For years, influencer marketing was associated mainly with B2C. Brands worked with content creators to promote cosmetics, fashion or electronics, and B2B paid this strategy very little attention.
In recent years, though, things have changed dramatically. Companies have realized that trust plays a decisive role even when selling services or technology. And trust is easier to build through real people than through company profiles.
That’s exactly why more and more B2B companies are investing in the personal brands of their experts and founders, or partnering with respected experts in their industry.
Why people trust experts more than company profiles
When choosing a supplier today, customers rarely decide based on a price list or a website alone.
They often look up the people behind the company. They want to know what experience those people have, how they communicate, what opinions they share and whether they’re active in their community.
Company profiles still have their place – they announce news, products and company wins. But when it comes to building trust and a professional reputation, personal profiles are naturally more convincing.
So who exactly is a B2B influencer?
In B2B, we’re not talking about influencers in the traditional sense.
It could be a consultant, a developer, a CFO, a lawyer or a cybersecurity specialist. What matters isn’t the number of followers but the quality of the audience.
A profile with a few thousand followers can be worth far more to a business than one with tens of thousands, if its audience is made up of decision-makers from the target segment.
That’s why people increasingly talk about micro-experts – people who build trust over the long term in a very narrow niche.
Personal profiles spark more conversations
On platforms like LinkedIn, personal posts are naturally seen as more authentic than content published by company pages.
People respond above all to real-world experience, personal opinions or specific situations experts have handled for clients. This kind of content often sparks discussion and brings in more perspectives from the industry.
Purely corporate announcements or generic marketing slogans, on the other hand, usually get lower engagement. That doesn’t mean the company page has lost its value. The best results come from combining company communication with active personal profiles of key people.
How to work with experts
Partnering with a respected expert in B2B looks different from classic influencer marketing.
Instead of a one-off product promotion, it often produces joint expert content that brings value to both sides.
For example:
- an expert webinar,
- a podcast,
- a case study,
- an e-book,
- a panel discussion,
- joint research or analysis.
This kind of collaboration feels more natural and lets you reach an audience that’s genuinely interested in the topic.
Your best ambassadors may already work for you
Many companies go looking for external influencers, even though their biggest potential is sitting in the office next door.
Salespeople, consultants, product managers and founders deal every day with situations that can be extremely valuable to others.
Instead of having marketing write copy-and-paste posts for every employee, it can create an environment where people naturally share their own experience.
Marketing doesn’t have to write the content for them. Its role can be to help with editing, graphics, videos or content strategy.
This approach is more authentic and also supports the growth of employees’ personal brands.
Building personal brands is a long-term investment
A strong personal brand isn’t built in a few weeks. It takes regularly sharing experience and expert content, and actively engaging with the community.
For a company, though, it can be a significant competitive advantage. Experts who are respected in their field help build trust with potential customers, support employer branding (the company’s reputation as an employer) and raise the visibility of the whole business.
So the best results don’t come from choosing between the company brand and personal profiles. Both should work together and complement each other.
Frequently asked questions
What if we invest in an employee’s personal brand and they leave?
That risk exists, but the opposite question applies too – what if you don’t invest in your people and they stay with no motivation or growth? While they work for you, they can make a significant contribution to your company’s credibility, to winning new customers and to attracting great colleagues.
How do you approach an external expert about working together?
Building a relationship over time works best. Follow their content, join the discussions and only then reach out with a specific project that brings value to both sides. A joint webinar or expert article is often a more natural form of collaboration than a classic ad campaign.
How do you measure the impact of personal brands?
In B2B, return on investment isn’t always visible right away. Beyond traffic and inquiries, it’s worth tracking the growth of your experts’ audiences, the number of quality business contacts, invitations to industry events, mentions of the company or answers in contact forms to the question “How did you hear about us?”. These are often the numbers that show how personal brands affect business results.
If you want your people to share expert content on LinkedIn and other networks regularly without it eating up their whole week, we’ll help you with both strategy and content as part of our social media marketing.
