Category: News

In this blog, Natalia Kaczmarek, Digital Content Manager, discusses:

  • Why measurement should be used to refine campaigns, not simply report on them
  • How to audit current LinkedIn performance before setting targets
  • Why B2B brands need realistic KPIs that connect to PR and commercial goals

 

LinkedIn reporting is a vital part of social media management, even if opening a spreadsheet does not have quite the same creative appeal as writing the perfect post hook. It is where the work becomes measurable.

Impressions went up. Engagement rate went down. Follower growth increased. One post performed better than another.

Those numbers are useful, but they rarely tell the full story on their own. Looking at post performance in isolation will not always reveal the real health of a page, or the value it is adding to a wider PR campaign.

Across this LinkedIn blog series, we have looked at how LinkedIn helps amplify wider PR activity, how PR stories gain momentum on the platform and how regular cadence and engagement keep them travelling for stronger reputational and commercial outcomes.

This final piece in the series is all about LinkedIn measurement and why it’s so important in proving the impact of your Performance PR campaigns.

Done thoroughly, measurement should not be treated as a tick-box PDF report at the end of the month. It should be a live source of insight that guides the wider PR campaign as it happens.

Why you should audit LinkedIn performance

For busy in-house marketing teams, LinkedIn can easily become something that is managed week to week. Posts go out, activity keeps moving, and it is easy to go a long time without stepping back to ask whether the channel is still doing the job it needs to do.

LinkedIn does not stand still, because its algorithm keeps evolving. The content formats, creative assets and engagement signals that worked two years ago are unlikely to be the ones driving performance today. Socialinsider’s 2026 LinkedIn benchmarks report, for example, found that carousels are now one of the strongest-performing formats on the platform, with an average engagement rate of seven percent. This kind of shift is exactly why it’s important to take a step back and do a thorough review.

A comprehensive LinkedIn audit should look at the company page, senior leader profiles, employee activity, content themes, posting cadence, creative formats, engagement quality and audience growth, amongst other elements.

More importantly, it should ask a bigger question: does your LinkedIn presence reflect what you want to be known for?

After all, PR and social should reinforce the same reputation. If your PR strategy is built around thought leadership and sector expertise with a bold point of view, that should be visible on LinkedIn too. If it isn’t, there is a gap between the story being told through PR and the story people see when they look at your social presence.

A proper audit brings an outside view to that gap. It shows where LinkedIn can work harder, where messages need to be sharper and which formats need rethinking. Just as importantly, it gives you a baseline – a clear picture of where you are starting from, so the targets you set next actually mean something.

Setting KPIs that reflect current business goals

Too often, every campaign is judged against the same handful of metrics: impressions, reactions, comments, follower growth and clicks. Those numbers are valuable, but only when they’re tied to the role LinkedIn is supposed to play.

If the goal is awareness, reach and impressions will be important. If the goal is credibility, then engagement quality, profile visits, saves and shares will tell you more.

A post with a large number of reactions may look strong in a report, but if those reactions are coming from people outside your target audience, the value is limited. A post with fewer interactions may be more useful if it is prompting responses from senior decision-makers, journalists, partners, analysts or prospects you actually want to reach.

That is why KPIs should be built around the campaign objective, not copied across from the previous month’s report. For a research-led campaign, success might mean driving report downloads, increasing engagement around key findings and keeping the issue visible beyond launch week. For an executive visibility campaign, success might look more like profile views, relevant connection growth, comments from industry peers and stronger visibility around agreed themes.

Looking beyond your own numbers

Your LinkedIn performance needs market context too.

It is useful to know whether your impressions, engagement or follower growth are moving in the right direction, but those numbers mean more when you understand what is happening around you.

That means watching what competitors are posting, which topics they are trying to own, how visible their senior leaders are and which formats are gaining traction in the wider market. This matters particularly in B2B tech, where several brands usually compete for attention around the same themes.

If everyone is talking about the same issue in the same way, there may be an opportunity to take a sharper point of view.

Measuring the message, not just the post

In a Performance PR campaign, LinkedIn is not only there to distribute content. It can also show which messages are landing well. Rather than only asking which post performed best, look at which themes are consistently attracting the right attention:

  • Are certain campaign messages generating more comments?
  • Are some topics driving more clicks?
  • Do senior leaders get stronger engagement when they add personal context?
  • Are employees helping certain stories travel further?

 

This is where measurement earns its keep. It tells you which parts of your narrative are resonating with the people who matter and which are not – which is the difference between reporting on a campaign and steering it.

Turning LinkedIn insight into Performance PR impact

Knowing which messages land is only half the value. The other half comes from connecting LinkedIn activity to outcomes the business cares about and feeding what you learn back into the rest of the PR campaign.

On the commercial side, LinkedIn data shouldn’t sit in a silo. Tag links with UTMs so you can see the website traffic, sign-ups and enquiries LinkedIn is driving. Track whether engagement is coming from target accounts and sectors, whether profile and connection growth around your leaders is translating into relevant inbound conversations, and whether campaign moments on LinkedIn line up with peaks in pipeline activity.

None of these signals work in isolation, but together they let you connect visibility to credibility to commercial momentum – the accountability that defines Performance PR.

On the campaign side, the same insight should flow back into media relations, content, creative and paid social. If a piece of coverage is driving strong engagement, it’s worth extending it through a senior leader post or paid promotion. If a research finding is generating comments, why not try building the next media storyline around it?

LinkedIn measurement has to be a rhythm, not a one-off

If you treat LinkedIn, or any other social media channel, as an afterthought, it will simply become a place where PR content gets published once the coverage lands.

Measured properly, however, it becomes part of how PR campaigns are shaped, giving you the evidence to prove value and the insight to improve the work while there is still time to act on it.

So, start with that evidence. Audit current performance, set KPIs that match your goals, benchmark against the market and use what you learn to make better decisions.

That is how LinkedIn becomes a practical way to prove and improve the impact of Performance PR.

Want to make LinkedIn work harder as part of your PR strategy? Whiteoaks can help you audit current performance, identify where the opportunities are and build a measurement approach that connects social activity to wider campaign impact. Get in touch with our experts.

In this blog, Alex Eve, Senior Content Creator at Whiteoaks, discusses:

  • The growing role of AI in content creation
  • The continued value of human judgement and originality
  • Why authentic, distinctive content is crucial for B2B brands

 

AI-generated content has been flooding the internet since ChatGPT’s introduction in November 2022. According to figures by Graphite, the number of AI-generated articles now equals that of human-written content.

But there is a backlash brewing against AI use. A major science publishing platform, arXiv, is taking drastic steps to cut down on ‘AI slop’ by rejecting papers with AI-generated errors. Researchers will be banned from further submissions for a year if their work contains hallucinated citations: references to completely fabricated research.

More businesses are taking note of generative AI’s tendency to simply make things up. Human-led fact-checking against cited sources is therefore likely to remain a necessity in this context. SAGE Publishing has also introduced mandatory disclosure rules, where submitters must state if AI was used in writing or content generation for further evaluation. So with AI resistance growing, where does this leave the humble content writer?

Surfacing in AI-search results

Something interesting has happened in the last year or so. The 50% of AI-generated content that makes up online articles has not increased. Original creations by humans look set to hold steady moving forward.

But why has this plateau occurred? In addition to defiance in the academic world, another reason put forward by a separate Graphite study is that AI-generated content doesn’t perform well in search and answer engines. The articles that rank in Google Search are 86% human-written and 14% AI-generated.

In a strange twist of fate, the very technology that has threatened original writing is also demanding it if businesses want to have a visible presence online. To surface in AI search results, human experience, intuition, storytelling and empathy are going to continue to play a key role. AI might create a solid outline of an article, but heavy human editing is going to make it read-worthy to bots.

Common AI tells

The quality of AI-generated text has improved over the last few years, most likely due to input from humans to help train it. But there are still tells that remain. When ChatGPT was first introduced, some of its go-to phrases were “cornerstone”, “underscoring”, “navigating the complexity” and a personal favourite among the Whiteoaks content team: “beacon of light”.

Later, contrastive negation became a preferred rhetorical structure – “it’s not just X, but Y,” a form of antithesis to highlight a stark contrast between two things. ChatGPT also likes to say that a lot of stuff “matters”.

Of course, lots of stuff does matter, and terms such as “cornerstone” and the use of contrastive negation all have their place in written content when used sparingly. But when those hallmarks appear in every piece of content across the web, we lose the unique style and tone offered by individual human writers.

Everything ends up sounding the same.

In our line of work, a generic style doesn’t wash. The clients we work with have a specific tone of voice that they want to get across, and AI can’t fully replicate those nuances. Overuse of AI can also churn out the same buzzwords across different content pieces. Many solutions are efficient and scalable, but what’s the story behind those benefits?

Resonating with audiences in the B2B world

Copy-and-pasted text from generative AI platforms will do little to give tech brands and their spokespeople a distinctive voice on industry challenges and how best to solve them. Leaders are the face of a business, and their authenticity is key to building a company’s reputation with audiences.

But building that authenticity and an effective personal brand depends on content. Human writers can steer clear of the same well-worn AI phrases, capture the perspectives of thought leaders and create original and captivating copy. An integrated PR campaign can then ensure that content is repurposed for media placements, blogs and posting on both personal and corporate social channels.

Again, AI tools can really help get past a blank page when starting a new piece of content. It’s great for idea generation. But audience-facing content must be shaped and edited by a human specialist to capture the right tone of voice and context.

AI isn’t going anywhere in content creation, but neither are human writers. Speak to our experts about the value of exceptional human-crafted content.

In this blog, Whiteoaks’ Chief Client Officer, John Broy, discusses:

  • Why executive visibility plays a role in the modern buying cycle
  • How to establish and maintain credibility
  • What it takes to sustain impact

 

B2B buying cycles in the tech sector remain lengthy as more organisations take extra pains to ensure new solutions or services deliver maximum value for them while minimising risk.

This is altering the way prospects approach the buying process. In this year’s State of Business Buying Report, analysts at Forrester point out how B2B business leaders are increasingly reliant on internal and external networks of colleagues and influencers “to justify and de-risk purchasing decisions”.

A typical decision, they say, involves 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers.

Buyers start with AI but everyone trusts credible people

Although B2B buyers increasingly use generative AI as the starting point for purchasing decisions, people with relevant experience or expertise are what count for business leaders.  As Forrester says, they want validation from trusted sources.

The reality is that buyers conduct research for months before speaking to sales. Their opinions are significantly influenced by what they see and hear from their networks, their competitors and from the sources they trust in the media and on social platforms. That includes blogs and articles in authoritative publications, along with well-crafted LinkedIn posts. Speaking opportunities at industry events or forums are also very effective at sowing seeds in the minds of prospects.

Getting into the minds of buyers early on

The upshot is that there is a significant commercial advantage for B2B tech companies whose senior executives are established as respected voices in their industry. They influence buyers very early in the process of searching and researching. This has immense value in any market where many vendors are clamouring for attention.

We know, for example that 76% of B2B buyers prefer to work with vendors recommended by someone they know. More than half of B2B C-level execs spend at least an hour each week reading thought leadership content.

And 73% believe a company’s thought leadership is more trustworthy than marketing materials.

Familiarity breeds trust

Confronted by a mass of information, buyers still trust the expertise of people they recognise and respect more than anything else. When they draft a shortlist of vendors, buyers are better disposed towards companies where they already understand its thinking and approach.

A senior executive who has raised his or her profile through an executive visibility programme is likely to have influence on the mind of a buyer at these key turning points in the purchasing process.

Research, for example, finds 80% of business decision-makers prefer articles to advertisements, while 96% of B2B buyers want access to content from leading industry voices.

Using content for competitive advantage

Performance PR  is an approach that turns trust into competitive advantage through skilful creation of content for the most influential publications, or by seizing the opportunities offered at major events. An agency can revive moribund LinkedIn accounts and transform them into active tools of engagement with specific audiences.

These are platforms or forums where a senior business person can interpret industry shifts, articulate customer challenges and suggest solutions or new approaches. Insightful commentary about the near-future is always valued from senior people with a high level of credibility.

Better-informed prospects

Familiarity with the wider outlook of a business makes it easier for buyers and sales alike. The warming effect means prospects already know much more about the seller’s view. They come to meetings better informed, which saves a sales function a significant amount of time and mental energy explaining the basics.

There is likely to be a much smaller credibility gap to bridge – or even none at all.

Maintaining momentum

With the buying cycle so long, there are inevitably quiet periods which are when the ability of consistent PR activity to maintain executive visibility is highly advantageous. A consistent presence across channels maintains momentum and reduces the chances of drop-off among prospects. During any lull, the company that stays relevant is more likely to win.

The Performance PR approach to executive visibility has another important benefit. The sustained creation of content gives sales a stream of materials they can hand to prospects as conversation-starters.

Inclusion in social posts feels more natural and less like a calculated step to “check-in”.

Achieving maximum impact

As we outlined in our previous blog on executive visibility, achieving a position of influence does not happen without careful preparation and skilful execution.

PR partners need to identify the market topics and themes that most naturally interest a C-level exec or senior business leader. The flow and frequency of content should be calibrated to avoid appearing forced. It is important too that there is integration with the activities of the company’s marketing and sales initiatives to ensure each piece of content achieves maximum impact.

Visibility without fear

Executive visibility may raise fears among senior board members of becoming the pawns of their sales function. But in reality, senior executives do not need to engage in hard selling. Instead, they can play a major role shaping perceptions and winning hearts-and-minds, preparing the ground for sales to deploy its own set of skills and techniques.

Properly and thoroughly executed by an agency following the Performance PR approach, executive visibility provides significant strategic sales advantage and is so much more than a personal branding exercise.

If you are interested in using executive visibility to shorten the buying cycle and boost sales, please get in touch.

Whiteoaks’ new research of 152 senior cyber security communications professionals examines:

  • How unclear or over-confident cyber security messaging can affect buyer trust and industry credibility
  • The scale of miscommunication across cyber security marketing, PR and communications
  • Why clearer standards, accreditation and more responsible communication is needed across the sector

 

The miscommunication problem in cyber security

Cyber security is a high-stakes market where marketing communications influence how buyers understand risk, assess solutions and make decisions that affect operations, compliance, finances and reputation.

Yet the industry faces a persistent communications challenge. Solutions are complex, threats change quickly and buyers are often reliant on marketing, PR, sales and analyst messages to understand what a product or service can realistically deliver.

When those messages are unclear, over-simplified or over-confident, such as claims that imply complete protection, or present evolving capabilities in absolute terms, they can distort expectations. They create a gap between what buyers believe they are getting and what a solution can provide in practice.

The consequences of that miscommunication can be serious – from commercial and reputational damage through to misplaced confidence, internal confusion and greater scepticism towards cyber security claims.

New research of cyber marketing, PR and communications professionals

To understand the scale of the miscommunication problem across the industry, Whiteoaks commissioned independent research from Censuswide among 152 senior marketing, PR and communications professionals working in cyber security organisations.

The report examines:

  • The biggest communications challenges facing cyber security organisations
  • How widespread miscommunication is across the industry
  • The operational, commercial and reputational risks it creates
  • Whether the industry needs clearer standards or a code of practice
  • The role of responsible communications in reducing miscommunication risk

 

To add depth, senior marketing and communications leaders were also brought together for a closed, in-person roundtable. Their perspectives are included throughout the report to provide further context and interpretation.

Download the research

Key findings

  • Almost all respondents (99%) report using terms such as “secure”, “100% protection” or “fully protected”. At the same time, 89% acknowledge that this language may give the impression of complete protection.
  • Nearly one-in-three (30%) said they had been involved in producing messaging they believed included excessive, misleading or unsubstantiated claims.
  • Almost half (47%) of cyber communications professionals say their organisation has experienced commercial or reputational impact as a direct result of inaccurate or overly simplified messaging.
  • More than eight-in-ten (86%) believe the sector’s communications practitioners should achieve a cyber-related accreditation, while over nine-in-ten say the industry needs clearer communication standards or a code of practice (94%).

 

Download the full report to understand where there is miscommunication, the risks it creates and how the industry can move towards more responsible communication.

In this blog, Hayley Goff, CEO at Whiteoaks, discusses:

  • Why visibility is only the starting point to being remembered by audiences
  • Why built environment brands need proof-led messaging that goes beyond generic claims
  • How strong differentiation comes from consistent communication that links technical expertise to buyer priorities

 

Many built environment brands are investing heavily in visibility. Far fewer are giving buyers a memorable reason to choose them.

Of course, visibility has an important role to play in a market shaped by economic pressure, regulatory scrutiny, sustainability targets and long buying cycles. It’s critically important that brands remain present in the conversations their audiences care about.

But visibility alone is just the starting point. Buyers rarely choose the most visible brand. They choose the one they remember and trust when procurement decisions are made. This is especially important because the market is so crowded. More brands are competing for attention across earned and owned channels. At the same time, it feels like everyone is talking about innovation, sustainability and digital transformation. Standing out from this crowd seems very difficult.

Visibility needs direction

More content, social engagement and a greater presence at key built environment industry events are invaluable, but only when they are connected to a clear point of view. Without it, the market may be aware of an organisation, but not see any reason to use its services.

Brands must be clear on what they want to be known for, which industry issues they have expertise to talk about and crucially, how that connects to the pressure their audiences are facing.

Without these traits, PR and marketing campaigns can sleepwalk into becoming a series of disconnected outputs, rather than a sustained effort to build influence. And without influence, there is little opportunity to be meaningful in the conversations that shape commercial decisions. Distinctive positioning is what effectively ties visibility and influence together.

The role of distinctive positioning

To be distinctive in the market and ultimately shape influence, organisations must stay well clear of the same tried-and-tested messaging. Sustainability, innovation, energy efficiency and digital transformation are all important themes, but often the default line of positioning in audience-facing communications.

To build influence, brands must decide what they want to be known for and which challenges they can credibly address. What proof do they have to back up their claims and the lasting memory they want buyers to take away after interacting with content?

As an example, instead of saying “we help create sustainable buildings”, brands should show how their initiatives support sustainability. Think of examples such as lower operational cost, better retrofitting, measurable carbon reduction, improved occupant experience or stronger asset value. These points should be backed by real numbers. If smarter building controls and ventilation systems lead to, for example, a 15% reduction in operational energy use, the impact these technologies have is immediately clear.

What strong differentiation looks like

Numbers are key to building proof-led messaging that cuts through the noise, especially when reinforced by case studies and customer reference programmes.

It is important that senior leaders communicate a clear point of view on a sector challenge – something they can do without sounding salesy or too technical. Audiences can otherwise be left with plenty of information but no clear reason to care. The strongest communications strategies are unique and always make complex propositions easy to understand, connecting technical strengths to business outcomes.

Executive visibility can give a built environment business the individual human voice it needs among customers, prospects, partners, analysts and investors. And if its leaders communicate consistently across media placements, social media, website, sales content and at in-person events, that expertise becomes more relatable and memorable.

If a business can increase trust via influence, it can also more easily achieve its goals, such as a stronger share of voice or more visits to its website. A clear, measurable example of impact is a shift up the rankings of top built environment brands from unprompted consideration among potential buyers – evidence that the organisation is front-of-mind.

A clearer approach

A strong built environment brand cannot rely on being visible alone. It needs to be trusted and remembered for something specific. A business competing in this sector must never run silent when the economic weather is dubious. It must move from generic, run-of-the-mill messaging to a clearer position that reflects and amplifies its unique expertise in the market.

Visibility may get a brand into the conversation. Proof-led positioning is what keeps it there. Discover more about driving influence by getting in touch with the Whiteoaks team.

In this blog, Whiteoaks’ Digital Content Manager, Natalia Kaczmarek, discusses:

  • How to improve LinkedIn engagement and reach for B2B brands
  • How executive visibility on LinkedIn supports PR and growth
  • How to measure LinkedIn performance and content effectiveness

 

“I grew to 10k followers in 90 days. Here’s how.”

You’ve likely seen some version of that post on LinkedIn. It usually comes with a familiar set of tips: be more visible, more personal. Be more ‘human’.

And while there’s a grain of truth in all of it, it doesn’t always sit comfortably for senior leaders who are thinking more carefully about their reputation, their role and the business they represent.

This type of popular guidance is designed to drive engagement in the moment, rather than build credibility over time, or supporting wider PR and commercial goals.

But when some studies suggest organic company-page content makes up just 2% of the LinkedIn feed, compared with 59% for creator content, you know you have to do something.

So yes, ‘posting more’ or sharing more of yourself is part of the solution, but there’s more to it than that, and this is what we’ll explore here in this blog.

1. Consistency builds visibility, but that doesn’t have to mean posting daily

One of the most common pieces of advice on LinkedIn is to post every day, but in practice consistency is less about constant output and more about finding the right cadence for you and, importantly, one you can sustain without compromising the quality of your content. 

For most senior leaders, daily posting just isn’t realistic, and when it’s forced, it’s fairly obvious – rushed, repetitive or disconnected from anything meaningful, which ultimately does more harm than good.

A more effective approach is to settle into a steady rhythm. That might be two or three posts a week, or a regular pattern of considered thought leadership. What matters is that it’s consistent enough for people to start recognising your perspective, without diluting the substance behind it.

It also aligns much more closely with how LinkedIn works in practice. Regular activity gives the platform clearer signals about your relevance, creates more opportunities for engagement and, over time, allows your reach to build cumulatively. 

So how does this connect with your wider PR activity? If you have a LinkedIn presence, it means you’re already going to be visible when a piece of coverage lands, giving your story more context and staying power. Your story or post won’t suddenly feel out of place but a natural extension of conversations you’re already having. Instead of a one-off spike, it becomes part of a broader, more credible narrative.

If you’re posting regularly, you’re also more likely to maintain momentum when campaign noise isn’t as loud. 

Where it often goes wrong is when people overcommit to posting on LinkedIn at the beginning, only to fall silent a few weeks later. Those bursts of activity followed by long gaps make it difficult to build any real momentum or familiarity with your audience.

2. Reach is driven by engagement 

It’s easy to assume posting regularly is the main driver, but really it’s only one part. What really expands your reach is how people engage with your content.

When your followers engage, whether through comments, reactions or shares, your post moves beyond your immediate circle and into theirs. The more meaningful the engagement, the more LinkedIn interprets your content as relevant and the wider it’s distributed. 

Recent LinkedIn analysis suggests a typical post reaches just 2-6% of followers in its initial distribution, while the platform increasingly pushes content to non-followers based on topic relevance. 

As you plan, consider the kind of posts that invite responses. What sparks conversation? What makes people want to add their perspective? Think of it as building a two-way interaction, rather than simply deciding what you want to broadcast. Because posting alone is not enough. LinkedIn no longer relies mainly on your follower base to decide who sees your content. It tests relevance first, so your content needs to feel relevant to the audiences you want to reach if you want the platform to keep distributing it further.

3. Employee advocacy works best when it’s built on perspective

At one end of the spectrum, some organisations don’t activate their people at all. Their LinkedIn presence sits almost entirely at brand level, which limits how far their content can travel and how it’s received, especially as organic reach for LinkedIn pages has declined.

At the other, employee advocacy is treated as simple amplification. Posts are reshared, sometimes word for word, across multiple profiles. While that might increase surface-level visibility, it doesn’t create meaningful engagement as it can feel repetitive and therefore easier to ignore.

Effective employee advocacy is about giving people the space and direction to share their own perspective. That means encouraging individuals to talk about the themes that matter to the business, but through the lens of their own experience, expertise and point of view. By all means give employees clear themes and direction, but don’t give them a script. 

Employee posts should add depth, context and personality to your organisation. People find it much easier to respond when it’s coming from a person, not being pushed out by a brand.

From a PR perspective, advocacy is particularly valuable. Instead of a single brand voice pushing out a message, you have multiple credible voices reinforcing it in different ways. That gives your activity more reach, more depth and more opportunity to resonate with different audiences.

4. Overuse of AI is flattening performance

AI has made it much easier to produce content at scale, and while we’re not against AI per se, it does become an issue when it starts to replace thinking rather than support it. As more people rely on it in the same way, LinkedIn’s content has started to feel very uniform. 

The same tones, formats and language patterns appear again and again, and when everything starts to sound the same, people stop paying attention.

It applies to engagement too; when comments are uniformly AI generated they don’t move the conversation forward, and they don’t signal meaningful engagement either. And this is so important because LinkedIn rewards relevance and interaction. So if content feels indistinct, it’s less likely to prompt a response. And without that response, it becomes much harder for it to travel beyond your immediate network.

Content that does perform well draws on specific experiences, clear examples and a defined point of view. It might include data or insight that’s either backed by evidence or comes from first-hand experience. It also needs to sound like it could only come from you. If a post could be written by anyone, it’s unlikely to perform meaningfully.

Measuring engagement and consistency on LinkedIn

Visible metrics such as likes, impressions and follower growth are easy to track, and do have value. They give you a sense of activity and reach at a surface level.

However, if you’re investing in consistent posting and building engagement, it’s just as important to take a qualitative view as well. 

For instance, study which topics are consistently prompting responses. What formats tend to hold attention and sustain reach? Who is engaging, and how often, and with what? It’s the patterns over time that matter, and when you post consistently long enough to see those patterns emerge, it enables you to measure it properly, and refine your approach.

Without that, it’s very difficult to assess and even less to build on.

This is also where LinkedIn starts to connect more clearly to PR-driven commercial outcomes. Look at how consistent visibility and engagement, driven by PR stories and content, are contributing to stronger inbound interest, more relevant conversations and, ultimately, opportunities that can be traced back to your activity.

Track which types of posts or content pillars are prompting discussion, whether certain individuals are helping to extend the reach of a topic and which themes are attracting engagement from your target audience. You might also look at whether media coverage, campaign moments or thought leadership pieces are generating follow-on engagement on LinkedIn, or whether specific formats are consistently driving responses.

This is the third blog in our “Turn Up the Volume” series, where we’ve been exploring how LinkedIn can be used to amplify B2B tech PR. We’ve already looked at how momentum builds and how PR stories travel, as well as the role LinkedIn plays as an amplifier. 

If you’re looking to turn LinkedIn activity into something commercially meaningful, our Executive Visibility Programme helps your leaders build a strong personal presence without adding to their workload, while reinforcing the PR you’re already doing. Get in touch to start building visibility which delivers more than just engagement.

In this blog, Whiteoaks’ Finance Director, Adam George, discusses:

  • Why clear financial communication helps agencies make stronger commercial decisions
  • How finance leaders turn data into insight that supports growth
  • Why comms skills are just as important as technical finance expertise

 

In PR, storytelling is everything. Agencies pride themselves on crafting compelling narratives that explain complex technical concepts, influence perception, shape reputations and drive action.

Yet when it comes to their own financial performance, many agencies still rely on spreadsheets and manually produced, data-heavy reports that fail to tell a meaningful story. This is where the role of the Finance Director must evolve from being solely a number-cruncher to a narrative-builder.

What is financial storytelling?

Financial storytelling is the ability to translate complex financial data into clear, relevant insights that people across the business can understand and act on.

For PR agencies, that matters because financial performance is never just about the numbers themselves. It is about what those numbers reveal about the health of the business, the pressures it is facing and the decisions leadership teams need to make next.

At its best, financial storytelling gives context to performance. It helps people understand not only what has changed, but also why it has changed and what that means in practical terms.

Why communication is vital in finance

At its core, PR is about communication. Agencies spend their days helping clients articulate the value of messaging and PR campaigns, as well as the impact they have on their target audiences and the wider market. The same principles apply internally. Financial information lands far better when it is presented in a way that connects directly to the day-to-day reality of the business.

A set of figures on revenue, profitability or utilisation may be accurate, but accuracy alone is not enough. People – especially non-financial stakeholders – need to clearly understand what sits behind those figures and what actions might follow.

From reporting numbers to explaining them

A Finance Director who can communicate numbers effectively brings that extra layer of understanding. Modern finance tools can generate real-time data and visual dashboards, but without interpretation, data remains just data. Instead of presenting statistics, a finance leader should provide context. Instead of focusing solely on what happened, they explain why it happened and, crucially, what should happen next.

Consider utilisation rates, a key metric in PR agencies. A report may show a decline across a quarter. A finance leader with storytelling capability will go further, linking that decline to specific client losses, account performance or staff availability. More importantly, they will frame the implication, showing how it impacts client delivery, present options for growth and client margins and propose a clear course of action.

Helping the wider business engage with finance

This kind of narrative-driven finance function enables better decision-making across the agency. Account Directors, for example, are more likely to engage with financial data when it is presented in a way that connects directly to their day-to-day responsibilities. When they understand not just the numbers but also the story behind them, they can take greater ownership of performance.

That is particularly important in employee-owned businesses, where success is shared more directly across the organisation. In that kind of model, commercial performance is not something that sits only with the leadership team or finance function. Everyone has a stake in the health of the business, so helping people understand how performance is tracking, what is influencing it and where they can make a difference becomes even more valuable.

Building a more commercially aware culture

There is also a cultural impact. Agencies often operate with a creative-commercial tension: balancing great work with commercial discipline. A Finance Director who communicates effectively helps bridge that gap. By framing financial data in relatable terms, they make it less intimidating and more collaborative. Finance becomes a partner to the business, not a policing function.

This is particularly important in times of economic uncertainty. When budgets tighten and clients scrutinise spend, agencies must be sharper than ever in how they manage resources and demonstrate value. Financial storytelling allows leadership teams to align quickly, prioritise effectively and communicate confidence, both internally and externally.

What agencies should look for in a Finance Director

Hiring for this capability requires a shift in mindset. Agencies should look beyond traditional finance credentials and prioritise communication skills, commercial awareness and the ability to influence stakeholders. The best Finance Directors in this space are those who can sit comfortably in both worlds: fluent in numbers, but equally fluent in the language of the business.

That has an impact beyond the agency itself as better financial communication supports better decisions on resourcing, investment and client delivery, helping agencies stay consistent, responsive and commercially strong for the organisations they work with.

If your business is thinking differently about profitability or financial leadership, get in touch with our team to discuss how stronger commercial communication can support better decision-making.

In this blog, Hugh Cadman, Interim Head of Content, discusses:

  • The growth of AI search online and the impact on B2B tech brands
  • Why press releases are now doubly effective at hooking attention
  • The new AI visibility metrics to be aware of

 

The press release – the cleverly-crafted copy that announces anything from a new product or service to research findings – is it still relevant in the era of AI search?

Unequivocally, the answer is yes. AI-powered search is transforming the effectiveness of the press release for brands seeking greater visibility because it hooks in readers and algorithms alike.

A good release grabs the attention of human audiences when they visit a website or read it in a publication. But what doubles is potency, especially in B2B tech PR, is that its format is ideally suited to AI models during a search engine’s retrieval and ranking process.

Many AI search models like press releases

That’s true for searches in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews. The latter are the AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results. Nobody can ignore the scale of AI search now.

ChatGPT has 700 million weekly users, while more than 2bn people engage with Google AI Overviews each month and Microsoft Copilot has 33m active users.

You might think that reliance on AI-generated summaries will reduce the impact of press releases. But releases follow a defined structure that signals reliability and makes it easier for AI to parse and understand. For a company wanting to boost its profile, this is a major benefit, helping its content and its name stand out when users ask AI-powered questions.

Google’s AI, for example, analyses content in the same way as traditional searches, following the E-E-A-T model (Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust) which determines so much of the way brands or businesses are recognised online.

Visibility goes one way – upwards!

A business that publishes a release on its website and distributes the content through a network like PR Newswire, as well as relevant trade media titles, expands the content’s visibility by many factors because of its ability to feature in traditional search and AI-powered results.

A release that is linked to by other reputable sources also does more than drive traffic to a website – it helps validate authority – which is vital for brand elevation. High-quality backlinks bolster overall SEO performance and boost visibility, and they also increase the likelihood that your brand appears in AI-assisted results where provenance and credibility signals matter.

Making press releases even more visible

In Performance PR campaigns, there are other ways of enhancing the attractiveness of press releases to AI that go beyond adding bullet points at the top. The inclusion of multi-media elements such as video helps AI interpret content more effectively, for example.

And journalists have caught up – 1 in 3 explicitly want multimedia elements from PR teams, with more than half more likely to pursue a pitch if it includes visual assets with your story.

Reputable research is a mainstay of B2B tech PR and a release that provides reliable and original new data obviously adds credibility to a story and provides evidence audiences seek. But authoritative data also attracts AI, helping engines rank content more effectively. Therefore, when planning your next research project, it’s important to think about the media headlines from the very start.

New measurements of success

After a release has been distributed to media outlets, published on a company’s own website in line with GEO best practice, or disseminated through a commercial network, platforms such as Google News or Discover may highlight it as a featured result.

Yet in this new world of AI search, traditional metrics such as click-through rates and simple measurement of website traffic are no longer the primary indicators of success. A growing share of visibility now happens without a page visit. Buyers are discovering brands through summaries, citations and third-party references long before they arrive on a website.

That means measurement needs to broaden. Alongside coverage volume and quality, PR teams are increasingly tracking indicators such as share of voice on priority topics, the frequency and prominence of brand mentions across authoritative sources, and backlink quality. They are also interested in branded search demand over time, and whether the brand is cited in AI-generated answers for the kinds of category questions that influence early-stage shortlists.

Just as importantly, teams need to track the accuracy of how the brand is described, not only how often it appears.

This is where press releases play a bigger role than announcement mechanics. They help establish, and reinforce, the narrative a brand wants to own, so that when a company is cited, its story is interpreted in the right way and includes the key messages that matter most to the business. Consistency across releases, coverage, and owned content increases the chance that AI systems and human readers connect the brand with what it wants to be known for.

You need a steady flow of content including press releases

AI search engines are constantly evolving and can integrate new content and rank it within hours, underlining the need for regularly updated or fresh content. On a website this dictates the need for a steady flow of well-written pieces that meet the evolving requirements of AI search while hitting the mark with audiences reading them directly.

In a B2B tech organisation, the capacity to maintain that pace is often constrained by time, competing priorities and the reality that not everything warrants a press release. The goal is not a constant stream of announcements. It is a consistent flow of credible content, supported by media coverage. This gives search engines and AI systems enough high-quality signals to understand the market you operate in, the problems you solve and the proof that supports your claims.

These are all areas that Performance PR partners in the B2B tech sector can take care of, ensuring content is regular, relevant and optimised for AI search. With AI-powered search so rampant, the right partnerships and proactiveness from your PR team are essential.

If you need expert content and media support to meet the new requirements of AI-powered search, contact the team today.

In this blog, Maddy Birtles, Senior Account Director at Whiteoaks, considers:

  • Why PR is essential to sustaining success after an M&A deal
  • The dangers faced by merged or acquired businesses without consistent comms
  • The M&A advantages of preparation and experience in B2B tech PR

 

When a business completes an acquisition, it’s easy to assume the story ends with the announcement – but that’s a mistake. PR momentum after an acquisition is just as critical as before. An acquisition marks the start of an important new chapter, and it’s a crucial moment to ramp up communications, not slow them down.

In the B2B tech sector, acquisitions are an important way to access innovation, develop new partnerships and scale rapidly. But once the deal is announced, the market immediately begins asking questions – and this creates a window of opportunity to shape the narrative.

The post-acquisition moment is when a business lays out its vision and increases visibility for its people, products and services. It is the time to explain what the acquisition means for customers, investors and employees.

In the critical period after the announcement, companies should actively step forward with consistent thought leadership and profiling to solidify its leadership position and clearly communicate the identity of the expanded organisation. It’s not enough to be part of the conversation, a business must lead it, emphasising how the expanded company now has something new and even more effective to offer.

Doing nothing leaves a gap that competitors are quick to fill. Their narratives, unchallenged, will amplify and ultimately dominate share of voice. A cloud of uncertainty can then quickly gather around the newly-acquired or merged business.

Everyone wants accurate information

Right after an acquisition, of course, PR activity must reassure customers and buyers about product roadmaps, support-continuity, pricing and contract terms. When communication is limited or unclear, concern can quickly turn into frustration, particularly if stakeholders are unsure whom to contact to manage their account or address urgent issues.

Whether they’re a customer, employee or investor, everyone wants clarity about the timelines for handovers, service alterations or restructuring of organisational departments and territories. Something as routine as a change in invoicing can start the rumour mill going about bigger changes coming down the line.

If there are changes – anything from product rebranding to headcount reductions – the failure to communicate properly with the wider market could impact confidence. It is vital that investors do not perceive a lack of strategy, or that unanswered concerns leave partners asking themselves if they should scale back their relationship.

Internally, employees concerned about what the acquisition means for them could easily become demotivated and start looking for new jobs. As much as anyone, they need to know the vision.

Competitors will sense an opportunity

When a company goes quiet after an acquisition, competitors rarely do the same. A communications vacuum gives them space to reinforce their own position and leadership while you are absent from the conversation. They can reassure the market, emphasise their stability and present themselves as the safer choice while customers and partners are still trying to understand what the acquisition means.

In that environment, it becomes much easier for competitors to shape the narrative around your business. They may imply that support is uncertain, that price increases are likely, or that products are heading for the sunset. Even vague suggestions can be enough to create doubt in the minds of customers who are already unsure about the future.

Sales teams for the merged business may suddenly find they are constantly having to debunk rumours and re-establish credibility. A reputation for reliability and excellence built up over years can be impacted quickly.

The advantages of a trusted comms partner in M&A

If, however, an acquisition is supported from the outset by continuing communications from a B2B tech PR partner, all these pitfalls are avoided. Preparation and experience are everything. Senior leaders from the acquirer can rely on a Performance PR specialist to draft a coherent communications strategy that covers every aspect and possible consequence of their transaction. It will be in full alignment with the leadership’s long-term aims.

Experience of M&A activity makes it easier to integrate brand narratives and craft messaging that reassures customers, partners and investors.

An integrated campaign ensures the new business explains its strategy coherently across all channels including a programme of well-timed news releases in the right publications, social media to dispel gossip and briefings with the right journalists.

Communications will also address the information requirements of employees and partners – whether through tailored email campaigns or FAQ documents to help maintain morale and strengthen commercial relationships at a time of uncertainty.

A sustained, longer-term programme of articles, blogs and interviews in targeted publications, forums and broadcast media then builds on these foundations and leaves no room for doubt about the company’s progress and its leaders’ plans.

The continuing alignment of comms and business strategies after acquisition

This coherent communications strategy will ensure the new business is fully visible, well-understood and generates confidence in suppliers, customers and partners. Competitors will be far less likely to think they are being offered a big open-goal to aim at.

The key message is that the acquisition story doesn’t end with the deal – that’s when it really begins. Performance PR is what ensures the market understands the value, vision and purpose behind it, and is ready for exciting new developments in products, services and people.

If you are involved in an acquisition, or have just completed one, and need help with your PR strategy, get in touch with our experts to discuss your requirements.

 

In this blog, Richard Peters, Senior Content Creator at Whiteoaks, explores:

  • How to identify the right PR partner for your cyber security business
  • What a successful PR strategy should deliver
  • How to avoid misleading claims and manage risks in a heavily-scrutinised industry

 

Choosing the right PR partner is one of the most important decisions a cyber security business can make. You’re not just looking for coverage – you’re seeking a trusted partner who can help elevate your reputation, drive credibility through thought leadership and ultimately contribute to your bottom line.

In a market where vendor claims are challenged and miscommunication carries real consequences, your PR partners need to help you communicate responsibly and stay accurate under scrutiny.

But with so many agencies claiming cyber expertise, how do you ensure you’re choosing the right one?

Building trust in a high-stakes industry

Cyber security buyers do not reward vague promises. They reward evidence and clear language that reflects the reality of risk. That’s because they are not buying a product or a solution in isolation. They are buying confidence that your cyber business understands the threat landscape, communicates honestly about limitations and will stand up to scrutiny when it matters.

After all, the reputational stakes are high. In fact, recent research from Towergate Insurance shows that organisations are more concerned about reputational damage than any other outcome of a cyber incident, with 53% of respondents saying it was their greatest concern in the event of a cyber-attack.

That reality creates a unique set of communications challenges for your cyber security businesses. You need to stand out in a crowded market, but every message you put into the world can be questioned by journalists, buyers, analysts, partners or even legal teams, so precision and integrity are non-negotiable.

A strategic thought leadership programme is therefore vital, as trust is built through consistent, expert-driven insights. Those insights need to be grounded in narratives your business has earned the credibility to lead. The right PR partner will help you define the messages you can credibly own, based on your technical strengths, experience, customer context and the proof points you can stand behind.

Just as importantly, a PR partner will help you set boundaries on what you can say confidently and what should be avoided entirely because it creates the wrong impression. That discipline is what makes thought leadership effective in cyber. Choosing a PR agency, then, is not simply about finding a supplier of press releases. It is about finding experts that can help you build credibility and foster trust to drive long-term business growth.

Start with outcomes, not outputs

The quickest way for PR to miss the mark is when the brief focuses on activity rather than outcomes. “More coverage” is an output; a stronger brief defines what you want to change in the market over the next six to 12 months, and beyond, and what needs to be true for buyers to view you differently.

For one cyber security business, it might be recognition in a priority sector such as financial services or Critical National Infrastructure. For another, it could be shifting the brand perception from “tool provider” to “trusted partner”, making it easier to win longer-term managed services conversations.

A good PR partner will push for this clarity early. They will help you set outcomes that are realistic, measurable and tied to reputation and commercial goals.

This is where Performance PR approach can help. It focuses on setting clear, measurable targets from the start, then aligns activity to those outcomes. By tracking performance with transparency, you can assess whether PR efforts are truly driving change.

For example, our work with Bridewell and Red Helix shows how a sustained, integrated approach – combining research-led campaigns, thought leadership and media profiling – can drive long-term visibility and build trust with target audiences.

Look for an integrated programme, backed by accountability

In cyber PR, success rarely comes from isolated activities. A strong media coverage in a relevant industry publication should feed content, and content should strengthen social media and executive visibility. When these elements work together, they create a cohesive narrative that builds trust over time.

Integrated PR, combined with transparent measurement, allows you to track how your messaging is resonating with your audience. It demonstrates how research, thought leadership, and strategic profiling elevate brand awareness and deliver measurable business impact.

Choosing well means choosing credibility

The right PR partner will help your business stand out for all the right reasons – building trust through consistent thought leadership and measuring the impact of your efforts. It’s less about buying one-off outputs and more about positioning your business for long-term success in a competitive market.

If you’re reviewing agencies now, explore how an integrated Performance PR programme works for cyber security businesses on our cyber security PR services page, and see how our sustained, integrated approach can help you create measurable outcomes.