Hey!

Welcome to Social Files—your no-BS guide to generating demand for your B2B product using social & content.

I can’t believe we’re already through January. I’ve published 4 editions of Social Files so far—the goal is 52 this year. Thanks for following along.

Today’s is a heater.

I’m giving you 11 real examples of content plays you can use to grow your audience and get buyers via social—LinkedIn in particular.

🔎 DEEP DIVE

11 content plays every B2B startup should run

With examples & templates from top startups

It seems like every B2B founder wants to start posting content in 2025. This is great! But there’s a problem.

90% of them have no idea what to post. You might be one of them. Let’s fix that. I compiled a list of 11 winning content plays any B2B SaaS founder can run on LinkedIn.

(1) Origin Story.

This post is a consistent top-performer among our clients. And the premise is simple. Write up a post sharing the origin story of your startup.

How’d you meet your co-founder?

What was your lightbulb moment?

What problem you were trying to solve?

Ideally, you want there to be some sort of conflict in the story. The heroes in the best stories never walk from Point A to Point B without opposition. They run into obstacles. Make mistakes. Get told no. Treat your origin story the same way.

Use your origin story to reinforce why you started the company. What’s the reason for your company to exist?

A few examples:

A. I launched Bluecast, a SaaS that helps you write better LinkedIn content, faster. I built the tool because I saw how drastically content changed my life. And it was a shame that so many people were hesitant to press publish.

B. This post from Jesse Zhang, CEO at Decagon, walks through their founding story. Notice the use of the specific numbers in the hook ($100M raised) to instill social proof and stop the scroll.

C. This post from Austin Hughes, CEO at Unify, takes the angle of how he met his co-founder and why the relationship works.

D. This post from Alina Vandenberghe, CEO at Chili Piper, shares a moment from the early days when their first big contract came through.

(2) Lead magnet.

This one is a hot topic on LinkedIn right now. Some hate it. But it works. Create a valuable lead magnet and give it away via a LinkedIn post where the reader has to comment to get access.

Juices the content in the algorithm, and can get you email subs.

Here’s what you need:

1. An asset to give away. I would recommend making this some sort of “template,” “guide,” checklist” … something tangible that your ICP can use. Ask yourself: Would I pay $50 for the asset I’m giving away? If not, the resource isn’t valuable enough.

2. A way to collect emails. You can set up a simple landing page with Carrd or just drive the traffic to your newsletter. If you are running leads to your newsletter, you’ll want to set up a separate Welcome flow for this audience where you’ll deliver the lead magnet.

3. A post to distribute. Write the LinkedIn post you’ll use for the actual giveaway. In the post, make sure you have compelling visuals to help stop the scroll. Here are a few visual assets you can test. The goal if the visual is to create a curiosity gap that triggers readers to comment.

   1. GIF scrolling through the asset

   2. Video preview of the asset

   3. Screenshot of the asset

Here’s an example from Austin Hughes at Unify. He wrote a newsletter detailing the LinkedIn playbook that generated him $15M in pipeline. Then he used a lead magnet post to distribute the newsletter. A few things to call out.

Notice the levers he uses to hook the reader in. First, he creates a curiosity gap in the hook. “My growth team is starting to get mad at me for sharing this stuff...I don't care, I'm doing it anyway.” This also has a touch of Negativity Bias.

Then he transitions into social proof: “For the first time ever, I'm sharing the exact founder-led content playbook we used to power $15M in pipeline in 2024.” The specific monetary number is doing a lot of work here.

He then shares some value upfront and hints that he wrote a more detailed playbook—and hits the audience with the CTA. The only thing missing here is the media, but it doesn’t seem to have mattered. 2331 comments is absurd.

(3) Building in public.

Building in public: documenting the journey of building your company on the social timeline with transparency, to get your audience bought in on your progression and manufacture momentum.

This isn’t for everyone. But if you're selling into other founders, documenting YOUR journey as a founder is an easy way to create momentum. Share as much as you can, without it being a business risk.

This originated in the indie hacker world, but has since spread into more established SaaS companies.

Adam Robinson is the poster child for this on LinkedIn. He’s taken transparency to the extreme, sharing damn near his entire P&L on the timeline. He’s also shared the downsides of building a company—laying people off, negative Glassdoor reviews, getting a cease and desist letter from an incumbent.

The transparency is a magnet for other SaaS founders—who Adam happens to be selling into.

Tyler Denk, CEO of beehiiv, is another example of building in public done well. His newsletter, Big Desk Energy has grown to over 75,000 subscribers. In it, he documents learnings from scaling beehiiv to close to $2M MRR.

Like Adam, Tyler is selling into founders & creators, so building in public attracts a relevant audience. Tyler is also building a VC-backed company. Building in public is also helpful for create a perception of rapid growth, which is appealing to investors.

In an edition of BDE, Tyler wrote, “I’m not going to make the argument that building in public is for everyone, it’s not. But I would argue that if done well, it can be a force multiplier for a startup…We raised our $12.5M Series A in just 6 days…I receive a dozen emails every day from funds who want to invest in beehiiv”

Strong argument.

There is a bear case for building in public, however. A few downsides to consider:

• If you're not selling into founders, this strategy can attract an irrelevant audience and become a distraction. For example: if I’m selling into Heads of IT, they don’t really give a shit about my “founder life updates.”

• Building in public creates a pressure cooker. What happens if the company hits a wall? This isn’t a deal breaker—Adam has navigated these situations well—but think about it. Do you want your issues out in public?

• There’s a target on your back. Since Adam’s been building RB2B in public, he’s reported close to 40 competitors have sprung up. ZoomInfo, a multi-billion dollar company, also entered his category.

Do the tradeoffs make sense for you?

I’d recommend meeting 2 criteria:

1. Does building in public attract people who will hand over their company’s Ramp card?

2. Are you okay with the eyeballs?

If yes to both, let it rip.

[Recommended reading: read the rest of Tyler’s newsletter I linked above for a further deep dive on BIP. I also wrote this essay, “The truth about building in public,” on the pros and cons.]

(4) Credibility jacking.

This is one of my favorite plays for startups & scale-ups with little brand recognition.

Here’s how it works.

Use well-known names & companies in your category in your hook. For example, I might write a post detailing Adam Robinson ’s LinkedIn playbook. Founders might not know me, but they do know Adam. This gets them interested in the content.

Here are three real examples.

A) In this post, I did a breakdown of Ramp’s social strategy. Ramp is a household name in tech. Social strategy is in my domain. Perfect combo.

Notice how I use Ramp in the first line of the text hook and as the visual hook via the green screen effect.

I used the same ‘credibility jacking’ playbook here in this breakdown of beehiiv’s founder-led content playbook.

See how this works?

(5) Dog-fooding.

Dog-fooding, or “eating your own dog food,” refers to when companies use their own product.

This is content gold.

Can you document your use of your own product? This allows you to be your own social proof.

I mentioned Tyler Denk’s newsletter earlier. He’s grown Big Desk Energy to over 75,000 subscribers. I didn’t mention that beehiiv is a newsletter platform.

Tyler used beehiiv’s features, like Boosts, to help grow his audience. He became one of beehiiv’s own case studies.

Austin Hughes also executes dog-fooding well. Unify uses its own product to run automated outbound. The results are cracked. They turn those results into content.

Example: Unify just dropped this guide going over how they used automated outbound to generate $7M in pipeline in 2024.

Another example: in this post, Austin shares an automated outbound play that booked 89 meetings. More social proof.

I do a bit of dog-fooding myself—both for Compound (my agency) and Bluecast (my SaaS). Both companies are pitching the value of founder-led content. I’ve used founder-led content myself, scaling Compound to north of $1M last year off the back of LinkedIn. Social proof.

(6) Cast of characters.

Once you nail founder content, can you layer in more members of your team?

Michel Lieben 🧠 and the ColdIQ team are running a masterclass in this at the moment. Michel posts multiple times per week, as does his GTM team, Head of Demand Gen, and more.

The Exit Five crew is also a great reference for employee content done well.

Dave Gerhardt, E5’s founder, literally wrote the book on founder-led content. Now his entire team is active on Linkedin.

Pylon, a SaaS startup in the CX category, also has all 3 co-founders active on Linkedin.

Building a cast of characters creates omnipresence. It feels like your company is everywhere on the timeline.

Think of the companies you recognize most from social. Odds are, they have more than one team member posting.

Here’s the order of operations I would follow:

1. Get one founder active on LinkedIn. This is table stakes. If you're not doing this, you're actively choosing to miss out on revenue.

2. Once Founder 1 is ramped up, layer in all other co-founders. This will start to create your Content Ecosystem.

3. Once the entire founding team is posting 3-5x per week, get the rest of your leadership team active.

4. To round it out, encourage all team members to post. You can’t—and shouldn’t—force them. But you do want to reward the behavior. Also, don’t be scared of your team building personal brands. That’s boomer behavior. No offense.

(7) Fundraising announcement.

If you're announcing a raise in Q1, you have a massive opportunity. Nail your fundraise post. Get your team posting around it. Have follow up content lined up.

Unify did this to perfect and generated 500+ meetings of the back of their raise.

I wrote a full deep dive on that play right here. I’d recommend reading it.

(8) Trend-jacking.

A cousin of Credibility Jacking, trend-jacking is when you comment on timely news in your category.

For example, if you're in the GTM category and Gmail updates their deliverability rules, you might want to write a post about this.

Trend-jacking is probably the fastest way to speedrun audience growth. When you’re first starting to post, nobody knows who you are—nor do they care. Harsh. But am I wrong?

By leaning into popular names & events, you can insert your name into the conversation. If your take is high-quality, you earn trust. Then, people start to care what you have to say.

Here’s the three-step framework I’d use to execute on this:

A) Research. Sign up for industry newsletters. Subscribe to relevant podcasts. Follow all the relevant thought leaders and LinkedInfluencers in your category.

B) Ideate. Spend 20-30min each day staying up to date with the category conversation. I don’t need you scouring the timeline for 6 hours. You have a company to run. But keep an eye out for topics that take over the timeline. You’ll know when you see one. Remember how everyone was talking about the Barbie movie marketing? Or the Jaguar rebrand?

C) Execute. Write up a LinkedIn (or X) post about the trend. Here’s a template I’d follow:

[Hook — use the relevant name and any specific numbers you can to capture attention]

[Context — give background on the actually trend or event]

[Expert Opinion — give your opinion as someone with experience in your category]

[Conclusion — wrap it up & give a CTA to follow you ‘for more insights like this]

By the end of a trend-jacking piece, you want a cold reader to be left thinking “Damn. This guy knows his shit. I should follow.”

See how this works?

(9) ICP tech stack post.

This is a tried and true winner.

To execute: share a list of all the tools your ICP might need to do their job well.

Example: in the commerce enablement category, you’ll often see viral posts covering the ‘ideal tech stack for DTC brands.’

When you write the post, tag all of the companies you mention.

The mechanism here is that all the SaaS providers shill themselves in the comments, which drives the algorithm.

Michel Lieben, who I mentioned earlier, does a great job of this. He operates in outbound GTM, which is tech-heavy. So his ICP eats this stuff up. Here’s an example:

Of course, you’ll want to subtly—or not so subtly—plug your own product in the tech stack.

For example, I created this carousel post around the “Founder-Led Content Tech Stack.” I also launched Bluecast a few months ago, which just so happens to fit nicely into that tech stack. Perfect opportunity for an organic plug.

(10) The Google Calendar Method.

As a founder, your calendar contains all the content inspiration you need. You're always talking to customers. Talking to prospects. Talking to your team. I would hope so, at least.

The Google Calendar Method is simple: every week, once per week, review your calendar. Do any meetings stand out to you? Were there any moments that triggered a particular response?

Ideally, you want these to either be positive moments you resonated with, or negative moments that kinda pissed you off. Another variation could be moments that surprised you. You just need some sort of emotional response.

A few examples:

• A team member going above and beyond for a customer could turn into a post about how you build company culture.

• A specific objection from a prospect about price point could turn into a write-up that overcomes that objection.

• A comment from an industry peer about a trend happening in your space could turn into a predictions post.

Adam Robinson’s timeline is full of these examples. Here’s one of them that went ballistic on LinkedIn (2000+ engagements).

After you’re in the content game long enough, you start to listen for hooks in conversations.

You become a sort of alchemist who have turn fragments of insights into niche-viral LinkedIn content.

(11) IRL to URL Pipeline.

Startups that win on social to cool shit IRL then translate it to the timeline.

Usually companies will have two ‘tracks’ of content going in parallel:

• ‘Always-on’ evergreen content (these are your daily founder-led LinkedIn posts, for example)

• Dedicated campaigns (a series of content around a particular theme, launch, or activation)

IRL activations fit into that second track.

A few examples that I’ve come across in tech:

Antimetal created branded pizza boxes under the name ‘Slices as a Service’ and delivered them to startups and VCs all over New York and San Francisco.

It was impossible to miss if you spent any time at all on X. Even better, the campaign drove $1M in net new ARR.

Inspired by Antimetal’s “Slices as a Service” campaign, Unify sent out 300 branded Happy Meals to prospects in parallel with their viral Series A announcement.

That Series A announcement and the subsequent guerrilla marketing generated 500+ meetings and $2M+ in pipeline.

Takeaway.

I’ve found that a lot of being an effective marketer & content creator is having a ready-to-use bank of references.

Make it a priority to never start a post from a blank page.

These 11 content plays should fit nicely into your references folder. It’s not even an exhaustive list, by the way. I’ll likely have a part 2 (and 3….and 4) of this coming down the pipe. If you're new around here, subscribe and stick around for that.

Hope this was helpful.

🗃 FILE CABINET

Here’s my favorite marketing and business content I bookmarked this week.

• LinkedIn Is Now On ‘Easy Mode (Anyone Can Blow Up in 2025) by Tommy Clark 🎥

• You're Not Behind: Become AI-Native in 2025 by Jeff Su 🎥

Pretty light on content consumed this week. I was super head down in the agency. One of those weeks.

BEFORE YOU GO…

As always, thanks for allowing me into your email inbox every week.

More from Social Files:

• Read the rest of my essays

• Work with my agency in 2025

• Try my LinkedIn content writing SaaS

• Steal my founder-led content templates

Talk soon,

Tommy Clark