Corporate Influencers Are Here... ...Is Your Brand Ready?

B2B brands are finally waking up to something consumer companies worked out a decade ago: people trust people more than logos. Not a LinkedIn personality pushing productivity hacks, but real employees acting as interpreters of a brand's expertise, culture and point of view.

Just as consumer brands have long employed aspirational people to promote products on their social feeds, so now B2B brands are creating 'corporate influencers' - roles focused solely on making customers and employees feel connected to the brand through thought leadership, speaking engagements, networking and content creation.

Deloitte Germany spotted this early. In 2022, Lara Sophie Bothur became their first official corporate influencer. The face of the firm, she not only made thinking in quantum, AI, blockchain, smart manufacturing, and smart mobility accessible, but gave people a window into the firm's culture. Two years later, she'd reached 400 million impressions, $13 million in earned marketing value and 10,000 leads. Impressive numbers, but the real value add is something a lot simpler. She made one of the world's biggest, most complex firms feel human.

It's tempting to treat this as a passing trend, but the shift runs deeper. Decision-making has changed. Social feeds dominate the discovery phase of the buying journey. People browse in multi-tab mode. Algorithms surface personalities long before brands. Brand experience now happens through people before it happens through websites.

So, the question isn't, "Should we have a corporate influencer?" It's "Is our brand clear enough, distinctive enough, and human enough to be amplified?"

Authenticity isn't optional
Brands often default to the C-suite when looking for influence. Sometimes that works, like Jim Reid, Head of Macro and Thematic Research at Deutsche Bank, who has a remarkable skill for explaining macroeconomics in a way an investor can understand. But seniority doesn't equal influence, and credibility doesn't care about job titles. In many industries - tech, finance, engineering - expertise flows sideways. A brilliant analyst, a respected engineer or a product lead trusted by their peers can carry more weight than an entire leadership team. The non-negotiable is authenticity.

The consumer world has seen some very high-profile examples of inauthentic influencers. Fyre Festival, celebrity scandals, endless "I genuinely love this product I was paid to mention" moments. And in B2B, the stakes are even higher. Reputation. Trust. Investment. So do your due diligence. Do the slow, boring, essential work: background checks, motivations, past behaviour, alignment with values. If you wouldn't put them in a pitch meeting, don't put them on a public stage.

Support them, don't script them
Corporate influencers aren't simply another distribution channel for corporate communications. That's just internal messaging with a human face. The most effective programmes balance structure with autonomy. Give influencers training, context on strategy and campaigns, access to conversations, data, experts, but also give them control of their voice - empower them to put their personal mark on it.

Tech companies understood this long ago. OpenAI, Figma, Adobe and others routinely give influencers new features months before launch. Not to parrot a press release, but to translate it for their own audience. If you're not comfortable with an employee putting their own stamp on your message, you don't have an influencer problem. You have a brand trust problem.

Look beyond LinkedIn
LinkedIn remains central to any strategy. Even more so today as the platform increasingly prioritises personal accounts over corporate pages.

But real influence doesn't just live in one place. Look at Medium for depth and long-form content; on YouTube for storytelling and education; on BlueSky and Reddit for technical niche; and on X for markets and real-time commentary. Attendance at conferences, roundtables, and industry dinners are also vital for building trust. Your corporate influencer is useless if they're talking in the wrong rooms. Channels matter less than proximity to the conversations that shape decisions.

Plan for control before you need it
If something goes wrong, whether it's a misjudged post or a comment that lands badly, the worst time to invent a process is during the crisis. So, set the boundaries early. Agree escalation paths. Monitor output sensibly, not obsessively, but enough to avoid surprises. Most issues come from speed, missing context, or simply not understanding how something might be interpreted. A good influencer programme anticipates the risk before it becomes a headline.

The future: AI influencers (sooner than people think)
Looking ahead, we're already on the verge of the next evolution: the AI-led corporate influencer. Not the weird avatars we see floating around now, but digital personas with consistent voices, perfect compliance, and real-time access to a company's knowledge base.

Humans handle nuance, but AI handles volume. The next generation of influencers will use both. Imagine IBM creating a "Watson"-style influencer explaining complex AI concepts with absolute clarity, zero risk, and 24/7 availability. While trust in AI personas may be a hurdle for now, the potential is undeniable. Brands will adopt this faster than people expect. Not because it's trendy, but because it solves problems humans can't: consistency, speed, depth, and global reach.

Where human influence meets brand reality
Corporate influencers aren't shortcuts, hacks or shiny tactics. They're extensions of a deeper truth about B2B decision-making: people don't remember generic brands, they remember people who make ideas make sense. Investing in an influencer before your brand is ready risks exposing any weaknesses you've been ignoring. But get the foundations right – clarity, trust, distinctiveness, humanity – and a corporate influencer can transform awareness, accelerate demand, and build credibility money can't buy.