LinkedIn influencer gigs are lucrative, but many content creators struggle to position themselves correctly on the platform.
There are over 700 million professionals on LinkedIn — and many of them are influencer marketing managers, PR managers, account directors, and brand managers.
Improving your online visibility as a content creator can lead to high-paying contracts with your favorite brands.
Here are 10 LinkedIn social selling steps to land paid influencer gigs:
- Clean up your profile
- Search for and connect with future clients
- Connect with other influencers and creators
- Showcase previous campaigns
- Post about your niche
- Engage with other people’s content
- Have your rates ready
- Clean up your online presence
- Be extremely professional
- Always Be Creating — the ABC rule
Let’s dive into each step.
1. Clean up your profile
Revamp your bio to reflect what you do and upload a professional headshot. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Add your various social media usernames in your bio.
Indicate your content niche in your headline (super important). For example:
“I create food and lifestyle content for beverage and hospitality brands.”
The more specific you are, the more likely your ideal clients will find you.
2. Search for and connect with future clients
Use LinkedIn’s powerful search and filter tool to search for [“Influencer manager”] + [your city]. Always connect with a short, personalized note.
If they’re using ‘Creator’ mode on LinkedIn, you might see the ‘Follow’ button instead of the ‘Connect’ button.
‘Connecting’ allows you both to see each other’s content, while a ‘follow’ is one-sided. Make sure to ‘Connect’ with them and not just ‘Follow’ them.
On the mobile version of LinkedIn, click on the three-dot menu to reveal more options. Click on ‘Personalize invite’ to add a note, or click on ‘Connect’ to send a connection request without a note.
On the desktop version of LinkedIn, click on the ‘More’ button under their name, then click ‘Connect.’ It will give you the option to add a personalized note.
Repeat the search process for the following titles:
- Social media manager
- Influencer coordinator
- Event coordinator
- Account director
- Brand manager
- PR manager
These roles often select influencers for brand campaigns.
3. Connect with other influencers and content creators
Other content creators might come across gigs that are a better fit for you — but they can’t refer you if they don’t know you. The most lucrative gigs come from within your network.
To find other creators, repeat the search above for the following terms:
- Fashion content creator
- Digital content creator
- Travel content creator
- Interior designer
- Influencer
- YouTuber
- Blogger
Again, connect with a short, personalized note. For example:
“Hey, looking to add more creators to my network. Good to connect!”
4. Showcase previous campaigns
Pin previous campaigns to the Featured section of your LinkedIn profile. This is what they’ll see first as they scroll down your profile.
If you don’t have previous work, find two friends with small brands and offer to create content for them. You can shoot a few photos and videos of you using their product or explaining what it does.
Having a portfolio gives you something to talk about.
5. Post about your niche
To improve your chances of landing well-paying influencer gigs, you need to define your niche. This niche can be fashion, finance, food, family, etc.
Next, identify content pillars that fall under your niche. For instance, if money is your niche, your content pillars will include:
- Saving
- Investing
- Managing debt
- Investing in a business
- Earning a higher salary
Once you’ve figured out your main content pillars, post about them twice a week.
Content ideas include:
- Common challenges people face with [x]
- How-to guides for your topic or niche
- Best suppliers and service providers
- Cool people to follow about [x]
- Secret tips to get ahead
LinkedIn allows you to publish content in different formats, such as:
- Videos (including Live Videos)
- LinkedIn Articles
- Audio streams
- Image posts
- Text posts
My content pillars revolve around money — here’s the first season of my talk show:
6. Engage with other people’s content
LinkedIn surfaces your likes and comments to other people’s feeds so they can join the conversation. That’s how clients and other influencers find you.
The first thing they’ll see is your headline — so make sure it’s clear. If they’re curious enough, they’ll head over to your profile and read the rest of your bio.
7. Have your rates ready
Use Canva to design a simple rate card and save it as an image or PDF. Know how much you’ll charge for:
- Photos
- Videos
- Blog posts
- Stories and Reels
- Live conversations (e.g. Twitter Spaces, Instagram Live, webinars, etc.)
Your total fee will depend on the campaign, but it’s good to always have estimates. And whatever you do, don’t short-change yourself.
8. Clean up your online presence
You’re an influencer everywhere, not just on Instagram. Your brand should represent you everywhere from YouTube to TikTok.
If you can, create a unified username across all platforms. For example, I’m @shehuphd everywhere — on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
It’s cleaner and easier to remember and saves you from writing multiple handles every time you need to promote your socials.
9. Be extremely professional
This is the most important tip of all. You’re being judged on your professionalism, and clients book people they like. This means you should:
- Respond to messages and emails on time
- Have documents and information ready
- Set boundaries on your time and fees
- Be punctual in meetings
- Use proper grammar
- Be friendly
Landing LinkedIn influencer gigs comes down to being courteous and prepared.
10. Always Be Creating — the ABC rule
It’s important to create the type of content you eventually want to be paid for. This is because:
- Broadcasters want to see your own talk show
- Fashion brands want to see your looks
- Food brands want to see your meals
- Banks want to see money content
Bet on yourself and keep creating. The world is always watching.
Now that you’ve positioned yourself for high-paying influencer gigs from LinkedIn, learn how to create a year’s worth of content in one go using the #ThinkTwelve guide to social media content creation.
Mohammed Shehu, Ph.D. writes on content and marketing for creators and brands. You can find him online @shehuphd everywhere.