B2B Influence Marketing on LinkedIn: 3 Key Trends to Anticipate in 2026

What you'll find in this guide:

• C-Level Thought Leadership: Influence, Credibility, and Humanization
• The Key Role of LinkedIn BrandLink
• Building a Multi-Platform Strategy

‍

B2B marketing is constantly evolving. In 2026, to reach decision-makers, companies, and clients, it's no longer traditional advertising as we've known it that will enable businesses to make noise on social media. It's credible individuals, expert content, storytelling, and social proof through the voices of B2B creators recognized for their expertise.

In this context, LinkedIn has established itself as the perfect playing field for B2B influence marketing. It's the professional network par excellence, where decision-makers, executives, experts, and all industries connect daily to stay informed about developments in their sector.

If you're a business leader or marketing manager, it's time to rethink your influence strategy. To help you see more clearly, the Les Années Folles team details the 3 trends that will shape 2026.

For comprehensive insights on B2B influence marketing evolution, download our influencer marketing resources, including our complete ebook with expert strategies and case studies.

C-Level Thought Leadership: Influence, Credibility, and Humanization

What is "thought leadership" in B2B? 

Thought leadership consists of producing authentic content with expert reflection. The idea is to share ideas, visions, advice, and experience feedback. In B2B, it's a powerful credibility lever. Marketers are looking less for advertising and more for expertise, benchmarks, and trust signals.

On LinkedIn, this dynamic is gaining momentum. Professionals subscribe to "thought leaders," read their reflections, draw inspiration from their experience—even before considering a purchase or solution.

The Edelman report on LinkedIn "B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report 2025" demonstrates that thought leadership concretely influences B2B purchasing decisions, particularly by activating "hidden buyers" (less visible internal decision-makers).

Why is thought leadership becoming essential?

B2B companies seek to differentiate their brand beyond pure product or service. They must embody values, visions, expertise, and global perspectives. A visible leader reassures, establishes credibility, and humanizes the brand. Advertising saturation makes classic formats (ads, banners) less effective. Expert content, embodied and carried by an identifiable voice, gains value.

Understanding what a B2B influencer is and their role in thought leadership helps you identify the right voices to amplify your brand message and establish industry authority.

Key Thought Leadership Strategies for 2026:

Authentic Executive Voices C-level executives and senior leaders are becoming content creators themselves, sharing genuine insights from their experience rather than polished corporate messaging.

Expertise Over Promotion Content that educates, informs, and provides value without direct sales pitches builds trust and positions your brand as an industry authority.

Humanizing B2B Brands Personal stories, challenges, and lessons learned make companies more relatable and trustworthy to professional audiences who are tired of impersonal corporate communication.

Learn more about how B2B influencers and employer branding work together to attract top talent and strengthen your company's reputation as an industry leader.

The Key Role of LinkedIn BrandLink

To enable companies and users with strong visibility to collaborate together, LinkedIn has developed a new tool. BrandLink is a feature that allows creators to directly tag companies on their content. This tag becomes a clickable link that redirects to a specific page. This way, brands associate their messages with publications from followed and expert profiles.

This new way of collaborating with creators offers marketing operations more oriented toward performance. For example, with inserted links, companies can track clicks and conversions. Companies can therefore partner with creators who deliver strong performance.

In 2026, leveraging BrandLink functionality can serve multiple objectives:

Product/Solution Launches Insert your message with videos reaching large audiences to introduce your offering to prospects.

Brand Building & Employer Branding Associate your brand with expert, credible, relevant content that enhances your reputation and attracts talent.

Qualified Lead Generation Reach decision-makers and professionals in the consideration phase through content featuring a call-to-action, such as a downloadable ebook.

Evangelization or Vision Sharing Explain complex topics, innovations, and long-term visions—ideal for SaaS or complex tech tools.

With BrandLink, LinkedIn expands its tools and allows marketers to think about conversion campaigns. Until now, tracking the performance of a LinkedIn publication could prove complicated.

When planning your BrandLink campaigns, avoid common pitfalls by reviewing our guide on 10 mistakes to avoid in your B2B influence marketing campaigns, which includes specific guidance on measurement and tracking.

BrandLink Best Practices:

Performance Tracking Use BrandLink's tracking capabilities to measure clicks, conversions, and ROI from influencer collaborations—something previously difficult on LinkedIn.

Strategic Creator Partnerships Select creators whose audience demographics and engagement rates align with your target customers for maximum impact.

Clear CTAs Ensure your BrandLink content includes specific, trackable calls-to-action that guide users toward conversion goals.

Content Co-Creation Work with creators to develop authentic content that naturally integrates your brand message rather than forced promotional posts.

Building a Multi-Platform Strategy

Professionals are no longer on just one channel. They read publications on LinkedIn, listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos, consult blogs, participate in webinars, and engage in communities… To reach these diverse targets, an "omnichannel" approach is essential.

Why Multi-Platform Matters:

Long-form formats (podcasts, YouTube videos, in-depth articles) allow you to deepen, explain, and educate—essential for B2B. This content can then be "clipped" into micro-content (reels, short videos) for LinkedIn or other platforms, optimizing reach and ROI. They strengthen credibility, awareness, personal branding, and create evergreen assets useful for SEO, nurturing, and conversion.

Deciding which social media platforms your business should use is crucial for maximizing your B2B influence marketing reach while managing resources effectively.

How to Build a Hybrid Strategy

Here are some ideas to help you see more clearly:

Identify One or More "Long-Form" Channels Consider podcasts, YouTube channels, blogs, newsletters, white papers, or webinars as your content foundation.

Produce Regular In-Depth Content Create interviews, case studies, analyses, field reports, and strategic reflections based on your expertise.

Recycle into Micro-Content Transform long-form content into video excerpts, quotes, LinkedIn posts, carousels, and infographics to maximize visibility without recreating everything from scratch.

Associate Content with BrandLink or LinkedIn Ad Campaigns Amplify reach by combining organic influencer content with paid promotion strategies.

Measure & Adjust Track KPIs according to channel: views, engagement, leads, downloads, conversions, etc.

Multi-Platform Content Distribution Framework:

Content Pillar Strategy:

• Create one comprehensive piece of long-form content (podcast episode, detailed blog post, video interview)
• Extract 5-10 micro-content pieces for LinkedIn (quotes, short clips, carousels)
• Repurpose for other platforms (YouTube shorts, Twitter threads, email newsletters)
• Link everything back to your main content hub

Channel-Specific Optimization:

• LinkedIn: Professional insights, thought leadership, BrandLink collaborations
• YouTube: In-depth tutorials, interviews, product demonstrations
• Podcasts: Long-form conversations, industry analysis, expert interviews
• Blogs: SEO-optimized articles, comprehensive guides, case studies

Measurement Framework:

• Top of funnel: Impressions, reach, video views
• Middle of funnel: Engagement rate, click-through rate, time spent
• Bottom of funnel: Lead generation, conversion rate, sales qualified leads

For real-world examples of how multi-platform B2B influence strategies deliver results, explore our client case studies featuring successful omnichannel campaigns.

B2B Influence Marketing 2026: The Future is Expert-Led and Multi-Channel

In 2026, B2B influence will no longer be limited to product promotion or traditional lead generation. It will be the users (leaders, C-Level executives…) who embody their voice with expert perspectives who will make the difference. On LinkedIn, this influence materializes through thought leadership, video content, in-depth content, collaborations, and above all, a content strategy across different channels.

Key Takeaways for 2026:

Thought Leadership as Core Strategy Executive voices and expert creators will drive B2B marketing success more than traditional advertising formats.

BrandLink for Performance LinkedIn's new tracking and collaboration tools enable measurable influencer partnerships with clear ROI.

Omnichannel Approach Long-form content on podcasts, YouTube, and blogs—repurposed into micro-content for LinkedIn—maximizes reach and engagement.

Authenticity Over Polish Professionals seek genuine expertise and relatable human stories, not corporate marketing speak.

Measurable Impact Track performance across channels to optimize your influence marketing investment and demonstrate business value.

The evolution of B2B influence marketing on LinkedIn represents a fundamental shift in how companies connect with professional audiences. By embracing thought leadership, leveraging new tools like BrandLink, and building multi-platform content strategies, forward-thinking organizations can establish authority, build trust, and drive measurable business results.

Ready to launch your first B2B influence campaign? Visit our about us page to discover how Les Années Folles can help you create impactful influencer marketing campaigns that deliver real business results.