Saas Marketer - The Rise of the B2B Influencer

Do any of you know just how fucking big the online chess community is? It’s massive. I watched one video on how to play the London Opening and now I’m bombarded with videos from GothamChess; the Botez sisters; Hikaru; and videos on whether or not Hans Niemann used anal beads to cheat against the world’s best player, Magnus Carlsen.

Yes, you read that right. It may sound like something I’ve made up, or something I’ve written just to grab your attention that has nothing to do with B2B or SaaS Marketing, but it was a genuine point of contention in the chess community after Carlsen accused Niemann of cheating (for the record, I don’t think he did cheat).

‘Oh wow, Sam! I didn’t know you were into chess! Tell me more!’ – You.

As much as I would love to, dear reader, this is not the ‘Chess Marketer Weekly’ email newsletter. Plus, I don’t think Tom would be happy if I made the entire intro to an article about B2B influencers on LinkedIn centred around chess grandmasters and anal beads. But I just wanted to get it out there and say that I love chess.

There you go. That’s it.

Let’s get on with why you’re actually here.

The Rise of the LinkedIn Influencer & Sponsored Posts

🤔 Noticed Anything a Bit… Different, Recently?

If you’re reading this, then chances are you’ve been on LinkedIn a lot. You are, most likely, more than familiar with the dumbed down format of posts that the algorithm favours; the ones that are written in a series of short sentences, line breaks, and emojis that can sometimes make you roll your eyes, not because they’re necessarily bad, but rather because you see them constantly. All. The. Time.

Well, dear reader, get used to it, because you’re going to be seeing a lot more of them. You’re going to be in a perpetual state of eye-rolling and skim-reading, because LinkedIn is now allowing people to promote their own individual posts, so long as they're sponsored by a business.

So if you’ve noticed a rise in the number of promoted LinkedIn B2B influencer posts on your feed over the last couple of months, then it’s no coincidence. And if you’re annoyed by it, if you don’t want to see these posts by people you don’t know with an echo chamber for a comments section, then I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do to stop it. But perhaps you can find some comfort in the fact that you are not alone. You’re not the only one being force-fed this influencer stuff; there are, without a doubt, others in your exact position.

But what’s the general consensus? What does the LinkedIn community think about all this?

👍 The Good Bits

It’s common knowledge that people on social media (across all platforms, not just LinkedIn) tend to respond more favourably to an individual rather than to a company. You have only to look on Twitter (sorry, I mean X) to see a myriad of businesses trying their best to appeal to the “normal folk” of the world. They’ll tweet once or twice like a normal person in an attempt to say ‘hey, look, we’re just like you.’ It works a lot of the time, but every so often it can crash and burn in a roasting pit.

But it doesn’t change the fact that people respond more positively to, well, other people. If there’s a face we can associate with what’s being said, then we relate to it more.

It only makes sense, then, that LinkedIn has made the decision to allow influencers to promote their posts through the sponsorship of a business. In his LinkedIn post a couple of months back, Justin Rowe, Founder and CEO of Impactible, made a post exclaiming just how exciting this new feature was. In fact, he listed two reasons as to why it’s so great:

1. It humanises your brand
2. Personal posts that show your expertise and have social proof (lots of likes and comments) are such a powerful inbound generation machine.

As always, thank you very much for reading! If you liked this and want to see more or simply haven’t seen us before, feel free to head on over to our website where you can view all of our previous stories!

If you have any thoughts on today’s story, let us know what you think!

See you next week 😎

Keep growing,
SaaS Marketer

P.S.

This week’s email is sponsored by Fame, the world’s biggest (and best) B2B podcasting agency. You’d be a fool not to check out what they could do for you, they’re wonderful!