LinkedIn has always struck me as an odd place. I was never a fan of the platform, perhaps because I’m a deep introvert who is shy to brag about any accomplishments. I just always saw LinkedIn as a social media platform for braggy entrepreneurs and white-collar workers to update their job descriptions and comment under weird / irrelevant posts. The platform never really clicked with me.

We once hired a PR firm to help us connect with journalists and get our brand out there a little more. That is exactly what they did. However, they also advised us to begin developing our own founder / entrepreneur personalities on LinkedIn. I really do understand how the majority of founders find that works for them and allows them to be more visible, but this was a no-no for us. It’s probably the most cringiest thing I’ve ever heard, I just don’t see myself being that person (do you know what I mean?). I’m having trouble keeping my face straight while writing this.

We didn’t like it even when it came to promoting our company rather than ourselves. So we took a step and then stopped posting on LinkedIn. Just not the vibe we wanted for our company; we didn’t like to brag about being featured on Forbes or reaching funding or revenue milestones (there are other platforms for that work better for those).

That kind of leads to the “broetry” discussion I was hoping to have.

You might say what’s “broetry”? It’s a cringey style of self-help posts where stories are written in a long string of one-liners that look like a poem.

If you spend enough time on LinkedIn, you’ll undoubtedly come across a broem, which has emerged as the preferred post format for marketers, social media experts, and business development professionals. They lure you with two semi-inspiring personal lines that could be found on the front cover of a self-help book. When you click the “… see more” link, a string of new lines appears, each one a paragraph that reads like employee handbook haikus.

Now, the platform has become a hub for a full-blown B2B influencer revolution. This is more interesting, but also quite weird.

I totally understand why this happened.

It makes total sense for companies (corporates) to tap into field experts to help them sell their products and services. If TikTok and Instagram influencers are beneficial to consumer brands, why not have white-collar workers receive sponsorship from enterprises and B2B brands.

It’s actually very serious business. The average B2B contract is worth 10%-20% more than consumer influencer deals.

Recently, Ogilvy, a global advertising agency, released that they’re launching its own team of B2B influencers that it believes could eventually make up 20% of its influencer group.

Here’s some numbers:

• 11m members that opted into “creator mode,” aka subject experts.
• 144k+ members with “creator” in their job title in 2021.
• 18k+ writers publishing newsletters on LinkedIn.

Even Mr. Beast, arguably the world’s most influential YouTuber, made an account earlier this year.

Although, I don’t see Linkedin Influencers being treated different to the TikTok and Instagram Influencers. I agree with Josh 👇

“You will not be invited to a red carpet because you’re a product manager at Facebook,” Josh Ogundu, an entrepreneur and former TikTok employee, recently tweeted.

Let’s see what happens and how this develops; I’ll keep you all updated.