Welcome to What We're Reading, a weekly rundown of news stories, marketing columns, and B2B industry news that caught our eye.

What even is a B2B influencer?

Whether you’re working with them or not, the role of B2B influencers has grown to a point that’s hard to ignore. Here, The Drum kicks off a three-part series on B2B influencers by unpacking what exactly a B2B influencer is, and how much impact they really have. One of the types of influence it mentions is advocates, where employees and customers are empowered as thought leaders in their own right.

Make the most of what you already have: talent. It's your people who know your business and your products like no other, so it makes sense to set up a strategy to get that wisdom out there.

6 questions to ask yourself before launching an experience

Experiential marketing is powerful but, get it wrong or rush into it, and it’ll fall flat. To catch that before it happens, MarketingProfs offers six questions to ask that uncover broader business goals, integrated campaigns, and audience intent.

Our favourite? The one that asks whether internal teams are aligned around the same narrative and goals. There’s so much magic that happens when you can align all teams, beyond marketing, from the beginning. By getting everyone on the same page and working towards a shared goal, the outcome is only going to be stronger.

LinkedIn dominates B2B queries in AI chatbots

According to new insights from the LinkedIn for Marketing Blog, the platform is now the second most-cited source for AI chatbot answers, specifically when it comes to business-related queries, following YouTube. It also found that 75% of all LinkedIn citations come from individual member profiles, meaning just 25% come from Company Pages.

That ties nicely to what we were just saying about positioning your employees as thought leaders. Algorithms today are looking for authority. As the study says, if you have employees sharing two or three posts a week, and writing a few articles a month, it'll do wonders for your organization's visibility.

Got your own questions about showing up in AI search?

We can help. Start a conversation today to navigate the changing rules of search and get what you need to show up when and where it matters.