To find B2B content creators, influencers and keynote speakers is paramount lately. After all, leading companies have spent years trying to answer a deceptively difficult question: How do we get the right people to pay attention to us?

If you think about it, when they find B2B content creators, it’s to solve that fundamental challenge. Think about it. Advertising can buy attention. Salespeople can pursue prospects. PR can generate coverage. Events can put executives in a room.

But there is another increasingly important way to reach business buyers: When firms find B2B content creators.

These are the people producing the podcasts, LinkedIn posts, YouTube videos, newsletters, articles, research, commentary, interviews, tutorials and social content that business professionals actually consume.

They may be marketers, founders, executives, consultants, analysts, engineers, investors, salespeople, journalists, educators, operators or independent creators.

And they don’t all look like traditional influencers.

That is precisely why a find B2B content creators effort can be so complicated.

The best thought leader for a cybersecurity company might have 15,000 highly relevant followers. The best creator for an enterprise software company might be a respected CTO who rarely calls himself an influencer. A SaaS marketing company might find more value in a creator with a 50,000-person newsletter than someone with 500,000 social followers.

The objective is therefore not to find the biggest creator.

It is to find the right creator.

This guide explains how.

What is a B2B content creator?

A B2B content creator is an individual who consistently produces content that reaches, educates, influences or connects with business audiences.

Their content may focus on:

• Marketing

• Sales

• Technology

• Artificial intelligence

• Cybersecurity

• Finance

• Human resources

• Leadership

• Entrepreneurship

• Operations

• Procurement

• Manufacturing

• Professional services

• Software

• Data

• Product management

• Customer experience

• Industry-specific subjects

Some creators make money directly from their content.

Others use content to build their professional reputation or generate business for their company.

That distinction matters.

A creator doesn’t need to be a full-time influencer to be commercially valuable.

A CEO with 30,000 followers, a respected analyst with a 10,000-person newsletter and a software engineer with a popular YouTube channel can all be B2B creators.

LinkedIn itself describes B2B creators as industry leaders, subject-matter experts and trusted voices who can help build buyer confidence. Its research indicates that creator content increasingly affects B2B buying behavior.

Why B2B creators matter

B2B purchasing is increasingly a research exercise before it becomes a sales conversation.

Potential buyers read posts, watch videos, listen to podcasts, ask peers for recommendations, search for experts and follow people who understand their problems.

That means a creator can influence a purchase long before a salesperson ever contacts the buyer.

LinkedIn’s 2025 research reported that 82% of B2B buyers said creator content influences their decisions, while 59% said they discover new brands through creator content.

The important point is that creators can influence more than awareness.

Their content can help buyers:

• Discover a company

• Understand a problem

• Evaluate competing approaches

• Learn how a product works

• Validate a purchasing decision

• Justify a purchase internally

• Decide which vendors deserve consideration

• Introduce a vendor to colleagues

• Start a conversation with sales

In other words, B2B creators can function as a form of modern word-of-mouth.

Where to find B2B creators

There is no single database containing every worthwhile B2B creator.

The best discovery strategy combines several sources.

1. LinkedIn

Start here.

LinkedIn is arguably the most obvious hunting ground for B2B creators because professional identity and professional content are built into the platform.

Search for people discussing the exact problems your customers care about.

Don’t just search for:

B2B marketing creators

Search for:

cybersecurity CISO

RevOps

enterprise procurement

AI infrastructure

CFO technology

sales enablement

supply chain

data engineering

healthcare IT

DevOps

HR technology

industrial automation

The narrower the problem, the more useful the search can become.

LinkedIn also has a Creator Marketplace inside Campaign Manager that allows eligible advertisers to discover creators based on expertise, content, audience and performance information. LinkedIn says its marketplace is designed to help brands find credible creators and evaluate audience and performance fit.

For advertisers, Creator Marketplace can also be used to discover public posts for Thought Leader Ads and request permission from creators to promote their content.

Best for: executives, consultants, marketers, founders, industry experts and professional thought leaders.

2. YouTube

Don’t overlook YouTube simply because it is associated with consumer creators.

There are enormous B2B audiences watching videos about software, technology, investing, engineering, business strategy, sales, marketing and professional skills.

Search for the problem rather than the product.

Instead of searching for:

CRM software

try:

CRM implementation

CRM comparison

sales operations

enterprise CRM strategy

sales forecasting

You’ll find people who are already educating the audience you want.

Pay particular attention to creators whose videos generate substantial discussion.

A creator with 20,000 subscribers and an audience of practitioners may be considerably more valuable than a general business channel with millions of subscribers.

Best for: technology, software, education, engineering, finance, business strategy and demonstrations.

3. Podcasts

Podcasts are one of the richest sources of B2B creators because many influential professionals don’t describe themselves as influencers.

They may think of themselves as:

• Hosts

• Analysts

• Executives

• Journalists

• Researchers

• Consultants

• Authors

• Founders

Search podcast directories and podcast platforms for shows covering your market.

Then don’t just look at the host.

Look at the guests.

A podcast host might interview 50–100 experts every year. Those guests can become an outstanding creator prospecting list.

One of the simplest creator-discovery strategies is therefore:

Find the podcasts your customers listen to, then map the people who appear on them.

4. Newsletters and Substack

Newsletters can be especially valuable for B2B because they create a direct relationship between the creator and the audience.

A newsletter with 20,000 subscribers may have a more commercially useful audience than a social account with several hundred thousand followers.

Look for newsletters covering:

• Industry analysis

• Technology

• AI

• Finance

• Marketing

• Sales

• Startups

• Management

• Enterprise technology

• Investing

• Specific professional communities

The key question is not simply how many subscribers the newsletter has.

Ask:

Who are the subscribers?

5. Industry communities

Many of the best B2B creators are hiding inside communities.

Look at:

• Professional associations

• Slack communities

• Reddit communities

• Discord groups

• Industry forums

• Private newsletters

• Conference communities

• LinkedIn groups

• Specialized online communities

Pay attention to the people who repeatedly answer questions.

The person writing the best answer to a difficult question may be a better creator prospect than someone with a huge public following.

Why?

Because expertise is often visible before influence is.

6. Conferences and events

Conference speaker lists are another excellent creator database.

Find the major events in your industry.

Look at:

• Keynote speakers

• Panelists

• Workshop leaders

• Moderators

• Analysts

• Authors

• Executives

• Researchers

Then look them up online.

Many conference speakers are already creating content, and others have the credibility and expertise needed to become strong creator partners.

A person who regularly speaks to your target audience has already demonstrated one important characteristic:

They know how to communicate with that audience.

7. Competitor research

Your competitors have already done some of the work for you.

Find the companies in your category that are active in creator marketing.

Then ask:

• Who are they partnering with?

• Who talks about them?

• Who mentions their products?

• Which creators appear in their campaigns?

• Which creators interview their executives?

• Which creators review their products?

• Which creators attend their events?

• Which creators consistently discuss their category?

This is particularly useful because it identifies creators who are already interested in your market.

It also creates a useful warning list.

If a creator has an exclusive relationship with a competitor, they may not be available—or may not be the right partner.

8. Creator discovery platforms

Specialized creator platforms can dramatically reduce manual research.

For example, Favikon positions its B2B creator platform around finding creators across LinkedIn, X, YouTube and Substack, with filters for niches, audience size, engagement and posting activity. It also offers content-based search rather than relying exclusively on follower counts.

That distinction is important.

Searching by content can be more powerful than searching by category.

Instead of saying:

Find me marketing influencers.

You can search for people who are actually publishing about the specific subject your buyers care about.

Creator databases can be especially useful once you move from finding five creators to finding 50 or 500.

Don’t search for “influencers”

This is one of the biggest mistakes companies make.

If you search only for influencers, you’ll probably find people who already identify as influencers.

That can exclude some of the most valuable B2B voices.

Instead, search for:

Experts

Practitioners

Operators

Executives

Founders

Analysts

Consultants

Authors

Researchers

Educators

Journalists

Community leaders

Hosts

Speakers

Industry commentators

The B2B creator universe is much larger than the traditional influencer universe.

Build a B2B creator map

Before searching for individuals, define the ecosystem.

Imagine your company sells cybersecurity software.

Your creator map might include:

Security executives

CISOs and security leaders.

Security practitioners

Engineers and security professionals.

Analysts

People who analyze cybersecurity markets.

Educators

People teaching security concepts.

Journalists

Reporters covering cyber threats.

Researchers

People producing original security research.

Founders

Cybersecurity entrepreneurs.

Consultants

Advisers helping companies manage security.

Technology creators

Creators covering enterprise technology.

Business creators

People discussing risk, technology and leadership.

This prevents your creator search from becoming too narrow.

Find creators by buyer

One of the best methods is to work backward from the buying committee.

Suppose you sell enterprise AI infrastructure.

Your buying committee might include:

• CIO

• CTO

• Chief Data Officer

• VP Engineering

• AI/ML leader

• Security leader

• Procurement

• Finance

• Developers

Now find creators trusted by each group.

You may discover that the “best AI creator” isn’t necessarily the best creator for your campaign.

The better question is:

Which creators does each member of the buying committee trust?

The 10-question creator test

Once you’ve found a potential creator, evaluate them using these questions.

1. Do they reach the right people?

This is the most important question.

Don’t confuse audience size with audience quality.

2. Do they understand the subject?

Look at their last 20–30 pieces of content.

Do they demonstrate genuine knowledge?

3. Are they consistent?

A creator who posted 50 times last year and disappeared six months ago may not be a good partner.

4. Do people actually engage?

Look at comments, replies and discussions.

5. Are the comments from the right people?

This is crucial.

A thousand generic comments are less valuable than 50 comments from CIOs, CTOs, founders or practitioners.

6. Do they have a point of view?

The strongest B2B creators generally stand for something.

They have opinions.

They disagree.

They explain.

They challenge conventional wisdom.

Generic content is easy to ignore.

Distinctive expertise is harder to replace.

7. Do they create original content?

Someone who mostly reposts corporate announcements isn’t necessarily a creator.

Look for original analysis, stories, examples, frameworks, opinions, research and experiences.

8. Do they have credibility?

Look at their background.

Have they actually worked in the industry?

Have they built something?

Do they have relevant customers?

Have they published research?

Have they held relevant positions?

9. Have they worked with competitors?

This doesn’t automatically disqualify them.

But you need to understand conflicts, exclusivity and audience saturation.

10. Would your customer trust them?

This is the final test.

If the answer is no, follower count doesn’t matter.

Don’t use follower count as your primary filter

Follower count is easy to measure.

That’s why companies overuse it.

But it is a poor proxy for B2B influence.

Consider two hypothetical creators.

Creator A

500,000 followers

General business content

High entertainment value

Few decision-makers in the audience

Creator B

18,000 followers

Specialized enterprise technology content

Audience includes CIOs, CTOs and architects

Strong comments from practitioners

High credibility

For an enterprise technology company, Creator B could easily be the more valuable partner.

The right metric is closer to:

Relevant reach × credibility × engagement × buyer influence

rather than:

Followers = value

Look at the audience, not just the creator

This is where professional creator research becomes important.

For every candidate, try to answer:

Who follows this person?

Who comments?

Who shares their content?

What jobs do those people have?

What companies do they work for?

What industries are represented?

Are they geographically relevant?

Are they senior enough to matter?

A creator’s audience is effectively their distribution network.

You are evaluating the network, not merely the individual.

Analyze the last 20 posts

Don’t evaluate someone based on their profile page.

Read their recent content.

Create a simple spreadsheet with columns for:

Twenty posts will tell you considerably more than a follower number.

Find the “boring” creators

This sounds counterintuitive, but it can be one of the best strategies in B2B.

Look for creators talking about subjects that don’t sound glamorous.

Examples:

• Procurement

• ERP

• Compliance

• Data governance

• Industrial automation

• Supply chain

• DevOps

• Network infrastructure

• Enterprise architecture

• Manufacturing

• Logistics

• Revenue operations

These subjects may have smaller audiences.

But those audiences can contain exactly the people who buy expensive products.

B2B influence is often hidden in specialized communities.

Look for practitioners

One of the most powerful creator categories is the practitioner.

A practitioner is someone who actually does the work.

A cybersecurity engineer.

A VP of Sales.

A demand-generation leader.

A procurement executive.

A software architect.

A CFO.

A data scientist.

These people can have extraordinary credibility because their content comes from lived experience.

They can say:

Here’s what actually happened when we implemented this.

That can be much more persuasive than polished corporate messaging.

Look for creators with a point of view

A B2B creator shouldn’t simply repeat your marketing copy.

That’s a waste of the creator’s value.

The strongest creators bring something the company doesn’t have:

an independent perspective.

They might disagree with your industry.

They might challenge your assumptions.

They might explain your product in a way your marketing department never considered.

They might tell a story about a customer problem.

That independence is part of what makes creator marketing work.

LinkedIn’s own guidance emphasizes giving creators context and goals without scripting their content; the creator’s authentic voice is part of the value.

Create three creator tiers

Once you’ve researched potential partners, divide them into three groups.

Tier 1: Industry authorities

These are highly credible, established voices.

They may have:

• Large audiences

• Major industry reputations

• Books

• Speaking careers

• Executive experience

• Research credentials

• Significant media platforms

They can be difficult and expensive to work with.

But their credibility can be enormous.

Tier 2: Established creators

These creators have strong audiences and consistent content.

They may not be famous outside their industry.

This is often the sweet spot for B2B campaigns.

Tier 3: Emerging experts

These people may have smaller audiences but excellent expertise.

They can be particularly valuable because:

• They are often more accessible.

• They may be less expensive.

• They may have stronger engagement.

• Their audiences may be highly specialized.

• They may be growing quickly.

Don’t build your entire program around Tier 1.

Some of your best partners may be Tier 3.

Build a creator shortlist

A useful initial shortlist might contain 25–50 people.

Then rank them.

For example:

Notice what is missing from the top of the list:

Follower count.

Reach matters.

But it shouldn’t dominate the decision.

Examples of B2B creators to study

The following aren’t necessarily recommendations for every campaign. They illustrate the range of people who can operate as B2B creators.

Dave Gerhardt

Gerhardt is a useful example of the creator-entrepreneur model in B2B marketing. He built Exit Five into a B2B marketing media and community business while developing a substantial LinkedIn audience. His content spans B2B marketing, media, community and entrepreneurship.

Devin Reed

Reed is an example of a B2B creator whose content is closely tied to professional expertise. His LinkedIn profile describes his focus as helping B2B SaaS marketers build trust, and his recent content covers B2B marketing, creator partnerships and LinkedIn.

Sangram Vajre

Vajre represents the B2B founder/executive/content model, with content around go-to-market strategy, account-based marketing and entrepreneurship. His LinkedIn profile currently describes his work at GTM Partners and his GTM OS research audience.

Chris Walker

Walker is an example of a founder whose business expertise and content became closely intertwined. He built Refine Labs around B2B demand generation and later exited the company; his current work has shifted beyond Refine Labs.

These examples demonstrate why a B2B creator list shouldn’t simply be called an “influencer list.”

They represent different models:

Creator → media company

Creator → professional educator

Founder → thought leader

Founder → creator → new company

How to discover creators like the ones you already know

Once you’ve found one excellent creator, don’t stop.

Use that creator as a starting point.

Look at:

• Who they follow

• Who comments on their posts

• Who they interview

• Who interviews them

• Who appears on their podcast

• Who they recommend

• Who they collaborate with

• Who writes about the same subject

• Who shares their content

• Who attends the same events

This creates a creator graph.

One excellent creator can lead you to dozens of others.

Creator platforms can also use lookalike functionality to identify creators similar to one you’ve already found. Favikon, for example, specifically promotes creator lookalikes as part of its B2B discovery workflow.

Search by content, not just people

This is one of the most powerful discovery techniques.

Instead of asking:

Who are the top cybersecurity creators?

Ask:

Who is publishing the best content about ransomware?

Or:

Who is explaining AI governance?

Or:

Who is talking about enterprise AI agents?

Or:

Who is discussing cloud security for financial services?

Now you’re searching for actual expertise.

That can surface people you would never find through a generic influencer ranking.

Use comments as a discovery engine

Comments are often overlooked.

Find a strong B2B post.

Then inspect the comments.

Who is contributing useful information?

Who is disagreeing intelligently?

Who has relevant experience?

Who is repeatedly mentioned by other professionals?

Those people may be creators themselves—or future creators.

Comments can reveal influence that follower counts don’t capture.

Find creators inside your own customer base

This may be the most overlooked strategy of all.

Look at your existing customers.

Which customers:

• Post regularly?

• Have strong professional networks?

• Speak at conferences?

• Host podcasts?

• Write newsletters?

• Create videos?

• Participate in industry communities?

• Have interesting stories?

• Are respected by peers?

Your customers already understand your product.

They understand the problem.

They understand the buyer.

And they have firsthand experience with your company.

Some of your best creator relationships may already exist inside your customer base.

Turn employees into creator partners

Employees can also become B2B creators.

Engineers can explain technology.

Salespeople can discuss customer problems.

Product managers can explain product decisions.

Executives can discuss strategy.

Researchers can publish insights.

Employees often possess knowledge that a corporate marketing team cannot manufacture.

The company should establish appropriate policies around confidentiality, intellectual property and brand representation, but employee creators can become a powerful source of authentic expertise.

The creator outreach mistake

Once you’ve found someone, don’t immediately send:

Hi, we’d love to partner with you. Here are our rates and campaign requirements…

That’s backwards.

Start with their work.

Tell them specifically what you liked.

Explain why their audience matters.

Then describe the problem you’re trying to solve.

Most importantly:

Don’t treat the creator like an advertising placement.

You’re hiring expertise and distribution.

Not simply buying impressions.

What to offer creators

Different creators want different things.

Possible partnerships include:

• Sponsored content

• Podcast sponsorships

• Product reviews

• Interviews

• Research partnerships

• Webinars

• Events

• Speaking engagements

• Advisory relationships

• Affiliate partnerships

• Co-created reports

• Customer stories

• Product collaborations

• Long-term ambassador programs

• Thought Leader Ads

• Content licensing

A good creator relationship may eventually become much larger than a single sponsored post.

Measure the right things

The easiest metrics to measure aren’t always the most useful.

Don’t stop at:

Views

Likes

Followers

Instead measure:

Relevant reach

Engagement quality

Website traffic

Branded search

Content engagement

Leads

Pipeline influence

Sales conversations

Customer acquisition

Brand lift

Audience growth

Share of voice

And, where possible, identify whether the creator is reaching the actual people involved in purchasing your product.

LinkedIn’s B2B creator guidance specifically recommends looking beyond impressions and considering how creator content contributes to engagement and sales conversations across the buyer journey.

The B2B creator scorecard

Before hiring someone, give every candidate a score from 1–5 on:

Then calculate the total.

This forces the team to explain why someone is valuable rather than simply saying:

“They have a lot of followers.”

Red flags to watch for

Be careful with creators who:

• Have huge follower counts but little engagement

• Have suspiciously repetitive comments

• Talk about everything and nothing

• Constantly promote competing products

• Have no obvious expertise

• Publish mostly recycled content

• Change niches every few months

• Make unsubstantiated business claims

• Have an audience unrelated to your buyers

• Are difficult to identify outside a single platform

• Have poor disclosure practices

• Are unwilling to disclose commercial relationships

Also watch for creators whose audience is largely other creators.

A creator can be extremely popular among marketers while having little influence over the buyers you actually care about.

The most important rule

Don’t ask, “Who is the biggest B2B creator?”

Ask:

Who has earned the trust of the people we want to reach?

That question changes the entire discovery process.

You stop looking for celebrity.

You start looking for expertise.

You stop optimizing for followers.

You start optimizing for buyer relevance.

You stop buying posts.

You start building relationships.

And you stop thinking about B2B creators as another advertising channel.

You start treating them as a combination of:

media + expertise + distribution + community + trust.

The B2B creator discovery workflow

If you need to find creators quickly, use this process.

Step 1: Define your buyer

Who are you trying to reach?

Step 2: Define the problems

What subjects does that buyer care about?

Step 3: Map the creator ecosystem

Identify experts, practitioners, analysts, founders, executives, educators, journalists and community leaders.

Step 4: Search across platforms

Start with LinkedIn, then expand to YouTube, podcasts, newsletters, communities and creator databases.

Step 5: Find 25–50 candidates

Don’t make a decision after finding the first five.

Step 6: Analyze their content

Read or watch their recent work.

Step 7: Analyze their audience

Determine who actually engages.

Step 8: Check credibility

Understand their professional background and expertise.

Step 9: Check conflicts

Look at competitors, sponsorships and existing partnerships.

Step 10: Rank them

Use a standardized scorecard.

Step 11: Start with a small partnership

Test the relationship before committing to a large campaign.

Step 12: Measure business impact

Look beyond reach to engagement, pipeline and sales influence.

The future of B2B creator discovery

Finding B2B creators is becoming less about manually scrolling through social networks and more about creator intelligence.

Platforms are increasingly making it possible to search creators by content, expertise, audience and performance rather than simply by follower count.

LinkedIn’s expansion of Creator Marketplace in 2026 is one example of this shift. The company says the marketplace is designed to bring creator discovery, insights and partnership tools into one place.

Specialized platforms are moving in the same direction, using large-scale content analysis to identify creators based on what they actually publish.

AI will make this process even more sophisticated.

Eventually, a marketer should be able to describe an audience in natural language:

“Find me 50 creators who influence CIOs at mid-market financial institutions, regularly discuss AI infrastructure and cybersecurity, have highly engaged audiences, and haven’t worked with our three biggest competitors.”

That is much more useful than:

“Find me influencers with more than 100,000 followers.”

Because B2B creator marketing isn’t really about finding people who are famous.

It’s about finding people who are trusted.

The ultimate B2B creator checklist

Before you contact a creator, ask:

Audience

• Are they reaching our buyers?

• Is their audience relevant?

• Is their audience senior enough?

Expertise

• Do they understand our industry?

• Do they have firsthand experience?

• Do they have something original to say?

Content

• Do they publish consistently?

• Is the content genuinely useful?

• Do people engage meaningfully?

Influence

• Do people ask for their opinions?

• Do other experts interact with them?

• Do buyers trust them?

Business

• Have they worked with competitors?

• Are they commercially available?

• Are their rates and expectations realistic?

Brand

• Would our customers respect this person?

• Does their point of view fit our company?

• Can they talk about our product naturally?

Measurement

• Can we measure their impact?

• Can we track traffic, engagement or pipeline?

• Do we have a clear reason for working with them?

If the answer to most of these questions is yes, you may have found a strong B2B creator.

The bottom line

The B2B creator market is much bigger than the list of people who call themselves influencers.

The real opportunity is to find the people your buyers already listen to.

That means looking beyond follower counts and searching for practitioners, experts, founders, executives, analysts, educators, journalists, podcasters, newsletter writers and community leaders.

The best creator might have 1 million followers.

Or 10,000.

Or 1,000.

What matters is whether those people include the customers you want.

The winning B2B creator strategy therefore starts with the buyer, not the influencer.

Find the audience.

Find who the audience trusts.

Find who consistently earns that trust through useful content.

Then build the relationship.

That’s how you find B2B content creators who can actually matter to a business.