Why Social Media Now Decides Which Brands Get the Meeting

Many B2B buyers aren't interested in jumping on sales calls straight away. 

Data shows 67% of B2B buyers now prefer a rep-free experience, while 45% say they used AI during a recent purchase, according to a 2026 Gartner survey of 646 buyers.

While B2B companies used to rely on sales reps to make a great first impression, there are now a range of factors that influence brand perception.

Social accounts, public comments, referrals, reviews, and AI search results all play a role before leads reach sales teams.

Now, brand perception is shaped by social accounts, public comments, referrals, reviews, and AI search results before a lead ever reaches sales.

If that research doesn’t build confidence, the buyer could move on before sales ever get a chance.

Amore Watters leads social media, paid media, monetization, podcast distribution, and revenue strategy at DesignRush, giving her a direct view of how content affects visibility, trust, and pipeline.

In episode No. 136 of the DesignRush Podcast, Watters breaks down social media’s impact on buyer research.

Plus, she explains why content needs a clear business purpose and what CEOs should focus on when measuring social media as a lever for trust and pipeline.

And she warns that many companies still treat social media as a posting function, even as buyers use public content to decide which brands deserve a closer look.

“Social media decides who gets the meeting,” Watters says.

Regarding the potential costs of missing the mark with socials, she adds:

“It is no longer about just competing with the competitor. It is about relevance.

And more importantly, we are more likely to purchase from people that we like and engage with, and if there's a relationship, the biggest cost is losing relevance.”

Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen on Spotify.

Who Is Amore Watters?

Amore Watters is the Content Marketing Director at DesignRush, overseeing revenue strategy, social media, paid media, podcast distribution, and monetization. Her background covers fintech, brokerage, trading education, paid acquisition, CRM systems, funnel strategy, and revenue operations.

At DesignRush, her work centers on building content systems that connect visibility with trust, buyer research, pipeline, and business growth.

Buyer Research Starts Before Sales

Social media is now part of how buyers assess a company before they speak with sales.

Watters says this is especially important in B2B, where long buying cycles give buyers more time to compare providers, review public content, and form an opinion before making contact.

That early research can start with a referral, a social post, a comment, a review, or an AI search.

“If somebody tells me, Amore, have you seen those skiing boots? Excellent brand. I would go have a look at their social media," Watters says.

"And secondly, I'll go to AI and say, listen, what is this brand?”

For CEOs, that means social media is often part of the buyer’s first credibility check.

A weak public presence can make a company look inactive, unclear, or less useful to the buyer. A strong one can provide proof before a meeting request is sent.

Here is a quick rundown on why B2B companies need to take social media more seriously as a potential growth lever:

6sense’s 2025 Buyer Experience Report found that 94% of buying groups ranked preferred vendors before first contact, while 77% purchased from that preliminary favorite.

Those findings point to a narrow window for companies to influence buyer confidence before seller contact begins.

This is also why Watters’ DesignRush article on LinkedIn marketing emphasizes consistent, useful posting and engagement as a way to support pipeline and partnerships over time.

Taken together, the point is clear.

Brands may be assessed long before sales know a buyer is looking.

That is where social media can either help a company earn consideration or quietly remove it from the buyer’s shortlist.

Content Without Strategy Creates Noise

Watters says one of the most common mistakes companies make is confusing social media activity with progress.

“Yes, anybody can do social media, but not everybody does it with results,” she says.

A company can publish often and still fail to help buyers understand why it should be trusted, contacted, or considered.

The issue starts when teams post without knowing who the content is for, what role it plays, or what result it should support.

“Posting is an activity in itself. Without direction, it will become like throwing spaghetti against the wall, hoping it sticks,” Watters says.

For Watters, a social media strategy starts with three questions.

• Who is the content for?
• What type of content is being created?
• What result should it produce?

The first question helps narrow the audience. Watters warns that content built for everyone often fails to reach the right people.

“Targeting many ends up targeting none,” she says.

The second question helps teams understand whether a post is meant to build awareness, show expertise, answer objections, or support consideration.

The third question ties the post back to a business result.

“What is the result that I'm looking for from this exact post or content that I'm putting out to the world, essentially?” Watters says.

Her point is practical. Posting keeps a feed active. Strategy gives each post a job.

“Posting creates noise, really, and strategy creates pipeline. And that's what a business wants is pipeline,” she says.

When teams skip that planning, social media can create activity without helping the business earn trust, contacts, or pipeline.

What Platform Planning Requires From Teams

Too often, businesses expect one person to manage every channel, content type, publishing need, and performance review.

But now, social media requires more platform-specific planning.

“Every platform has its own audience, its own algorithm, its own back end and set of functions, depending on if you're doing organic versus paid,” Watters says.

“My advice always is to start with choosing a single platform and then scaling from there onwards.”

This helps companies understand one channel properly before adding more.

A business trying to run Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook properly may need a more formal team setup, Watters explains.

“It's one strategist, one to two content creators, one video editor, one platform specialist, one analyst or a performance lead,” she says.

The lesson here is that social media output depends on the people and process behind it.

“If you don't build the system, you can't expect the result,” Watters says.

Watters makes a similar case in her DesignRush guide on social media marketing agencies, where she explains how outside partners can support strategy, content, paid media, and analytics.

A separate (but important) point is that social media cannot be treated as a miscellaneous set of posting tasks.

And so, companies need to decide which platforms matter most, who owns each part of the work, and how performance will be reviewed before expecting stronger results.

Do this, and your team (and audience) will benefit.

Why Audience Patterns Matter

Watters says companies should begin social media planning by studying where audience attention already goes.

For CEOs and marketing leaders unsure where to start, her advice is to review stronger accounts in the same category and identify the patterns behind their performance.

“Take the shortcut. Take the shortcut and don't always take the shortcut first. And don't try and reinvent the wheel,” Watters says.

Her point is about research, not imitation.

Teams can learn from the posting frequency, formats, topics, timing, and audience responses of accounts that already have strong engagement.

“What we have learned is you mimic and monitor,” she says.

Watters said that the process gives companies a starting point based on public audience behavior rather than internal preference.

“I'm not by any means saying you don't copy content, but go look at their strategy. Monitor them, mimic them,” she says.

The same section of the conversation also touched on another common issue: treating social media as product promotion.

Watters said companies often reduce their feeds to direct service posts when buyers are more likely to respond to content that helps them understand a topic, decision, or business problem.

“You cannot just push product, push product, push product. You want to provide value,” she says.

That makes the starting point more practical.

Review what audiences already respond to, build a focused content direction, and avoid making every post a sales message.

This move toward trust-led growth is further examined in this DesignRush Podcast episode:

Consistency Gives Social Data Meaning

Consistency affects posting cadence, performance review, and the quality of decisions teams make from social data.

Watters says companies often change direction before they have enough time or information to understand what is working.

“You need two things. You need the actual numbers and the stats, and more importantly, you need time,” she says.

That is why she recommends keeping a strategy steady long enough to review audience behavior with more confidence.

“I always say keep everything at least steady for 90 days. That's a good timeline,” she says.

For CEOs, the larger issue is whether social media activity can be tied back to business performance.

“If your metrics don't connect to revenue, it's just noise,” Watters says.

Companies that give social media enough time, structure, and review are in a better position to see where content is helping trust, buyer research, and pipeline.

Want to take a closer look at how social media affects buyer research before the sales process begins?

Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen on Spotify.