them as pioneers in innovative influencer marketing and helping talent thrive in the creator economy. Want to learn more about our agency’s work? Shoot us an email at partner@sostandard.com. We’d love to collaborate.