Building a Personal Brand in Tech

This isn’t a post about whether dopamine culture is good or bad. (I have plenty to say on that…) However, it is about marketing because, fundamentally, marketing is about meeting your audience where they are. And, today's audience is in their dopamine-culture era. For too long, B2B companies have relied on the same old content marketing playbook: churn out whitepapers (often gated behind forms!) and blog posts, rinse and repeat. But in the world of dopamine culture, plus the rise of AI, that alone is not enough. To win at content marketing today, B2B brands need to step up their game in several key ways: ↳ Develop a Strong, Authentic POV. In a sea of generic content, having a unique, authentic perspective is more critical than ever. What does your brand stand for? What insights and opinions can you bring that no one else is? Your POV is your secret weapon. ↳ Cultivate a Consistent Brand Voice. Is your content instantly recognizable as coming from your brand? Do you have a cohesive voice, personality, and style that shines in everything you publish? If not, it's time for a refresh. A distinct brand identity fosters trust and memorability. ↳ Get Creative With Formats. Blogs and whitepapers are great, but don't stop there. Diversify with engaging formats like video, interactive tools, data visualizations, podcasts, and more. Give your audience exciting ways to learn. ↳ Optimize for Recommendation Engines. It's no longer just about ranking in search (though that's still important). You must also optimize for recommendation engines on social media, audio/video platforms, and more. How "shareable" and algorithms-friendly is your content? ↳ Leverage AI-Powered Tools. Use AI strategically to streamline your content operations, personalize content experiences, extract deeper audience insights, and experiment with new AI-generated formats. Be proactive. When I started Zen Media almost 16 years ago, content marketing was 90% content and 10% marketing. Today, it's the reverse. Before we create an article for a client, we develop their POV, have a brand voice document at the ready, and have a distribution plan in place because we know the truth: for every one person who reads the article, ten other people will read the summary on social platforms. Image Credit: Ted Gioia, The Honest Broker,

Too many marketers treat webinars like one-off lead gen plays. Run the event, send the recording, plan the next one. But the teams getting the most out of webinars treat them like content engines, using multiple touchpoints to promote them and creating multiple assets from each one. Here’s how: 🔹 Before: plan & promote. Design the webinar around what you want the final content to generate. Think about how you can pre-plan the moments to clip later. Start outlining that blog recap now. And when it comes to promotion, don't stop at email invitations. Find ways to embed the registration link into existing content channels — a new or popular blog post on an adjacent topic, the bios of all your social channels, etc. (At SparkToro, I can consistently add 100-200 extra registrants by embedding the registration link in a new blog post.) 🔹 During: reward active engagement. Having live attendees is nice; having active chat participants is even better. Invite people to engage directly in the live chat. Ask open-ended but simple questions that are easy for people to respond to. Make sure you're also using that chat in real-time — drop notes, reactions, answer quick questions that don't need to be verbally addressed during the presentation. 🔹 After: remix & reassign. One recap email isn't enough. A single well-run webinar should become multiple LinkedIn posts, a blog post, YouTube clips, and sales talking points — assets that serve social media, content marketing, and sales. Give each content asset a new job. This mindset has mattered a lot for SparkToro Office Hours, which typically gets ~1,200 signups. It’s also very aligned with how Goldcast talks about online events too — not just hosting webinars, but turning video into clips, blogs, social posts, and more. Link below in the comments to learn more. #GoldcastPartner

Over the last 6 months at Triangle, we’ve reviewed the performance of dozens of our Executive and Founder LinkedIn posts across all sectors. We pulled together reach, engagement, and story-type metrics, and three consistent patterns emerged. (1) Cultural hooks drive visibility. Posts that lead with a recognisable figure or big event attract high impressions. By tying in to these topics, you get broad distribution and big numbers. Then insert your idea, offer, company within this. Example: A tech leader building in the AI space opened with “Mark Zuckerberg wanted to buy Google.” The post reached 3.2M impressions. (2) Use proof points to build credibility. Executive posts that point to a real outcome (a campaign delivered, a deal closed, a client story) bump engagement rates significantly. Fewer eyeballs, but more meaningful interaction. That’s the kind of peer-recognition that moves you from “someone who talks” to “someone you want to buy from.” Example: A founder of a UK-based speaker bureau shared that they booked an Olympic gold medalist for a client. The post generated 26k impressions with 15 qualified MQLs. (3) Personal narrative and spotlighting others deepen the connection to your readers. When executives share a lived experience, like hardship, change, lessons learnt or they deliberately make someone else the hero, engagement spikes. You build trust at scale and deepen the connection with your audience. Example: A founder reflecting on 8 years of building their company reached 3.7k impressions with 1.57% engagement. Another spotlighting a client’s book launch hit 2.5k impressions and achieved 5.86% engagement. Actions you can take • Use a mix of formats rather than a single style. • Use a cultural hook when you need to amplify reach. • Use proof posts when you want to underpin your capability. • Use personal stories when you want to humanise your brand and deepen trust. • Track not just impressions but meaningful engagement: comments from peers, ICP engagement, follow-ups, profile views, DMs initiated. The difference between executives who get seen or not – is down to having a system in place. At Triangle, we build that system. Turning your ideas, proof points, and stories into a consistent flow of credibility, reach, and opportunity.

You’ve spent hours crafting the perfect campaign. The design is flawless, the message is clear, and everything feels on point. But the results? Meh. The numbers barely budge. Every marketer’s fear is creating something that gets noticed but doesn’t connect. Because attention alone isn’t enough—it’s emotional resonance that drives action and builds loyalty. 🌱 Here’s how to create content that resonates: → Understand your audience’s why Go beyond demographics—tap into psychographics by learning what drives your customers. What problems keep them awake at night? What aspirations push them forward? → Focus on stories, not facts People are wired to connect with stories. Stories humanize your brand and turn abstract concepts into relatable experiences. Rather than listing product features, share a story of how your product solved a customer’s real problem or made a difference in their life. → Speak their language Choose language that aligns with your audience’s emotions and experiences. Whether it’s light-hearted humor or a sense of hope, using intentional language helps your content resonate with readers on a deeper level. → Be authentic in sharing your journey, objections, and goals Your audience can sense what’s real. Share your challenges, goals, and even vulnerabilities to build trust and reliability. → Invite meaningful dialogue and understand what defines their ideas Encourage your audience to interact with your content—ask questions, invite opinions, or run interactive campaigns. When people feel involved, they develop a sense of connection with your brand, making your message more impactful. It’s not about grabbing attention—it’s about making it matter.

I've been thinking a lot about the kind of content brands put into the world. Some of it sparks conversation and strengthens brand connection. Some of it...just fills the feed. Most B2C brands are great at chasing engagement, but not always at building brand meaning. When I mapped it out, the content that matters most always ends up in the upper-right quadrant: High Engagement + High Cultural Relevance / Emotional Impact. 🟩 The Sweet Spot This is content people actually interact with and that strengthens brand connection: • User-Generated Storytelling (not just reviews, but authentic, emotional UGC) • Lifestyle & Aspirational Content (travel inspo, fashion, wellness — fits seamlessly into how people see themselves) • Viral TikTok/Reels Trends (when done authentically and in sync with culture) • Influencer Collaborations (especially when creators embody your brand values) • Community Challenges / Hashtag Activations (identity-driven and participatory) This is where loyalty gets built. Where campaigns outlive algorithms. Where engagement means something. ⸻ 🟧 What to Watch Out For (Low/Low) • Generic Product Ads (feature dumps without story) • Random Sales Promotions (uninspired discount graphics) • Forced Trend-Jacking (when brands hop on memes without fit) 👉 These pieces don’t move the needle on culture or engagement. ⸻ 🟪 The Trap (High Engagement / Low Relevance) • Giveaways / Sweepstakes (quick hits, low equity) • Funny Memes / Low-lift Humor (attention-grabbing but not tied to your brand) • Clickbait-y Hacks (drive views without deepening connection) • Flash Discounts (transactional, not relational) 👉 Yes, these light up the metrics — but they don’t build lasting brand affinity. ⸻ The takeaway? Don’t just chase clicks. Make more content for the upper right: where engagement fuels cultural relevance, and cultural relevance and emotional impact fuels long-term brand love. 𝙄𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙣’𝙩 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝘽2𝘽 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙭, 𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙘𝙠 𝙞𝙩 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚: https://lnkd.in/d7DXQDMB 𝙄’𝙡𝙡 𝙙𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙪𝙥𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙄𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙎𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙈𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙖 𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥 𝙣𝙚𝙬𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨. 𝙎𝙪𝙗𝙨𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙗𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚: https://lnkd.in/d28dna4K

I've attended 6 webinars/virtual events in the last 2 weeks. These have been hosted by very small teams/early-stage startups to billion $ companies whose brand names are synonymous with B2B SaaS. A few things I see across these events that are problematic: - Not enough context was given before the event - beyond the title and speakers, I don't know what to expect from a flow of the session perspective. - I have the event on my calendar but the pre-event reminder email frequency is super low. My recommendation is to use the 7-1-4-1 approach. 7 days out, 1 day out, 4 hours out and 1 hour out. Build excitement and drop hints on discussion points, value to the audience and who is attending in these emails. - Speaker and host energy - this is a big one. If the people on stage aren't excited about being there, your audience isn't going to be either. One Slack DM, one WhatsApp notification or an email and you've lost their attention. You need to think of your event as a captivating show on your favourite OTT. They need to be gripped as a result of your energy and the value you are bringing to the event. - Engage outside of the stage - Whether it's summarizing points from the stage to replying to chat or sharing resources in real-time. The chat better be active AF. - Always start with housekeeping - Run through the agenda and flow, and let people know about the assets they can expect, and what will they be able to learn and apply after. Getting them there IS NOT ENOUGH! - Post-event follow-up - every single event host sent out a follow-up email but only with the recording link. You need to share key takeaways, the assets and resources shared during the event and give them something they can engage with further. One and done is not going to drive your results here. What did you think of these observations? Is there something else you feel virtual events for marketers should have? Let me know in the chat. This is a topic close to my heart! LFG! #virtualevents #webinars #marketing

How to grow by 625% in 12 months. Back in 2016, ConvertKit was just another email marketing tool. They were pulling in $70-80k a month but needed something more to break out. Enter Nathan Barry (the founder) and Darrell Vesterfelt, just two guys on a ski trip, were hashing out a strategy to ramp up growth. The Game Plan When your business is small, you don’t need 10 different marketing strategies. By chasing 5 rabbits, you’ll catch none. You need one repeatable strategy that works. Forget fancy gimmicks; Darrel came up with an idea for webinars. It was their golden ticket. Affordable, effective, and right in the wheelhouse for a lean operation like ConvertKit. The goal? Pure and simple: Max out on webinars. The Hustle ConvertKit went all-in. We're talking about 150 webinars in just 365 days. All the webinars were the same but each was hosted by a different affiliate. They partnered with anyone keen to join their affiliate program, size of the audience didn’t matter. The message was clear: Everyone gets a shot. The Raw Tactics Friction-free sign-up: ConvertKit's affiliate program was pretty easy to get into. Sign up, get going, and earn money. Audience Size Doesn’t Matter: Big fish, small pond – didn't matter. ConvertKit teamed up with anyone ready to act. Although, they managed to book Pat Flynn in the first quarter. This webinar alone got around a thousand signups within 24 hours. Real Value, No Sleazy Sales: Their webinars offered pure value and asked nothing in return. At the beginning of each webinar, they countered “typical webinar sales traps” objections by announcing “We’re not going to sell you here a single thing”. Instead, they gave away online courses, ebooks, and t-shirts. And affiliate partners often gave freebies of their own. Laser-Focused on Bloggers: Darrell and Nathan knew their target audience – bloggers. And they stuck to it, making every move count. Reliable Tech: Nothing flashy, or breakable. Just solid, reliable tools to get the job done right. This helped ConvertKit grow by over 625%.  They went from $98k/month to $625k/month within a year. If the lesson you took away from this story is that webinars are the key to rapid growth, then you learned the wrong lesson. Often marketing is made out to be some weird, incomprehensible voodoo. However, the reality is it’s about creating a simple, solid plan and being consistent with it. ConvertKit’s story isn’t about a magic bullet. It's about being intentional and consistent.

Here's a reality check if you believe "engaging with your ICP's content" will help you generate business. Only 1% of LinkedIn users post regularly. For technical audiences like engineering leaders? That number is even lower (probably closer to 0,05%). This creates a fundamental problem with most B2B content strategies targeting technical buyers: You're building an engagement engine for an audience that doesn't engage. I see this constantly in GTM plans: • "We'll monitor their activity and engage with their posts!" • "Our CEO will comment on their content!" • "We'll build relationships through social engagement!" But when your ICP is a VP of Engineering or CTO or Chief Scientist, there's often nothing to engage with. This doesn't mean content is worthless for technical audiences. It means we need to be realistic about how it works: Content for technical buyers is primarily consumption-based, not engagement-based. They read. They evaluate. They rarely comment. So what actually works? Instead of spreading yourself thin across dozens of lightweight content pieces hoping for engagement, here's what I'd do instead: 1) Spend time on creating one or few research-heavy content pieces that demonstrates deep technical understanding, but also communicates a clear POV. You'll want them to take you seriously, but it needs to be interesting first. »This might take weeks/months and you actually need to put in the work«. E.g. assemble data across your target industry that will actually be useful to your target buyer. 2) Highly personal outreach that shows you have done your research, understand their tech stack. That's almost impossible without involving a subject-matter expert btw. 3) Focus on building a trusted relationship first via communities and events, rather than pitch-slapping. Tech-first buyers are often tinkerers and like to give new tech a shot, but they are also put off by commercial fluff. The best technical content isn't designed to generate likes and comments. It's designed to make someone think: "These people actually understand our problems." And then used in sync with your outreach. That won't show up in your engagement metrics. But it will show up in your pipeline.

B2B tech companies are addicted to getting you to subscribe to their corporate echo chamber newsletter graveyard, where they dump their latest self-love notes. It's a cesspool of "Look at us!" and "We're pleased to announce..." drivel that suffocates originality and murders interest. Each link, each event recap and each funding announcement is another shovel of dirt on the grave of what could have been engaging content. UNSUBSCRIBE What if, instead of serving up the same old reheated corporate leftovers, your content could slap your audience awake? Ego-stroking company updates are out. 1. The pain point deep dive: Start by mining the deepest anxieties, challenges and questions your audience faces. Use forums, social media, customer feedback and even direct interviews to uncover the raw nerve you're going to press. 2. The unconventional wisdom: Challenge the status quo of your industry. If everyone's zigging, you zag. This could mean debunking widely held beliefs, proposing counterintuitive strategies or sharing insights that only insiders know but don't talk about. Be the mythbuster of your domain. 3. The narrative hook: Every piece of content should tell a story, and every story needs a hook that grabs from the first sentence. Use vivid imagery, compelling questions or startling statements to make it impossible to scroll past. Your opening should be a rabbit hole inviting Alice to jump in. 4. The value payload: This is the core of your content. Each piece should deliver actionable insights, deep dives or transformative information. Give your audience something so valuable that they can't help but use, save and share it. Think tutorials, step-by-step guides or even entertaining content that delivers laughs or awe alongside insight. 5. The personal touch: Inject your personality or brand's voice into every piece. Share personal anecdotes, failures and successes. 6. The engagement spark: End with a call to action that encourages interaction. Ask a provocative question, encourage them to share their own stories or challenge them to apply what they've learned and share the results. Engagement breeds community, and community amplifies your reach. 7. The multi-platform siege: Repurpose your anchor content across platforms. Turn blog posts into podcast episodes, summaries into tweets or LinkedIn posts and key insights into Instagram stories. Each piece of content should work as a squad, covering different fronts but pushing the same message. Without impressive anchor content, you won't have anything worth a lick in your newsletter. 8. The audience dialogue: Engage directly with your audience's feedback. Respond to comments, ask for their input on future topics and even involve them in content creation through surveys or co-creation opportunities. Make your content worth spreading, and watch as your audience does the heavy lifting for you. And please stop with the corporate navel-gazing. #newsletters #b2btech #ThatAshleyAmber