B2B social media is not a supporting act. Throughout each sector of the worldwide financial system, the practitioners who do it effectively are shaping how organizations construct belief, thought management, and pipeline. The B2B Social’s Rising 30 Class of 2026 was created to seek out them, acknowledge them, and put their work in entrance of the viewers it deserves.
From tons of of eligible nominees submitted by the B2B social neighborhood, 30 standout social media leaders have been chosen who’re elevating the bar for what B2B social media can appear to be. They work throughout various industries, from funding banking and industrial manufacturing to corporations starting from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 enterprises. What connects them isn’t the dimensions of their following or the dimensions of their funds. It’s the standard of their pondering, their creativity, the consistency of their work, and the real communities they’ve constructed round it.
B2B social has a recognition downside. It’s one of the crucial undervalued capabilities in fashionable advertising and marketing, and the individuals doing it finest are hardly ever credited by the broader enterprise neighborhood that advantages most from their work. The Rising 30 is a deliberate try to vary that. It’s not a reputation contest. It’s not a buyer checklist. It’s a nomination-driven effort to floor the practitioners, thinkers, and builders doing essentially the most purposeful, credible work within the discipline, wherever they work, in no matter sector, at no matter scale.
Each particular person on this checklist earned their place. Right here they’re, in alphabetical order, the B2B Social’s Rising 30 Class of 2026.
What we observed from this 12 months’s nominations
Our nominees instructed us extra in regards to the state of B2B social media than we will match right into a single checklist. Here’s what the Rising 30 Class of 2026 nominations revealed. These have been the patterns that formed the Rising 30 Class of 2026 choice.
Monetary providers is displaying up within the Rising 30 Class of 2026. For years, the B2B social dialog was dominated by SaaS and tech. This 12 months’s nominations instructed a unique story. Entrepreneurs from world funding banks, fintech corporations, {and professional} providers corporations made a compelling case that working inside a regulated atmosphere will not be a purpose to provide much less attention-grabbing social content material. If something, working inside these constraints has produced a number of the most artistic approaches we noticed.
Worker advocacy is turning into a self-discipline, not a function. A number of nominees have been acknowledged particularly for his or her work constructing employee advocacy programs, not simply their private content material. The nominations described practitioners who had stood up packages from scratch, activated tons of or 1000’s of workers, and measured the outcomes with the identical rigor you’ll count on from a requirement era workforce. That tells us the dialog round worker advocacy has matured considerably.
Conventional industries are catching up quick. Vitality, industrial manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare expertise have been all represented within the nominations, and the standard of the work was aggressive with something we noticed from the tech sector. Advertising professionals in these environments face actual constraints round model requirements and communications governance, and those nominated for the Rising 30 have discovered methods to construct authority and neighborhood inside them. That may be a more durable temporary than it seems.
B2B social has gone world. The practitioners who made this 12 months’s checklist work in Sweden, France, Israel, Australia, the UK, and throughout the USA. What stands out is how a lot the work varies by market. Totally different regulatory environments and content material cultures are producing genuinely completely different approaches to B2B social, and that selection reveals up within the Rising 30 Class of 2026.
Expertise is accumulating. A few of the most compelling nominations described practitioners who’ve been doing this work for a decade or extra, quietly constructing packages, audiences, and organizational functionality that didn’t exist once they began. A occupation that after struggled to clarify its worth is now producing individuals who can show it. The Rising 30 Class of 2026 is the clearest proof of that shift we’ve seen.
Meet the B2B Social’s Rising 30 2026
The Rising 30 Class of 2026 spans 14 industries and 4 continents. Each particular person right here was nominated by the B2B social neighborhood and chosen on the standard of their work alone.
Alex Noble just lately joined IFS from Finastra and brings with him a transparent playbook for enterprise software program social, academic, constant, and constructed for the platform somewhat than tailored from different channels. His method has earned him the sort of LinkedIn following that different B2B practitioners actively reference, which is a unique sign than simply rising a quantity. At IFS, he’s making use of that playbook to one of the crucial established names in enterprise ERP.
Connect with Alex on LinkedIn (3,651 LinkedIn followers)
Alexandra Wittmann is a senior advertising and marketing voice at Celonis, one of many enterprise software program market’s most distinguished corporations, and he or she has constructed a private model that stands out in a class that hardly ever produces memorable social content material. Her method combines actual strategic pondering with an authenticity that resonates, making course of intelligence really feel related and price following, which is a more durable content material downside than it seems in a class the place most LinkedIn accounts default to function bulletins and product information.
Connect with Alexandra on LinkedIn
Anna Laura McGranahan is understood in the neighborhood as “Social Media Supervisor Barbie.” She brings an power and strategic intuition that the majority practitioners spend years growing. She joined Aptean in July 2025 and inside her first month had launched a model new employee advocacy program that activated over 700 workers and delivered $250K in earned media worth. The velocity and high quality of that execution is outstanding, and it isn’t a one-off. Her private model within the B2B social neighborhood displays the identical mixture of strategic pondering and quick execution that defines her work.
Brandon Linn has been constructing one thing actual at HiBob, a LinkedIn presence at HiBob that punches above the corporate’s model recognition. Over 5,000 followers monitor his takes on HR tech and folks operations, not as a result of HiBob instructed them to, however as a result of Brandon has a voice that’s price following independently of the model he represents. In an area the place private and firm accounts typically really feel interchangeable, that distinction issues.
Connect with Brandon on LinkedIn (5,302 LinkedIn followers)
Brian Giesen has constructed an genuine private model inside Macquarie Group, one of many world’s largest funding banks, and finished it with out making the content material really feel prefer it handed via 4 compliance layers first. With over 4,300 followers and engagement that holds, he’s discovered the voice that works: credible sufficient to mirror the establishment, human sufficient to make individuals wish to observe it. In a sector the place most practitioners don’t attempt, that mixture is price recognizing.
Connect with Brian on LinkedIn (4,309 LinkedIn followers)
Brianna Young is the Social Media Lead for EY Americas Consulting, which implies she is doing one of many more durable jobs in B2B social, making enterprise thought management really feel actual and price partaking with at scale. She’s developed an method to government content material that’s platform-native and genuinely readable, which places EY’s social in a unique tier from most Huge 4 accounts. Making enterprise thought management really feel earned takes a particular sort of editorial intuition, and he or she has it.
Connect with Brianna on LinkedIn
Caleb Tolin has constructed a LinkedIn presence within the cybersecurity advertising and marketing house that different practitioners reference and take note of. His content material cuts via a class that focuses on noise, he writes about cybersecurity advertising and marketing in a approach that different practitioners within the house actively observe and reference, which is a unique normal than simply constructing a following. With over 4,500 followers at Rubrik, one of many high-growth names in safety, his viewers is there as a result of the content material takes positions which might be price partaking with.
Connect with Caleb on LinkedIn (4,578 LinkedIn followers)
Christina Noel constructed MEDITECH’s social media presence from the bottom up almost 15 years in the past, and has stayed at its helm ever since. What she has constructed displays the sort of long-game pondering that’s uncommon within the discipline, over 65,000 LinkedIn followers, a 38% click on charge and 41% engagement charge on her best-performing content material, and a 2024 Swaay Well being Award for Greatest Use of Social Media that makes it official. She’s not only a social media supervisor; she is a practitioner who educates, leads, and units the benchmark for what healthcare expertise social can appear to be.
Connect with Christina on LinkedIn
Dave Marsh holds a title you hardly ever see in social media: Head of Social Media Insights and Governance at HSBC. It’s a job that sits on the intersection of technique, measurement, and institutional danger. He’s constructed a private following of over 5,000 engaged individuals whereas navigating it, and finished so with content material that feels human somewhat than compliance-processed. In a financial institution the place each submit will get reviewed, discovering the voice that works takes a unique sort of craft.
Connect with Dave on LinkedIn (5,137 LinkedIn followers)
Elior Doani has spent near a decade on the crossroads of social media and cybersecurity, particularly, defending manufacturers from the threats that stay on the platforms practitioners use daily. At Spikerz, that perspective offers him a lens virtually nobody else within the B2B social neighborhood has: he covers the dangers and realities of social at a platform stage. With over 6,000 followers and content material that pulls on that experience instantly, he covers territory others don’t know to cowl.
Connect with Elior on LinkedIn (6,059 LinkedIn followers)
Erica Noonan has constructed one thing uncommon in healthcare expertise, a social presence in healthcare expertise that feels nothing like the remainder of the class. Healthcare SaaS tends to provide content material that’s protected, scientific, and forgettable. Erica’s doesn’t. She writes with specificity and heat about work that issues, and the engagement displays a neighborhood that trusts her judgement. She’s one of many clearest examples of what the healthcare expertise house seems like when somebody decides to really attempt.
Connect with Erica on LinkedIn
Fran Riley is bringing fashionable social media pondering to an business that has been slower to embrace it. At Baker Hughes, one of many world’s largest power corporations, she leads world worker and government advocacy packages which might be altering what B2B social seems like in conventional industrial sectors. Her work is a blueprint that different practitioners in related environments wish to observe.
Connect with Fran on LinkedIn (5,242 LinkedIn followers)
Francis McCarthy has constructed a exact and purposeful B2B advertising and marketing voice at SafetyCulture, an organization engaged on one thing that genuinely issues, making workplaces safer. He made a deliberate transfer from a premium model to SafetyCulture and used the transition to construct one thing extra distinctly his personal. His private model displays the corporate’s mission, that workplaces may be safer and higher, with out feeling like model copy. With almost 4,700 followers and a content material cadence constructed for the lengthy sport, he’s established SafetyCulture as a voice price following in an area that doesn’t produce many.
Connect with Francis on LinkedIn (4,687 LinkedIn followers)
Gil Ben-Porat was the most-nominated particular person in the complete nomination pool, and whenever you have a look at what he has constructed at AU10TIX, the reason being apparent. He takes advanced subjects within the id and safety house, fraud prevention, deepfakes, the true mechanics of digital id, and makes them really feel human, accessible, and price partaking with. His neighborhood is energetic as a result of he creates two-way conversations, not broadcasts. He was nominated by practitioners from throughout the B2B social neighborhood, which is essentially the most significant sign on any checklist like this.
Connect with Gil on LinkedIn (10,761 LinkedIn followers)
Jamil Zakaria brings a depth of expertise that’s genuinely uncommon within the B2B social house. He’s spent over 15 years constructing social media technique inside world skilled providers, the sort of atmosphere the place “long-term pondering” isn’t a phrase individuals use calmly. Now at Oliver Wyman, one of many world’s most revered administration consultancies, his content material displays what social seems like when the establishment behind it has actual mental authority and the practitioner is aware of how you can use it. Shut to five,000 followers have discovered that price following.
Connect with Jamil on LinkedIn (4,978 LinkedIn followers)
Jelena Burcer has one of many strongest follower counts on the B2B Social’s Rising 30 2026 checklist, over 20,000 LinkedIn followers, and earns engagement to match. Extra importantly, she’s finished one thing that the majority B2B social practitioners aspire to however hardly ever obtain: she turned Semrush’s social presence from a broadcast channel into an actual neighborhood. That takes a essentially completely different method to content material, engagement, and viewers pondering, and he or she has mastered it.
Connect with Jelena on LinkedIn (20,091 LinkedIn followers)
Johannah Cantwell is constructing one thing price following at Klaxoon, a French firm reshaping how groups collaborate and work. Her content material earns engagement as a result of she understands what her neighborhood desires earlier than they know they need it, a readability of objective that’s more durable to develop than it seems. She’s proof that a number of the most attention-grabbing B2B social pondering within the collaboration software program house is going on in Europe.
Connect with Johannah on LinkedIn (4,716 LinkedIn followers)
Jon Stona has constructed almost 11,000 LinkedIn followers at Airwallex, one of many world’s fastest-growing fintech unicorns. What’s notable isn’t simply the quantity, it’s what he does with the platform. His content material takes on the true complexity of world funds and cross-border fintech with out dropping the viewers, which is a writing downside most practitioners in that house haven’t solved. His neighborhood is engaged as a result of the pondering behind the content material is forward of the place the dialog often is.
Connect with Jon on LinkedIn (10,987 LinkedIn followers)
Karl Reynolds is tackling a quick that the majority B2B social practitioners by no means face: how do you construct social media and worker advocacy packages inside a worldwide industrial producer the place the communications tradition was constructed for commerce reveals, not timelines? At BEUMER Group, he’s doing it, and doing it in a approach that different practitioners in conventional manufacturing are beginning to concentrate to. That’s a unique sort of proof of idea.
Connect with Karl on LinkedIn (4,341 LinkedIn followers)
Lisa Vecchio has constructed over 7,000 LinkedIn followers on the energy of a voice that stands out in B2B social: straight-talking, trustworthy, and virtually helpful. Her content material cuts via as a result of it doesn’t repeat what everybody else is already saying. At VEED, she represents a video creation product that has constructed its personal robust model, and her private presence displays the identical readability and confidence. Her viewers grows as a result of what she shares is price coming again for.
Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn (7,165 LinkedIn followers)
Milena Farber is constructing a model from the bottom up at Guardz, an SMB cybersecurity startup, and doing it with a social-first method that’s trustworthy in regards to the realities of that journey. She paperwork the true work of constructing an organization’s social presence somewhat than presenting a cultured completed product, and that honesty is what’s pushed her to over 11,000 LinkedIn followers. In a class stuffed with safety distributors making an attempt to look greater than they’re, a practitioner who reveals the work builds extra belief than one who hides it.
Connect with Milena on LinkedIn (11,852 LinkedIn followers)
Natalie Stenge has cracked one of many hardest issues in B2B social: she makes individuals chuckle. The checklist of people that have truly pulled it off in B2B is brief. Her voice is distinctive, her humor is intentional and earns real engagement, and it’s at all times paired with actual experience. In an area that takes itself far too significantly, the mix of sensible and humorous seems to be a remarkably efficient method. Her 5,000-plus followers are there as a result of she earned each considered one of them.
Connect with Natalie on LinkedIn (5,315 LinkedIn followers)
Nathan Allebach is among the most acknowledged names in B2B social media. From the Steak-Umm account to Ramp, he’s constantly confirmed that B2B manufacturers can have an actual, distinctive voice, and he’s been doing it lengthy sufficient that his work has develop into a reference level for the business. With over 15,000 followers and a physique of labor that practitioners worldwide research and reference, his place on this checklist displays the real influence he has had on the occupation.
Connect with Nathan on LinkedIn (15,241 LinkedIn followers)
Phoebe Hayles doesn’t simply discuss genuine B2B social content material, she builds the infrastructure that makes it occur. At 3 Sided Dice, she runs the Worker Generated Content material program after first constructing her personal robust private model. Her method works as a result of she constructed her personal private model first, she’s working the EGC program as somebody who understands from the within why individuals do and don’t submit. That practitioner’s credibility is what separates her program from those that launch with fanfare and wrestle to maintain participation.
Connect with Phoebe on LinkedIn
Roy Sexton is the CMO at Vedder Worth, a regulation agency, and he’s doing issues with B2B social that shopper manufacturers would have a look at with real respect. His LinkedIn presence is daring, constant, and human. He’s a SocialMedia.org board member, a acknowledged voice within the occupation, and a practitioner who has spent years proving that skilled providers doesn’t must be invisible or boring on social. He’s a pioneer within the truest sense, and the B2B social neighborhood is aware of it.
Samuel Bibby is making social media work inside Latham and Watkins, one of many world’s largest regulation corporations by income, and never a pure residence for social-first pondering. He’s constructed a constant private model in an establishment the place most practitioners don’t get began in any respect. That he’s doing it with a voice that stands other than the agency’s formal register makes it extra spectacular than the follower rely suggests.
Connect with Samuel on LinkedIn
Sanchi Aneja has constructed over 7,600 LinkedIn followers inside HPE, a Fortune 500 expertise firm, and that viewers is there as a result of what she shares is constantly price their time. Constructing private fairness inside a big enterprise takes conviction and a readability of voice that the majority practitioners inside large manufacturers wrestle to keep up. Her neighborhood retains rising as a result of the content material displays actual experience in cloud, AI infrastructure, and the go-to-market realities of enterprise expertise, not simply because it’s effectively packaged.
Connect with Sanchi on LinkedIn (7,663 LinkedIn followers)
Sarah Hankins has finished one thing that most individuals in skilled providers haven’t discovered how you can do: she has made CBIZ compelling on LinkedIn. She’s constructed an engaged following by committing to a real viewpoint, writing with the sort of specificity that makes readers really feel like they’re getting one thing actual, not a model replace. In a class the place most accounts mix collectively, hers doesn’t.
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn
Solveig Rundquist is making doc expertise really feel attention-grabbing and price following, a problem most individuals wouldn’t even try. At Enigio, a Swedish firm working in a distinct segment nook of commerce finance, she’s constructed a voice that stands out as a result of the class doesn’t produce many prefer it. With over 4,400 LinkedIn followers and an method that makes advanced commerce finance ideas really feel price understanding, she’s proof that a number of the most artistic B2B social pondering is going on in markets that hardly ever get talked about within the dialog.
Connect with Solveig on LinkedIn (4,427 LinkedIn followers)
Stef Garraffa produces content material at Cisco that feels human, which is more durable than it sounds whenever you’re working inside one of many world’s most scrutinized enterprise manufacturers. At that scale, most social content material will get smoothed into one thing technically right however editorially impartial. Stef’s doesn’t. Her neighborhood of almost 4,600 followers has grown as a result of she’s discovered a strategy to preserve the artistic edge that giant manufacturers often take away.
Connect with Stef on LinkedIn (4,599 LinkedIn followers)
What the B2B Social’s Rising 30 Class of 2026 tells us about B2B social
Taken collectively, the B2B Social’s Rising 30 Class of 2026 says one thing significant about the place B2B social is heading. Just a few themes emerged clearly.
Social is turning into a strategic perform. The entrepreneurs on this checklist aren’t managing channels. They’re constructing organizational capabilities, seated in technique conversations, advising executives, and measuring influence in ways in which join on to business outcomes. That shift, from social media supervisor to social enterprise strategist, is seen throughout virtually each profile on this checklist.
Worker advocacy goes mainstream. A number of winners have constructed packages that activate tons of or 1000’s of workers and measure outcomes in earned media worth and pipeline affect. What was as soon as a expertise firm experiment is now spreading into monetary providers, power, manufacturing, {and professional} providers, from LinkedIn thought leadership to full-scale multi-channel packages, and several other of essentially the most compelling packages on this checklist have been constructed with nothing greater than a transparent temporary and organizational buy-in.
Credibility is the one foreign money that compounds. The professionals who constructed essentially the most engaged, loyal communities on this checklist did it the identical approach: sharing real experience, constantly, over time. Not by optimizing for the algorithm. Not by chasing attain. The result’s an viewers that trusts them, and belief is the one asset in social that compounds somewhat than decays.
The most effective B2B social pondering is world. The Class of 2026 contains practitioners on 4 continents, working in markets with essentially completely different communication cultures and regulatory environments. They figured it out anyway. The approaches that work in monetary providers within the UK look completely different from what works in industrial manufacturing in Germany or fintech in Australia, and understanding these variations is a part of what makes this checklist extra attention-grabbing than a US-first one.
Conventional industries are producing the following era of leaders. Advertising professionals working in monetary providers, regulation, manufacturing, power, and healthcare face a number of the hardest briefs in B2B social, and several other of essentially the most spectacular nominations got here from precisely these environments. As these sectors proceed to modernize, the practitioners who’ve already solved the issue would be the individuals everybody else seems to. A number of of them are within the Class of 2026.
Congratulations to the B2B Social’s Rising 30 Class of 2026
To each winner: you have been chosen by identify, not by algorithm. The B2B social neighborhood nominated you, and our judging workforce reviewed tons of of eligible candidates. What you’ve constructed is price recognizing, and we’re proud to do it publicly.
To everybody who submitted a nomination: thanks. The standard of the nominations made our selections more durable, which is strictly correctly. We’ll do that once more in 2027. Maintain constructing, preserve posting, and preserve elevating the bar.
The B2B Social’s Rising 30 is produced by Oktopost, the B2B social media administration platform constructed for enterprise advertising and marketing groups. Oktopost helps groups run employee advocacy programs at scale, handle social throughout channels, and join each submit to pipeline. Explore the platform.
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