How to Find B2B Influencers on LinkedIn (and Spot Engagement Pods)

To find B2B influencers on LinkedIn, start with your buyers, not with follower counts: see who your customers already follow, search LinkedIn for posts on the problems you solve, then check who actually comments on each candidate's posts. An engagement pod is a coordinated group that likes, comments on and shares each other's posts to boost visibility. Pods make a creator look more influential than they are, so checking for them is part of the search.

This matters because finding partners is the hardest part for many teams. In TopRank's 2025 report, 48% of marketers named identifying, qualifying and connecting with influencers as a top challenge. LinkedIn says in 2026 that finding credible, relevant voices is the biggest hurdle for brands running or considering creator campaigns.

Define who you need to reach

Write one sentence before you search: the job titles, company types and regions you want to reach, and the problem they are trying to solve. For example, "heads of revenue operations at mid-market SaaS companies in the UK and US who are cleaning up their CRM data". This sentence is your test for every candidate.

Then decide what kind of voice would be credible to those people. A former operator can say "I have done this job". An analyst can compare the market. A consultant has seen many companies with the same problem. In B2B, a small audience of the right buyers is usually worth more than a large general one.

Six places to look

1. Ask your customers

Ask your customer success team and your best customers whose posts they read, which newsletters they open and whose opinion they trust. This is the quickest route to names your buyers already believe. In TopRank's survey, 50% of marketers find influencers through recommendations from trusted sources.

2. Use LinkedIn search on the problem

Search for phrases your buyers would use, then filter to Posts and sort by latest. Search the problem rather than the word "influencer": people who write well about a topic rarely describe themselves that way. Try job language, tool names and complaints. Note the authors who appear more than once.

3. Read the comments on category posts

Open popular posts in your category and read who comments thoughtfully. Practitioners who leave specific, useful comments often have engaged audiences of their own, and they tend to be overlooked by brands searching on follower count.

4. Look through podcast and event line-ups

Industry podcasts, conference agendas and webinars show you who others already trust to speak on a subject. Someone who has been invited to explain their work has passed a basic filter. Fame sources creators in this way, from practitioners who have appeared on the 300+ B2B shows it has produced.

5. Check your followers and competitors

Look at which people engage with your company page and your executives' posts. Then look at who has already mentioned competitors. A creator who has sponsored a direct competitor recently may not be available, but their audience is a useful signal.

6. Use LinkedIn Creator Marketplace or a specialist

LinkedIn's Creator Marketplace sits inside Campaign Manager and lets brands find creators by topic and access contact details. Creators opt in, so it will not cover everyone. For the trade-offs, see our comparison of LinkedIn Creator Marketplace and agencies. You can also compare the best LinkedIn influencer marketing agencies and the wider list of best B2B influencer marketing agencies.

How to vet a creator

Keep your candidates in a simple spreadsheet and assess each against the same questions. Followers should be a column, but not the one that decides.

Check	How to do it	What you want to see
Topic fit	Read the last 20 posts	Most posts speak to your buyer's problem
Audience fit	Open the profiles of 30 recent commenters across five posts	Job titles and companies that match your target
Comment quality	Read comments on recent posts	Specific replies and real disagreement
Experience	Check their work history	They have done the job or closely advised those who have
Sponsored work	Look for past paid posts	Clear disclosure, no drop in quality, no recent direct competitor
Consistency	Compare reactions across several months of posts	Natural variation by topic

The audience check takes the longest, but it tells you the most. Those sample sizes are a practical starting point rather than a statistical test. Then ask the creator for post analytics, including audience job titles and industries. A serious creator will usually share them. For what to look at after a post goes live, see our guide to B2B influencer marketing ROI.

What engagement pods are

LinkedIn described pods in March 2026 as coordinated groups of people who like, comment and share to boost visibility, and said this activity is not allowed. Its Professional Community Policies also tell members not to agree in advance to like or re-share each other's content. LinkedIn says it may reduce reach, remove groups showing pod behaviour and warn members who appear to take part.

Comment farms are a close relative. These use automation or paid accounts to post comments at volume. LinkedIn has said automated comments posted by extensions, scripts or third-party tools are not allowed, and that it may stop showing them in its Most Relevant comments view.

For a sponsor, the problem is simple. If the engagement comes from other creators trading favours, you are paying to reach people who will never buy from you, and your report will look better than the reality.

Warning signs of pods and comment farms

No single sign proves anything. Well-known creators have loyal followers, and real friends do comment on each other's posts. Look for several of these signs together.

• The same names every time. The same group of people appears on most posts, whatever the topic.
• A wide mix of unrelated commenters. A post about procurement software attracts career coaches and social media consultants, but few procurement people.
• Generic comments. "Great insights", "Well said" and "Thanks for sharing" could sit under any post and never mention a detail.
• Comments that restate the post. Polished summaries of the opening line, with similar length and structure, can suggest automation.
• A fast, sharp burst. Many comments arrive just after posting, then stop abruptly. You need to watch a live post or two to see this.
• Little variation. Reactions and comments sit at much the same level on every post, including weak ones.
• Many comments, little conversation. The creator rarely gets real questions, and commenters do not respond to each other.
• Reciprocal patterns. Click through to the top commenters: if the creator comments on their posts just as reliably, in the same style, you may be looking at an arrangement.
• Odd commenter profiles. Thin work histories, or accounts that comment dozens of times a day in the same way.
• Strange geography. Most of the engagement comes from regions where the creator's stated audience and your buyers are not based.

How to make the decision

Sort candidates into three groups: approach now, watch for a month and reject. Choose people where the audience check is strong, even if their follower count is lower. Before you pay, ask each creator two direct questions: are you in any engagement groups, and can you share audience data from your analytics? Their response is useful in itself.

Start with a small test across several creators, as one post from one person tells you little. Agree the brief first using our LinkedIn creator brief template, then ask for reporting on who engaged, not just how many. Our LinkedIn influencer marketing playbook covers the rest of the process.

Questions to ask before you commit

Once a creator has passed your checks, a short conversation will tell you what public data cannot. Keep it practical:

• Who do you think your audience is, and what data supports that?
• Which of your recent posts drew the most useful responses from buyers, and why?
• Have you done sponsored work before, and how did you disclose it?
• Do you have any commitments that conflict with our category?
• How do you like to be briefed, and how much editing is acceptable to you?
• Would you allow your post to be promoted as an advert later?

That last question matters if you plan to use LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads, because the author has to give permission. For fair comparisons between candidates, record each answer in your spreadsheet alongside the audience check. Then look at typical B2B influencer marketing costs and B2B influencer marketing examples to judge what a sensible first campaign could look like. For wider context, see our B2B influencer marketing statistics and our complete B2B influencer marketing guide.

When to outsource the search

This work is worth doing yourself if you need only a few creators and someone has the time to do it properly. It gets harder when you need a repeatable programme, particularly as you also have to handle contracts, approvals and reporting.

Fame Influencer runs sponsored posts on LinkedIn creators' own profiles for B2B tech and SaaS companies. Creators are vetted for engagement pods and comment farms, and you get a shortlist within two weeks of a 30-minute discovery call. See how Fame works with creators, influencer marketing for SaaS companies or pricing for the test campaign. You can also read about our LinkedIn influencer marketing agency service and see sponsored post examples from founder Tom Hunt, which are his own posts rather than roster results. Unfamiliar with a term? Try the glossary.