I tuned into Martin Wolf’s FT podcast this week on the Midterms. It's going to be a big week for US politics, that's for sure. But what caught my attention was the way Wolf introduced his guest, Barbara F. Walter.
Walter, a political scientist and expert on civil wars, is a worthy guest. What made my ears prick up was that he introduced her as the author of Here Be Dragons, her Substack, and referenced her posts a few times during the interview.
Why should you care in B2B comms?
Because Walter's influence comes through a Substack where she publishes directly to her audience. Wolf, the FT's chief economics commentator, picked it up. Her authority travelled across both channels (and many more). Reputation is an interconnected system of influence - of which the press is just one part.
If you're in the business of revenue, reputation and relationships (which in B2B is most of us), does your reputation strategy reflect where expertise is actually being published, and where your audience goes for perspective?
Don't get me wrong - your press list is still a valuable asset in your reputation toolkit. Major news gives you authority and credibility, whereas niche media speak directly to the questions your audience is puzzling over. But you need to now bake in individual voices - journalists with independent newsletters, technical experts with podcasts and analysts on LinkedIn. Our job in reputation building is to work out which of these voices matter to our client's business and analyse why their readers tune in and whether how our clients can deliver something of value to them.
Walter is a brilliant case study in how information and influence travels. I can't say for sure that her Substack secured the FT invitation, but it clearly hooked Martin's interest enough to be clearly referenced in the interview. She has also written that a producer from Amanpour and Company contacted her about a Substack column.
At Resonance, we use Agentcy, our platform to track influencers. Taking a look under the hood, we can see influencers across every B2B domain. Here are some examples: Alex Kantrowitz writes the Big Technology newsletter and hosts its podcast on Big Tech. Gergely Orosz publishes the viral software engineering Substack The Pragmatic Engineer and has a popular YouTube channel. Austin Lyons pairs the Chipstrat newsletter with the Semi Doped podcast. They work across channels and engage with their audience differently on each.
Some have substantial readerships. Agentcy records around 1.1 million subscribers for The Pragmatic Engineer, 262,000 for Not Boring and 150,000 for Big Technology.
It's important not to mistake numbers with influence. A semiconductor specialist with a small, knowledgeable audience could be a valuable relationship for an infrastructure business, whereas a bigger technology newsletter may be no use if its readers don't care what that business does.
At Resonance, we start with the people a business needs to influence. Who do they listen to? Where do they get their ideas? We use Agentcy to build a picture of the voices shaping a market, then work out where our clients have something useful to contribute.
Independent writers aren't another distribution list. The same principles that strong media relations is built on apply here. Read their work, learn the questions they ask with curiosity and the evidence they find persuasive. Then decide whether your business has something of value for their readers: original evidence about deployment constraints if you sell AI infrastructure, or research that challenges an accepted explanation of security behaviour if you sell cybersecurity.
A knowledgeable audience will spot a sales pitch dressed as analysis. Be clear, too, on whether you're after an editorial interview, a sponsored placement or commissioned content, because each carries different expectations and disclosure requirements.
Established media and independent publishing belong in the same reputation conversation, and businesses need to understand how they feed each other. Measure accordingly: does the resulting discussion represent the business accurately, and does it reach relevant people? Be careful about crediting revenue to a single appearance.
So for your next communications review: who is helping your future customers make up their minds, and are you contributing anything worth their attention?