‘Simplify, humanise, unify’: B2B brands on avoiding social media’s ‘sea of blandness’

B2B marketers are increasingly turning to social media to meet customers where they are, taking lessons from their B2C peers about how best to connect.

Marketing Week’s 2025 State of B2B Marketing survey found marketers are using social media more frequently and in different ways.

Of the 450 marketers surveyed, 59.1% are investing in social campaigns as part of their brand marketing. Some 58.7% of SMEs (250 employees and under) and 58.8% of large organisations are using social as a major part of their brand campaigns.

When asked how their approach to lead generation was changing, 48.9% reported a bigger focus on social media (Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok). This rose to 55.3% of SMEs and stood at 48.3% for those in large companies.

As part of this shift, B2B marketers are adapting the way they approach content, bringing entertainment, personality and interactivity to their followers’ feeds.

Vice-president of marketing at life sciences company Cytiva, Conor McKechnie, says the business has been on a journey with social media. There has been a shift from “newswire to real storytelling”, which is focused on meeting the customer where they are on the journey. Social is now “part of the full funnel” and a space for customer success stories to be shared.

The team has reduced link-outs and “overt promotions” since its rebrand from GE Healthcare in April 2020, which McKechnie marks as the time when the company really had to lean into digital and social due to the pandemic.

This approach of “simplifying, humanising and unifying” has driven a 32% engagement uplift and 559% follower growth to Cytivas’s corporate LinkedIn page from January to September 2025, versus the same period last year.

It should be about entertainment rather than sales information. And that’s the bit B2B brands have got wrong.

Dan Roche, Workbooks

The State of B2B Marketing data reveals 45.1% of brands are using employees as influencers to raise awareness.

At Cytiva, employee advocacy – particularly among its sales teams – drives three times more reach and double the click through rates compared to company posts. McKechnie describes employee advocacy as a “solid channel for customer engagement”, which drives “funnel additions”.

McKechnie says the pandemic spurred the company to embrace employee influencers.

“In the first two or three months of Cytiva being a thing, I’d say most of our outward communication in terms of volume and share of voice was all driven by our associates using the content that we were providing from the marketing team in the advocacy plan,” he explains.

PwC is another global company using social media across its markets.

“There’s so much that brands can do on social media that is important in this day and age, particularly around building trust, ” says head of campaign management, Nic McHugh.

She claims the social team has built up trust with leadership who understand the benefits of social. The business similarly has a creator network, made up of people across the firm telling stories of the brand. This network has proved particularly useful in sharing the company’s annual report, which launched last month.

McHugh says the employee creators help to make “quite heavy topics” such as pension transformation more approachable, and having them share content is a “differentiator” for the brand.

PwC supports its employees in growing their own personal brands, with McHugh claiming the firm has “incredible people doing fantastic work” and the idea is to have them out in the market telling their story.

“Advocacy for us is a non-negotiable. It’ll be something that we will continue to invest in,” she adds.

Humanising the brand

Although LinkedIn may have had a perception of being solely corporate, B2B companies of all sizes are bringing humour and a lighthearted approach to the platform. One such firm is CRM platform Workbooks, which has landed on an approach of being disruptive, irreverent and fun.

CMO Dan Roche says maintaining a presence on all platforms was “too much”, so the team has “zeroed in on LinkedIn” to communicate to prospects and customers in a slightly different way.

“B2B is getting better, but it’s still a sea of blandness. A lot of B2B brands use LinkedIn or social media as an advertising broadcast channel and what we’re trying to do is get people’s attention, and you don’t get attention by just trying to sell your product or service,” says Roche.

Workbooks’ LinkedIn posts often include humorous, playful and engaging gifs, which he says has been influenced slightly by consumer brands such as Monzo, noting there is a “human way” of standing out which finds a balance between the product and humour. This approach is something the algorithm rewards.

For me, it says the biggest learning is that in B2B, you can actually have fun and be creative.

Conor McKechnie, Cytiva

“By marrying what we actually want to say, which is our product or service message, with something that’s a bit irreverent, fun and humorous, that got us a better level of engagement,” says Roche.

Having a “funny” stance is where he sees the future of B2B social going, with the message and story more important than the specific channel.

“Social media, it should be about entertainment rather than sales information. And that’s the bit that B2B brands have got wrong. They’ve tried to use it as an advertising channel when it should be an entertainment channel, within reason,” Roche adds.

For Cytiva, there must be “no disconnect” between brand voice and content across its social channels, and this should also link to the website. LinkedIn is its primary channel in the US and EMEA, with other channels such as WeChat used in China and KakaoTalk used in Korea. Instagram is also a channel to “humanise” the brand and YouTube is seen as an “evergreen video hub”.

‘Singing from the same hymn sheet’

McKechnie notes the importance of not “policing” tone of content, but each market has a clear set of guidelines on how to approach social, right the way down to consistent use of carousels and imagery.

PwC also has guidance to keep a consistent tone on its social accounts across its markets. The firm’s recent rebrand meant a refresh in its tone of voice and greater alignment in visuals.

“We’re all singing from the same hymn sheet and pushing brand awareness up rather than anybody feeling that they’re on their own and doing something which might not work or align itself with the brand,” says McHugh.

Some regions, such as Switzerland and the US, also have TikTok accounts, which the UK hasn’t explored yet, although McHugh can see the benefit.

“Where brands can really stand out on platforms which are so personal, it’s by humanising themselves and bringing their people forward. You’re developing that sense of trust, which is so critical at the minute and will only become more so,” says McHugh.

PwC has consistently focused on LinkedIn and made use of its live broadcast functions, while Instagram is its “second platform” and a “testing ground” for video and carousel formats. Content is typically tested there then brought across to LinkedIn.

In the last month, PwC’s UK LinkedIn page has seen 69% follower growth, fuelled by the company’s choice to “focus on content”.

Advocacy for us is a non-negotiable. It’ll be something that we will continue to invest in.

Nic McHugh, PwC

All three marketers back the use of carousel posts, with Cytiva also seeing success from manga/animation style content and experimenting with 30-second videos.

“We anthropomorphised our technology as family members. We used light humour in line with our brand’s voice and tone, with the final card being a call to action saying: ‘I want to learn more about this family’. We found that was really impactful. We had 6,000 or something impressions, 30% engagement rate, which is insane when you think about that,” says McKechnie.

“For me, it says the biggest learning is that in B2B, you can actually have fun and be creative.”

McHugh echoes this opinion, explaining PwC always approaches social like it is talking to real people as any B2C brand would.

“Having that ability to be quite reactive on social platforms is something that we all do, whether or not you’re B2B or B2C. Because we see some of the exciting things that are happening in B2C, that inspires us to do different things ourselves,” she adds.

While Workbooks also takes inspiration from B2C, according to Roche a challenge B2B companies face on social media is “trying to be consistently interesting and funny when inherently selling software isn’t that funny or fun”.

“It does require a level of creativity in our team to translate quite complex products and technology into something that is actually interesting,” says Roche.

He also credits external influencers for helping to share the brand’s story in a “non-salesy way”, although Roche argues the “jury is still out” on the impact influencers have on the B2B sales cycle. As the organisation grows, he hopes employee advocacy will grow within the business.

Test and learn

All three marketers see social media content as having a strong test and learn element.

Roche explains that, for Workbooks, posts that don’t land are the ones where the brand was thinking about itself “rather than the audience”.

“Now we always think ‘Is this going to entertain someone?’, rather than ‘Is this going to get someone to buy our software?’” he says.

“If we get someone to engage with our content, if they find it funny, then when we call them or when we email them, or when they’re ready to look for a CRM system, then maybe they’ll consider us.”

PwC consistently measures the success of its content, with McHugh noting engagement with carousels has “absolutely rocketed” recently. Although the brand used to see success from LinkedIn Live, it is moving more to “snippets”, YouTube content and sharing podcast highlights.

Two-thirds of B2B marketers say lead gen tactics changing

“The edits are faster, the backgrounds are important, the scripting is far less than it would have been previously, where we’re asking people not to use auto cues and to feel freer to share their own thoughts in their own voice, so that you’re getting that authenticity,” says McHugh.

“By doing things in a very authentic way that’s right for PwC, I feel like we’re really connecting with our audience. And our follower growth, thankfully, shows it.”

Cytiva’s success on social is seen as a “leading indicator” for brand salience, brand awareness and preference, with standard social engagement metrics analysed regularly. Whether there is “meaningful discussion” in the comments is also key, as well as share of voice or assisted conversions if a particular event is being pushed.

“A lot of people at the very beginning thought social should have its own special metrics. Social is just one of the many other channels to our customers and you can use it in exactly the same way. With the same way of thinking as you would any other channel,” says McKechnie.

He sees social as a way to “nudge people towards a more meaningful interaction” with the brand, such as making a purchase.

“We’re not trying to keep people on our YouTube channel. We’re not trying to keep people glued to us on LinkedIn. We want to meet them where they are, provide them with a useful experience to build trust. In B2B, trust is absolutely critical,” McKechnie concludes.

Marketing Week will continue its reporting from the State of B2B Marketing survey over the coming weeks.