I believe the benefits of using LinkedIn as an affiliate are the following:
1. Recommendations — The recommendations on LinkedIn do truly carry weight. If you have a handful or more of great recommendations from affiliate managers, marketing directors, etc. and show this to new programs you are looking to negotiate deals with, it definitely helps.
2. Issue Escalation — Sometimes no matter how many times you e-mail an affiliate manager or PM them here at CAP, you don’t get a response. People move around in this industry quite a bit and sometimes our requests fall on deaf ears because the person is simply no longer there. I’ve found LinkedIn helpful by looking up the company or program name I’m trying to reach and finding a member of their senior management there. On numerous occasions, a quick response was received through LinkedIn and the issue was resolved.
Hope this helps.