All too usually, B2B manufacturers deal with social like a digital billboard for product options, information factors and competitor comparisons, falling into the misunderstanding that inventive storytelling is solely for B2C manufacturers. Therefore the notion that B2B manufacturers are “boring” on social.
As advertising and marketing tendencies and practices evolve, B2B manufacturers should adapt. One of many greatest shifts we’ve seen up to now is that social isn’t for sterile product showcases anymore. As an alternative, these networks function automobiles for sharing insights, constructing relationships, and genuine storytelling. B2B manufacturers have realized this potential, with many steering brandstorytelling by means of thought management.
On this article we dive into the significance of why B2B manufacturers must hone in on their model narratives and share key insights from Kara Redman, CEO and founding father of model technique and activation company, Backroom, on key ideas for masteringB2B model storytelling by means of thought management. Over the course of her profession, Redman has helped founders elevate over $10M in funding, supported Fortune 500 mergers and labored with manufacturers like DC United, Volo Metropolis and Maka Media.
Why B2B wants to inform higher tales
B2B corporations are inclined to lean on details and stats of their social advertising and marketing. However oftentimes, onerous figures alone don’t captivate or convert—emotional advertising and marketing and compelling narratives do.
That’s as a result of people are on the coronary heart of each enterprise, even B2B manufacturers. Whether or not you’re advertising and marketing to small native companies or multinational firms, you’re speaking to individuals. And on social, individuals wish to be secure, seen and understood.
In accordance with Redman, the very best B2B manufacturers “perceive first what the ache, the emotional ache and the worry of their prospects are. Then, they create experiences and tales that make these prospects really feel secure sufficient to purchase and for his or her prospects to really feel happy sufficient to remain.”
That’s why human-led storytelling and customer-centric social methods are so efficient: you’re conveying that you understand who they’re, what they battle with and the way to clear up their issues.
“I personally reject the concept B2B manufacturers or B2B patrons are rational versus client manufacturers. The reasoning is that folks aren’t out of the blue non-emotional as a result of they’ve clocked into work,” explains Redman. “We make selections as people that really feel secure. At its most primal core, we wish to really feel secure and validated within the selections that we make.”
By crafting model tales, you’re interesting to decision-makers’ emotional and logical wants. For instance, seeing these narratives play out on social might assist scale back the nervousness or perceived threat of a high-ticket buy. “Whereas gross sales cycles are usually longer, that storytelling part issues extra earlier on within the lengthy sport as a result of we’re setting the stage for what the client goes to expertise,” she notes.
Moreover, as AI-generated content material turns into extra prolific, human-driven storytelling can earn client belief.
Whereas customers don’t inherently belief AI bots, algorithms or logos, they do belief individuals—they usually’re hungry for extra person-to-person connection on social. Per the This fall 2025 Sprout Social Pulse Survey, the bulk (32%) of respondents stated they most need manufacturers to prioritize human-generated content material on social in 2026.
Efficient storytelling humanizes your model by exhibiting the “why” and the “who” behind your resolution. From there, you possibly can bridge that belief hole, construct a powerful group and drive income.
To not point out, constructing a constant model narrative framework is essential for search engine optimisation and social media search. If you repeatedly deal with the identical themes, points and messages, it’s simpler for search engines like google and yahoo and social algorithms to determine what your content material is about. And when these platforms perceive your content material, it may present it to the proper audiences in SERPs and social feeds alike.
Frequently publishing content material about your area of interest additionally indicators in-depth experience, which is essential for constructing topical authority. Over time, search engines like google and yahoo and social networks study that your model isn’t a one-hit surprise—it’s a good voice within the business.
Make B2B thought management a core a part of your model story
B2B thought management is significant for guaranteeing that your model story is credible and compelling.
Sharing opinions, insights and predictions signifies that your model actually understands what’s occurring in your sector. With that stated, it’s not sufficient to easily share a PDF or regurgitate statistics. It’s essential to present distinctive views on business alternatives and challenges.
Reasonably than merely recapping business information, emphasize why these updates are essential. As an alternative of reflecting on tendencies of the previous, forecast what’s to come back.
Nobody is best positioned to ship these sorts of insights than management. When founders, executives and subject-matter consultants present up on social, the model is seen as respected. Extra importantly, it’s seen as relatable. It reassures customers that there are actual individuals who perceive their issues backstage.
As Redman shares, that sense of relatability can bolster your B2B model storytelling technique.
“If you see a thought chief, a CEO or a head of promoting constructing a private model by means of the lens of their firm, and also you assume, ‘They’re actually cool; I need them in my sphere,’ or ‘She’s similar to me,’ you’ve discovered a thread of relatability,” she explains. “Whether or not it’s lateral relatability or aspirational, that’s the place we begin to comply with and construct belief.”
Most significantly, Redman provides, proceed your model storytelling even after a purchase order is made.
“After the acquisition, now we have to proceed telling that story by means of the product, the expertise and the service. Storytelling is probably longer-tail with B2B, however it’s nonetheless very a lot tied into an emotional determination level,” she emphasizes.
Founder and CEO of Liquid Loss of life Mike Cessario is proof that humor and edge could be efficient instruments in cultivating that sense of relatability. Whereas Cessario usually shares promotional supplies and business insights on LinkedIn, healso lets his cheeky facet shine by means of, significantly when exploring the trials of beginning and rising a enterprise. This model storytelling method reinforces the human facet of the enterprise.
In a single LinkedIn publish, he shared an e mail that he obtained in 2020 from an sad buyer claiming that, if Liquid Loss of life was nonetheless operational in 5 years, he would pay the homeowners $100. 5 years later, Cessario highlighted key enterprise wins whereas lightheartedly sharing that e mail along with his LinkedIn group.
5 methods to construct a B2B storytelling framework on social media
Whereas it’s essential to know the significance of B2B storytelling, it’s much more very important to know the way to execute it. Beneath, we discover key ways for crafting a model narrative framework on social media, full with best-in-class examples.
1. Undertake traditional story arcs
It’s the arc that guides each nice story. The protagonist embarks on a life-changing journey, faces a collection of trials and finally finds a manner ahead. And when you thought these narratives have been solely for the film display screen, assume once more, as a result of they’re extremely efficient for B2B model storytelling.
Right here’s the way it works: Your buyer is the hero and your resolution is the software they use to surmount their challenges. This method highlights the tangible worth of your services or products whereas constructing an emotional connection along with your viewers.
In Wix’s social media tales, their “heroes” are small enterprise homeowners. The restaurateurs desperate to share the enjoyment of nice meals. The private trainers motivating individuals to turn out to be their healthiest selves. The bookworms turning their love of literature right into a brick-and-mortar enterprise.
The problem all of them face is getting observed. Having an awesome services or products isn’t sufficient if individuals don’t know you exist. And and not using a advertising and marketing background, determining the way to unfold the phrase can really feel daunting.
That’s the place the hero’s resolution is available in: an internet site. One which’s simple to construct, easy to keep up and visual to the proper audiences.
Wix doesn’t body itself as the principle character. As an alternative, it performs a supporting function. It proves that it understands the challenges entrepreneurs face. Then, it offers them the instruments they should join with prospects, drive income and make their goals a actuality.
That customer-centric storytelling method is right for constructing relatability and driving gross sales, says Redman.
“Individuals are individuals, whether or not they’re shopping for a Voice over IP service or paper towels. We purchase what requires the least quantity of effort and feels most secure, all centered round a real downside now we have,” she highlights. “On the core, when you have no idea what your persons are affected by and you can’t discuss it in a relatable, helpful manner, nothing else issues.”
2. Leverage worker advocates as main storytellers
Odds are, your employees is already on-line, so why not leverage that digital presence in your personal B2B storytelling?
Amplifying the voices of senior leaders and C-suite executives is a confirmed social media technique that may elevate your model. That’s as a result of these higher-ups are ideally positioned to offer professional insights and conduct thought management storytelling. Suppose behind-the-curtain data, business predictions, fast wins and fascinating anecdotes.
Deloitte makes use of this technique on LinkedIn. The consulting big lately rounded up its leaders’ predictions on the AI shifts that can outline 2026. In its publish concerning the predictions, Deloitte tagged the leaders, prompting them to share the insights with their very own networks.
However nice worker advocacy doesn’t finish with management. Interns, graduates and different junior employees also can play a task in model storytelling on social.
An instance is day-in-the-life content material, which is especially fashionable on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. For example, TikTok person @withashleyyy shared a day in her life as a brand new graduate beginning her profession at Deloitte. Within the video, she offers viewers a behind-the-scenes take a look at working for a “Large 4” agency, together with collaborative coaching periods, free meals {and professional} headshots.
Whether or not it’s the CEO or an intern, on LinkedIn or TikTok, employee-led content material must really feel pure. The precedence must be sharing genuine, relatable experiences, not company jargon or contrived situations. With that in thoughts, keep away from placing strict guidelines in place; as a substitute, let your employees’s creativity information them.
“Freedom with guardrails—that’s [employee advocacy] in its easiest type,” says Redman. “We speak so much about relatability, however you possibly can’t pressure relatability by means of a framework. What you are able to do is say, ‘Hey, anytime you’re posting about our firm, listed below are the guardrails for what’s accredited and what’s not. Have enjoyable with it.’“
It feels scary as a result of, as leaders, we will’t management what goes out, however that’s form of the purpose. You might be constructing a lot social foreign money, social proof and belief in your model when you enable workers to actually be themselves whereas carrying the proper model message,” she provides.
Reaching the proper model message is made simpler with the suitable instruments. For instance, Worker Advocacy by Sprout Social empowers workers to share model content material with a number of clicks, whereas staying compliant with pre-approved copy.
You can too use it to compile content material in newsletters or broadcasts, and ship them to particular staff members. They’ll then discover and comply with matters related to their roles, ideate content material and publish throughout networks like LinkedIn and X.
3. Use social listening to meld business commentary with on-line tradition
A core part of B2B model storytelling technique is maintaining with on-line tradition and taking part in it.
Per the 2025 Sprout Social IndexTM, this was the #1 precedence customers wished from social entrepreneurs.
So, ask your self: what are individuals speaking about on social? What ache factors are plaguing your business? What cultural occasions or moments might you capitalize on in your content material?
Use social listening instruments to search out the solutions to those questions. For example, Sprout Listening makes use of AI-powered expertise to trace tens of millions of conversations on key matters. Say you run a SaaS firm providing a social media administration software; you would possibly monitor queries round particular platforms, algorithm updates or coverage modifications.
Reasonably than sifting by means of the information your self, you possibly can ship Trellis, Sprout’s AI agent, questions or prompts, comparable to “Discover sentiment spikes in under-16 social media bans”. Trellis will then present contextual solutions in plain language to tell enterprise selections.
Equally, NewsWhip by Sprout Social allows your corporation to anticipate tendencies with the assistance of predictive intelligence. This real-time media monitoring software detects modifications, decides what issues to your corporation and delivers these alerts on to you.
When you’ve put your ear to the digital floor, you’ll know what your viewers is speaking about. Then it’s time to contribute to the dialog.
That is what Amazon does on LinkedIn, utilizing the platform to debate one of the prolific, transformative and controversial matters within the international workforce: synthetic intelligence (AI). In its posts, the model explores issues like innovation, infrastructure and schooling within the AI house, usually in inventive codecs.
For example, one “This or That” model of video noticed Amazon’s Senior Vice President of Gadgets and Providers, Panos Panay, attempt to distinguish AI-generated content material from human-generated content material.
Incorporating the subject into its social technique is undoubtedly a direct response to the AI increase, particularly the emergence and widespread adoption of instruments like ChatGPT, CoPilot and extra. As these instruments have turn out to be mainstream, so too have discussions about their use, ethics and impacts on productiveness.
Put merely, Amazon didn’t must invent the story; its viewers was already telling it. The corporate merely tuned into these conversations and located methods to contribute that felt well timed and impactful.
4. Grasp zero-click content material
Each model needs to offer worth to its viewers. However oftentimes, the person has to work too onerous to truly reap that worth. Suppose clicking by means of to a weblog publish, downloading an eBook or subscribing to a e-newsletter simply to get to the purpose.
That’s the place zero-click content material may also help you stand out.
Because the title suggests, zero-click content material delivers the “aha!” second up entrance. As an alternative of teasing social customers, you inform the entire story proper the place they’re: of their social feeds. That may very well be within the type of a picture carousel, in-feed video or long-form caption.
“Zero-click content material is a very powerful content material, in my view,” says Redman. “As a result of I believe now we have to maneuver away from this obsession with attribution modeling and click on relationships. It is rather short-sighted to place content material out merely to get rapid income.”
Australian workforce administration model, Deputy, recurrently embraces no-click content material on LinkedIn. To advertise the information from its “Higher Collectively: How AI and Human Connection Will Remodel Frontline Work” report, the corporate posted a collection of carousels showcasing its most salient statistics.
Whereas every publish offers customers the choice to click on by means of to the complete report, the secret is that they don’t must. The carousels themselves present significant, bite-sized takeaways so customers can pinpoint related findings in a matter of seconds. In sharing this content material, Deputy proves that it respects customers’ want for in-depth insights and their time.
Zero-click content material also can have a extra playful twist. As Redman highlights, “entertaining, extremely relatable, ‘oh, that’s so me’ shareable content material” is integral to constructing belief over time.
“That [trust] results in increased ticket gross sales, much less churn and a shorter gross sales cycle as a result of it amplifies the model voice,” she says.
“Even amongst people who find themselves by no means going to purchase from you—maybe they only wish to work there or they similar to your content material—you’re constructing social proof. Social proof makes individuals really feel secure. [And] feeling secure as a buyer is what it’s all about.”
Graphic design software Canva usually shares humorous and relatable posts aimed toward company staff. Tapping into these recognizable moments humanizes Canva’s model and grabs customers’ consideration—with out asking for a single click on.
5. Companion with exterior thought leaders
Collaborating with outdoors creators, influencers or manufacturers may also help construct credibility and increase attain.
As with all type of influencer advertising and marketing, the secret is to companion with individuals and organizations complementary to your model. That’s, those that truly use your services or products, have direct entry to a shared target market or share comparable values. Doing so will lead to collaborations that really feel seamless, genuine and sincere.
Per the Q2 2025 Sprout Social Pulse Survey, honesty is a top-of-mind trait amongst customers; they affiliate it as the highest trait for “daring” manufacturers.
With that stated, collaborations can take many various codecs throughout many various platforms—which means B2B manufacturers ought to assume outdoors the field.
“Content material partnerships could be between an influencer and a model, however they will also be between two influencers or two thought leaders. It might even be a head of gross sales and an incumbent CEO speaking about upcoming modifications in an organization.”
“Doing content material partnerships with them is usually a lateral transfer, comparable to a LinkedIn Stay with a high-profile shopper or showing on a podcast with a peer to speak about business issues,” explains Redman.
Pondering outdoors the field is strictly what Slack did in its latest partnership with social media big MrBeast. Identified for his extravagant competitors reveals and giveaways, MrBeast is a barely sudden companion for a company communication software like Slack.
However with over 665 million social followers, MrBeast is operating a mammoth content material enterprise that makes a speciality of large-scale productions. Because of this, his groups should collaborate continually—which is the place Slack is available in.
For Slack, the collaboration achieves two issues. Firstly, it allows the model to faucet into MrBeast’s monumental, extremely engaged viewers that it could not have reached in any other case. Secondly, it showcases its product in a recent context. As an alternative of positioning itself as a company software, it’s framed because the communication pillar for fast-moving, larger-than-life companies in any business.
The result’s storytelling that feels pure, not promotional. Within the video, MrBeast isn’t overexplaining the product or forcing a gross sales message. He’s merely highlighting the way it suits into his skilled ecosystem and the worth it gives.
In accordance with Redman, that subtlety is crucial in B2B model storytelling.
“In the end, it’s about the way you construct a group with friends, thought leaders and media personalities to create an ecosystem. If you’re promoting one thing on a regular basis, nobody goes to hearken to you. It’s annoying, whether or not you’re at a celebration, a networking occasion or on-line. Folks can intuit it instantly they usually shut down,” she says.
“Relationship constructing is far more essential, and also you obtain that by means of partnerships and thought leaders tapping into one another’s networks to amplify a shared message.”
3 key B2B thought management takeaways for leaders
Kara sums up her greatest takeaways for leaders in these three key insights.
- Lean into empathy advertising and marketing: Redman says, “[Customers] don’t care in case your product has three extra options than your competitor’s. Utilizing model storytelling and thought management as a software to raised perceive prospects and insert your self into current conversations is the entire level. When you’re doing it simply to be well-known, you gained’t be.”
- Interact in group boards and conversations: “When you’re obsessive about what’s taking place out there and the conversations persons are having round your resolution, you’ll by no means have to put in writing a single publish asking individuals to purchase from you. Folks will belief you and notice on their very own, ‘Wait, what do they do? Oh, they will clear up my downside.’ They may discover it. If you’re seeking to begin a private model or thought management in a B2B house, be obsessive about the conversations already taking place, take part in them and study from them. That’s what makes individuals really feel secure and associated,” Redman advises.
- Don’t be afraid to get your fingers soiled: “‘Roll up your sleeves’ is a good time period right here. Our greatest purchasers are leaders who will load up their very own automobiles to drop one thing off at a shopper’s location as a result of it has to get finished. I don’t see authority as a way to do much less work; I see it as extra duty and a privilege to be of service to the market. If that’s who you’re, you’re going to do effectively with this technique,” Redman concludes.
Begin writing your B2B model story
Armed with these professional ideas and methods, you’re prepared to put in writing the primary chapter of your model story.
In doing so, do not forget that the main target of B2B model storytelling must be much less on enterprise and extra on individuals. Humanize your model by empathizing along with your prospects’ ache factors, sharing management’s professional insights and inspiring your workers to share genuine content material on their profiles.
When finished effectively, humanizing your model doesn’t simply create a extra compelling social story; it accelerates gross sales cycles, boosts loyalty and drives long-term income influence.
Take step one in crafting your B2B model storytelling technique with Sprout’s LinkedIn enterprise worksheet. Use it to refine your model voice, map your content material pillars and brainstorm concepts for worker involvement to assist your model present up on social with readability, cohesion and confidence.
Obtain our LinkedIn for Enterprise Worksheet.
