Key Highlights
- With growing interest in LinkedIn for consumer marketing, B2B brands are facing stiff competition on turf that used to go unchallenged.
- Now’s the time to go all in on the platform’s growing creator capabilities, says one award-winning marketing influencer.
- Keys to success include starting simple, sharing with heart, and experimenting with striking, multimedia storytelling. (Yes, even video.)
LinkedIn, a platform where B2B companies have historically shone, is cashing in on the creator economy with buzzy features and incentives to lure new influencers and companies — including those in consumer-facing markets.
“LinkedIn is definitely heading into a direction where more direct B2C marketing is going to become prevalent,” Jordan Schultz, head of digital at creative marketing agency We Are BMF, told research firm EMarketer. In particular, the platform is gaining ground in industries like luxury, retail, travel and hospitality, Marketing Brew recently reported.
Globally, Google searches for “LinkedIn B2C” have been climbing in the years since the social platform’s 2021 addition of a “creator mode” for analytics and sharing. The sharpest rise began last June, just a month after the platform unveiled improved content analytics and sponsorable video series helmed by beloved creators like Sprinkles bakery founder Candace Nelson.
“Folks on our platform who have the most credibility around topics that really matter to people are leaning into it, and that’s opening up the opportunity for us now to work with creators in a way that can help them not only drive reach, but build their business,” Matt Derella, vice president of LinkedIn marketing solutions, told Marketing Brew.
For their part, B2B leaders are taking notice and bulking budgets: As many as three in five have increased their influencer spend in recent years, according to survey research.
With LinkedIn and industry leaders going all in on influence, now’s the time for creator-curious marketers to act, regardless of their whereabouts — in-house, at an agency, flying solo, in front of the camera or behind the scenes, or in readiness.
“It is crowded, and it’s probably only going to become more crowded,” says Laura MacGregor, founder of Savvy Marketing Works consultancy; fractional CMO for cybersecurity, technology, and industrial B2B companies; and partner at personal brand-building membership DIY Influence.
The solution for standing out? Ditch the numbers game.
“You don’t necessarily have to have the biggest following or be on the cutting edge all the time,” says MacGregor, who has some 1.3k followers on LinkedIn and was named one of digital community CMO Huddles’ top B2B influencers of 2025. “But if you can say something that resonates with people and makes them sit up, take notice and hopefully take action, I think that’s what it takes.”
Read the room
Changing times — and buyer demos — are a big driver in the biz influencer boom. Seven in 10 of today’s B2B buyer groups include millennials or Gen Zers, according to LinkedIn’s marketing arm, with members of the latter generation logging 82% more video views on the platform than the average user.
“One of our biggest findings in our research is that the B2B buyer is getting younger, getting more sophisticated,” Jasmine Enberg, co-founder of creator economy media company Scalable Pod and former principal analyst at EMarketer told the platform. “It’s the same person who is scrolling through TikTok at night who is involved in these purchasing decisions.”
B2B marketers are also bullish, with many touting the outsized value of influencer content and collaborations. “B2B brands recognize they need to catch up and speak to the customer in the way they want to be spoken to,” Enberg said. “I think that is the big reason for the rise of influencer marketing within B2B.”
To meet the moment, MacGregor suggests leaning into the brand partnerships and sponsored content that have made their way over from social platforms like Instagram. “B2B marketers can leverage that as an opportunity to promote their own products and services,” she says. “If they have someone who’s an advocate and a champion for them already, and has a decent following among their audience, why not leverage that opportunity to expand your reach?”
Set your (simple) content strategy
As with any new endeavor, it’s important to follow marketing best practices when foraying into the creator universe, MacGregor says.
“Make sure you have your messaging right,” she advises, so you can develop a coherent narrative for your offering, as well as a steady drumbeat for your engagement style and cadence. “Having that consistency is always really helpful,” she notes.
Also, be realistic about lift out the gate, she advises. “A lot of marketers are already spread thin, so if you don’t have the resources to devote to getting this up and running and taking care of it and staying connected with those influencers, you might want to hold on it for a while or just start small with one person and see what you can learn.”
To help scale sustainably, MacGregor suggests keeping your content strategy simple.
“I’m not a super rigid planner in terms of having a spreadsheet and mapping everything out,” she says. Instead, she identifies three or four content pillars to build around by answering this question: What are the biggest problems plaguing prospective customers that I could help with?
Each month, she chooses one pillar to focus on, teasing out roughly four subtopics to explore through her content. “I found you’re much more successful when you go deep as opposed to wide,” she notes. “People start to get to know you for one thing. They often need to hear it over and over in different ways in order for it to sink in.”
She reinforces the chosen focuses across her platforms, beginning with the longest form first. In a typical week, that means publishing an article on her Substack covering her experience of the topic at hand and advice for handling it, which she then seeds in several LinkedIn posts.
Pillars and plans, though helpful guides, need not be overly prescriptive, says MacGregor, who supplements her core focuses with ad hoc posts when inspiration strikes. “It’ll be based on a conversation I had — something that pops into my mind while I’m driving,” she says. “I just had a post go up about 'Stranger Things.'”
As with many marketing activities, proving ROI on an influencer strategy can be tricky. “The social media world is filled with vanity metrics,” MacGregor says. “Just because you get 100,000 impressions on something, doesn’t mean those were the right people.”
To home in on true value, she recommends using tracking links (e.g., with UTM parameters) to see the actual traffic hitting your relevant owned channels. “You ideally want to see some percentage of people clicking over and then some percentage of people taking a next step,” she explains. Also consider asking down-funnel folks (e.g., at the purchasing stage) what influenced their decision and assess how often creator content played a part, she suggests.
Start with heart (and other successful content formats)
When it comes to building a following and making connections, sharing a story “is much more impactful than just commenting on what happened in AI today,” MacGregor says. That’s not to say you need to stay away from buzzy topics, she notes, but make sure you’re finding the human element. “The personal stories, your lived experience, and how other people can use that is going to be more valuable than just your commentary on a tired topic that doesn’t give them something to walk away with.”
Beyond transformational storytelling, other content best practices and formats to try include the following:
Going deep
MacGregor points to in-depth analyses, like the kind Kyle Poyar creates for his SaaS B2B audience. “He’ll post these really visually compelling infographics,” she says. As LinkedIn continues to evolve from a site for job hunting to “a place where people get their business advice and news,” she anticipates interest in high-quality deep dives will only grow. “That’s the kind of stuff that gets you noticed and builds credibility and makes people turn to you when they’re looking for that type of solution,” she explains.
Similarly, synthesizing your own research into your audience’s core pain points is effective. “You’ll see a lot of posts that start off with, ‘I talked with 50 CEOs last year, and they all have this problem. And here’s why it’s a problem. And here’s what you should do,’” she says. Likewise, actionable tips on purchasing criteria play well, she notes, especially as more and more people are deciding what to buy before even hitting a company’s website.
Sharing #LifeGoals
As on other social sites, lifestyle content can drive results. “One of the things that is clearly working is just humans talking like experts,” Derella told Marketing Brew. “B2B often can be bland and boring … and people want to buy from people they know and trust.” CMOs are heeding the call for fresher content, with 88% championing bolder, more creative campaigns, according to LinkedIn’s recent B2B marketing benchmark report.
Although a lifestyle lens can be a great way to spruce up stale content, make sure it stays SFW, Aneesh Lal warned Marketing Brew. “It has to have a creative corporate bridge to it,” the founder of LinkedIn creator agency The Wishly Group noted. “There must be a workplace element tied to it; otherwise, folks on that platform will think someone’s lost.”
Sparing a thought for video
Yes, even with all the mixed messages. “LinkedIn keeps trying to make video happen, and they keep saying it’s going to happen, but they deprioritized it on their own platform,” MacGregor acknowledges. “But I don’t think that means we should ignore video. It’s a good opportunity to get good at it now.”
She suggests honing best practices like using a person as a focal point, a vertical camera orientation, and a tone that’s more business casual than uptight. That way, she says, “when [video] does take off — because I feel like that’s inevitable — you’ll be a little bit more first to market than some of your competitors.”
Committing to comments
“Lately, commenting has been where the real power is,” MacGregor says. “You will see comments get 10s and even 100,000s of impressions, whereas a post may get a fraction of that.” In this way, they’re a smart, lighter-lift supplement to full posts that she says can boost your credibility, grow your network and help you support peers.
Activate internal influencers
Once your content strategy is solid, see who might be able to help you radiate it. Tapping internal influencers gives you the opportunity to shape the message, which MacGregor says can be reinforced visually. She points to Hootsuite CEO Irina Novoselsky as a prime example. “She’s always in powerful colors, like a bright red, [with] bright red lips. You always know it’s her,” MacGregor says. “And she’s always talking about the power of being on social media, and she is trying to influence other CEOs to participate in that.”
Of course, as the leader of a social analytics platform, Novoselsky has more incentive than most to build a strong online brand, but execs of all stripes can benefit, MacGregor says. “There is a place for C-suite to be involved on LinkedIn and sharing content because, especially today, the reach of brand pages is very low,” she explains. For promising candidates who may be reluctant to take the pen, marketing can help draft or edit content, she adds. “Just building that partnership tends to help them be a little bit more willing and comfortable to do it.”
(Reallllyyy) vet external partners
To clarify, bots probably don’t count. According to influencer agency Linqia, 89% of marketers have no near-term plans to work with virtual influencers or digital avatars (and consumers are also souring on AI-generated creator content), meaning “human creators remain the face of authentic storytelling,” researchers note.
“Finding someone who’s already talking about you publicly is a good place to start,” MacGregor says, citing media monitoring and GenAI tools — particularly Perplexity — as helpful aids in this process.
Also, tap any teams who are already collecting feedback, such as customer success or customer marketing, to identify more champions who might already have significant pull with your target audience, she advises.
After identifying candidates, it’s time to get serious about vetting, an area where many struggle. According to a recent report, over half of marketers spend 30 minutes or less vetting a prospective partner, and when a brand outsources influencer management to an agency, only a quarter consistently receive documentation on the process.
To promote fortuitous partnerships, experts suggest focusing on quality, trust, and safety over scale. “Shift toward partnerships with creators who are genuine brand users rather than chasing follower counts,” EMarketer researchers wrote. “Formalize influencer vetting procedures, maintain detailed brand guidelines, and require disclosure compliance.”
Once you’ve validated strong partners, give “really clear expectations” on your goals, message, image parameters, and tracking approach, MacGregor says.
“It’s not that you want all of your influencers and all of your employees to be posting carbon copies of the same exact post,” she explains. “But you’re going to want consistency in the message so it does all sound like it’s leading back to the same product, and people start to get that recognition because that’s really why you’re doing it in the first place.”
About the Author
Delaney Rebernik
Contributor
Delaney Rebernik is an independent journalist covering leadership, death, and digital life, and a writer and consultant for purpose-driven organizations. She’s also Design Observer’s Executive Editor. As an award-winning editorial and communications leader, Delaney helps media brands, memberships, and other champions of community, knowledge, and justice tell vital stories and advance worthy missions.
In her spare time, Delaney consumes horror and musical theater in equal measure. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband Todd and pup Spud, named for her favorite food. Learn more at delaneyrebernik.com, and connect on Bluesky and LinkedIn.
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