Matt Swain

LinkedIn for Founders & Execs

I’ve built my career as a creator, thought-leader, author and entrepreneur who helps executives and founders evolve their online presence into genuine influence. I’ve had the privilege of working with global icons such as Wim Hof, Steven Bartlett and Arthur Brooks, and collaborated directly with LinkedIn to shape the conversation around digital content, executive-led brands and how social influence can drive commercial growth.

At the start of 2024, I founded Triangle Branding, an exclusive B2B thought leadership agency built for category-leading founders and CEOs who want to turn their ideas into influence. We help them build human-led digital reputations by using their own personal voice to drive commercial impact through LinkedIn-first content, strategic storytelling and demand-generation systems. 

Over the last 18 months, we’ve helped clients raise over $100M, land deals with companies such as Sony, Nvidia and Virgin, had 100 million eyeballs on clients’ content and generate meaningful inbound opportunities by building executive-led brands that people trust.

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We've generated 1,000,000+ views in the first 6 months with four C-Suite Execs at a 150M ARR leading B2B SaaS platform. 

We've generated 5,000,000 impressions and 40,000 engagements on a leading Harvard professor - with them becoming a LinkedIn Top Voice.

We've helped an energy leader book qualified conversations with SVP's at Walgreens, Starbucks, Mars, GSK and Lidl. 

We've helped agency owners generate organic engagement & MQLs from leaders at THG, Uber, Heineken, Estée Lauder, Samsung, Lavazza, L'Oréal, Tony's Chocolonely and more. 


www.triangle-branding.com

Founder of SOCIAL CLUB

Founder and Manager of SOCIAL CLUB - an exclusive social media community where members manage over 328 million followers. 

If you're an influencer or brand who wants to connect please get in touch. 
If you're interested in investing/sponsoring/collaborating please email on matt@mattswain.co.uk

I was invited by LinkedIn to attend B2Believe, and the message was clear:

B2B is shifting faster than most teams realise. Creativity, buyer confidence, and human connection are becoming the new growth levers.

Here are my 7 core takeaways (share & save this!) 

1. Creativity is becoming the language of B2B

Creative that grabs and holds attention multiplies leads by 3x. But while 92% say consistent creative matters – only 12% deliver it. 

49% B2B decision-makers say they’re more likely to explore a company if its advertising is creative

40% B2B decision-makers say they’d be more likely to consider a purchase if the ad is seen as “creative”


2. Millennials + Gen Z now make up 71% of B2B buyers 

You need to engage them differently – they respond to: Cultural references; human stories; faces, not logos. 

87% of B2B buyers now prefer content from trusted industry influencers over brand-authored content.


3. Buyability: the new model for growth

B2B buying is slow because buyers don’t feel safe with 64% of marketers saying decisions now take longer. 

The top job-to-be-done is: “Can I defend this decision if it goes wrong?”

Buyers don’t need more information — they need more confidence.


4. Your network is a marketing asset — not a distribution channel

When employees from your target accounts follow your company, you generate 2.4x more leads.

And when senior decision-makers at those target accounts are connected to your employees, that jumps to 2.2x more leads.

You are more than 20x more likely to be bought when everyone in the Buyer Group knows you on Day One. Build brand, trust & authority with the right people. 


5. Video is non-negotiable

Jonathon Palmer said it well: Sound, movement, and visual cues trigger far stronger memory formation than static content ever can.

It generates 1.4x more engagement, meaning more people stop, watch, and interact.

And most importantly: viewers retain 95% of the message when it’s delivered via video.

+20% more leads are driven with video

Attention is scarce and recall is even scarcer. Video gives you the highest chance of being remembered — and being acted on.


6. Employee content > corporate content

B2B is shifting from logos to faces; from corporate statements to human voices.

Even when only 3% of employees post regularly, companies drive 20% more leads.

So bring your team to the forefront. 


7. Brand and demand are no longer separate

Everything now all comes down to trust, Tunji Akintokun put it: “In B2B, trust is the ultimate growth metric that closes deals.”

The era of “brand OR performance” is finished. Full-funnel integration is now a growth multiplier with always-on brand activity showing +10% conversion lift. 


In summary: 

The brands that win in 2025 won’t be the ones who look good in reports — they’ll be the ones who move buyer groups to act.

In partnership with LinkedIn for Marketing #Ad

Simon Cowell and the “Netflix-izing” of TV: 

Simon’s cultural dominance was built on linear television, yet The X Factor format was clearly losing momentum. Viewership had fallen, slipping to around 6 million by its final run (from 20 million at its peak), and the show ultimately wasn’t recommissioned after 2018. 

So he went to the streaming platforms. 

His new show, The Next Act – a behind-the-scenes talent series following the formation, development, and launch of a pop boy band – came out on Netflix last month. A younger, Gen-Z audience showed up, and the series debuted in Netflix’s top three.

While it’s been reported that the show is a “rehashing of The X Factor for the billionth time” it misses the point that more & more linear TV shows will attempt to ‘Netflix-ize.’  Simon is a divisive, well-known figure with a pre-built brand. The show concept has worked for several decades across both sides of the Atlantic. All this gets leveraged & transferred, with some new packaging alongside being formatted in a bespoke way for how audiences today consume content. It makes perfect sense. 

We’re going to see more traditionally proven linear TV concepts, combined with some creative adaptation, become relevant again as they find their way onto streaming platforms. Sport, news, comedy panels, breakfast shows, live cooking, award ceremonies, and chat shows will all follow the same path.

The data shows it: The creator economy is becoming the new Hollywood. 

Individuals are becoming content power-houses commanding attention & cultural relevance that now rivals traditional media. What was once reserved for studios with large-scale productions and billion-dollar balance sheets is available for everyone. 

Media influence is moving from institutions to individuals who understand attention and audience trust – and the gap between “creator” and “studio” is disappearing.

For the last 50 years, TV shows were commissioned around an idea or existing IP. Then the right host or star was cast to fit the format.

That model is flipping.

Now, the individual comes first – and the idea is built around them.

Netflix has just announced one of its first podcast originals, built around Pete Davidson. 

Last month, it was announced that Claudia Winkleman is getting her own chat show on the BBC.

For the last decade, this has been the default in self-owned distribution – podcasts, YouTube channels, newsletters. The creator and individual were very much the IP.

But now traditional media is catching up. 

Individuals are becoming the centre point of mainstream shows.

In 2026 your content is about judgment, taste, lived experience, and the ability to articulate why you think the way you do. The bar has shifted from “can you create?” to “can you create something only you could create?” In a world of AI-generated content, context, specificity, depth, scars, perspective and belief are what cut through – and that’s where the next wave of real creators will win.

Are you focused on producing more content… or better ideas, clearer thinking, and standing for something? 

Image credit: Adam Mosseri

Over the weekend, I watched an interesting TikTok that explained how red carpets are now full of influencers instead of experienced reporters. These influencers' sole intention is to fish for viral moments – anything that might spike views on Instagram – with zero expectation that they’ve engaged in the film, researched or prepared compelling questions. What’s more, the people in charge are perfectly happy with this setup – as long as the short-form clips generate superficial numbers. 

We’re prioritizing attention over trust.  
We’re overly rewarding views. 

But why? 

Podcasts are the same – instead of being built around thoughtful, critical conversations – where you pressure-test ideas and interrogate evidence – shows are increasingly engineered backwards from viral moments on Instagram and TikTok. Resulting in soundbites that lack evidence, and contain deliberately polarizing takes to spark a reaction. 

I see leaders and well-known entrepreneurs on LinkedIn play the same game – optimizing for clicks, feel-good content and mass engagement. Taking their impressive multi-decade career and compressing it into recycled frameworks and carousel templates that “perform well.”  At Triangle, we do the opposite. Our focus is on turning leaders into subject matter experts with the intention to build long-term authority with the people who buy, hire, invest, or partner. Because, in a world of people high-jacking your attention and surface-level commentary – depth, context & detail are now the way to stand out. And our data shows this leads to significantly better commercial outcomes. 

We’ve lost sight of the point of content. We’ve blurred the lines between being visible and being credible. As a culture, we’ve become so blinded by attention that we’ve lost sight of our true goals. 

What's your take?

I sat down with Jae Oh, who leads LinkedIn’s ads measurement, formats, and experimentation teams. We talked about:

1. Why ROI is the right metric. But not CPMs, or clicks. Real ROI answers one question: how did marketing dollars translate into growth?

2. The easiest metrics are often the least useful: Cheap impressions look good on slides, but they collapse the moment you’re asked: “How much revenue did this drive?”

3. Marketers lose budget because they speak the wrong language: CFOs don’t think in campaigns and sales leaders don’t think in reach. They think in pipeline, accounts, and revenue – and marketing has to translate into that world.

4. Authority starts with trust – and trust starts with value: People give attention to brands that help them make better decisions. That attention compounds into influence.

5. ‘Brand vs demand’ is a false divide: Buyers don’t experience two journeys; they experience one continuous one. There should be one system. 

6. B2B buying journeys are long (≈211 days): Which means your first message has to remain true all the way to purchase. Consistency builds credibility. 

7. Vanity metrics create false confidence: Great reach, great CPMs, zero impact – if you’re talking to the wrong accounts.

8. The biggest performance unlock is alignment: Brand teams and demand teams chasing different account lists guarantees inefficiency. Focus on shared targets, shared narrative, and shared accountability.

9. Most “measurement problems” are actually organisational ones: When teams don’t sit in the same room, they optimise for different outcomes.

10. Incrementality is what secures budgets: Not activity or scale. Instead, proof that marketing moved the business forward.


If you’re a B2B marketer – this video is for you! 

(Save this and share it with your team)

New York is booked 🇺🇸

Feb 28 – March 4.

As Triangle continues to grow in the US – I’m spending more time out meeting clients, running mini content shoots, and lots of coffees with CEO’s who want to communicate their mission & story with the world in a way that generates demand! 

Here’s what’s on the agenda: 

– visiting LinkedIn HQ 

– in-person shoot with a healthtech client that's reshaping access to care in America 

– and in a series of conversations with teams selling into US enterprise buyers

Between those, I'm carving out time for a handful of informal conversations.

If you're in NYC and building something ambitious – founder, exec, creator, leader – reach out. I'll share what we're learning from working with 30+ clients: what's driving their pipeline and what's cutting through on LinkedIn right now.

If you're around, let’s meet! Drop me a message or email matt@mattswain.com

3 principles for CEO content we're taken into 2026: 

1. Originality 

When people are consuming content, they’re now rightly asking “could this have been generated by an LLM.” Most content still starts externally: GPT search, topics, trends, formats – and tries to bolt a perspective on top. At Triangle, we do the reverse. We start with raw thought: half-formed beliefs, internal tensions, difficult decisions, and patterns noticed over years of experience. That shifts the challenge from writing to ‘extraction’ – and then translating scattered ideas into language and compressing lived experience into a few hundred words. It’s hard work, which is exactly why most people default to the easy option.

2. Editorial writing > social copywriting 

Everyone focuses on proven hooks, algorithm tricks and ‘easy-to-read’ overly optimized formatting. We’re doing the opposite. Moving towards highly researched content pieces backed with data that are journalist-quality – meaning opinionated, genuinely interesting pieces on culturally relevant topics. Our goal is to create truly engaging content, as we know the distribution will take care of itself. High-quality writing preserves the depth and nuance of your ideas, and positions you as someone who’s credible and thinks deeply.

3. Specifics

Linked to both points above, we’re going deeper into specifics. That means naming real trade-offs, important commercial constraints, the options rejected, and the second-order consequences that weren’t obvious at the time. It means zooming into moments – the meeting where the call changed, the data point that broke the narrative, the uncomfortable tension, the reasoning. Specifics signal lived experience and raise the stakes of the insight. The more precise the content, the more uncopyable it becomes – and that’s where trust is built.


What are you focusing on with your content in 2026?

A thought about AI & talent:

The conversation around AI and automation often assumes a blanket condition that all people are the same. In reality, the top 10% performers in every industry operate in a different tier and should never worry about finding a role. 

The world will continue to automate away the average. But businesses will continue to pay a high premium to work with the very best talent. In an AI world, A-players will become increasingly in-demand and sought-after as they become highly leveraged by AI.

Meaning if you’re an A-player who deeply thinks about their work, uses “human compute,” and operates as a critical and strategic thinker, you’ll have greater opportunities in your working life over the next 10 years - not less. Because winners want to work with other winners and understand the energetic connection and momentum that comes from working alongside exceptional people.

Avatar is a perfect example of what content can be in 2026: 

The franchise is all about experience, immersion, bringing audiences into a universe that they’re invested in and want to keep returning to. 

We’re living in a TikTok-obsessed world, optimized for speed, novelty, and constant refresh. Attention is fragmented, patience supposedly gone. And yet Avatar sits at the opposite extreme: three films, the third running 3.5 hours, released years apart – and still drawing global audiences in the hundreds of millions. A timely reminder that when something is genuinely world-class, people will go to great lengths to engage with it.

In the marketing landscape today, everyone is concentrated on quick wins and cheap attention. But the winners know the real game is stickiness; world-building; defining your IP; building an ecosystem; universe expansion; repeatable engagement. 

It’s about building something people want to return to, invest in, and feel part of. Something that rewards attention rather than demands it. 

A reminder for all of us who work in social, content & marketing – focus on creating something amazing that people want to come back to, over & over again.

January has been a busy start to 2026 for Triangle: 

– Over the past month, our partnership content with LinkedIn reached 1,000,000 people – including my takeaways from B2Believe and a conversation with Jae Oh, Head of Ads at LinkedIn.

– We signed 4 new clients – from health-tech, digital printing, CTO advisor with 30+ years of experience in tech and procurement AI company – all with the same underlying goal: using LinkedIn to open senior-level buyer conversations.

– Yesterday, I spent the afternoon with Andrew Monu at LinkedIn HQ, sharing more about the work we’re doing to build thought leadership in complex industries. 

– We expanded the team – bringing on an incredible LinkedIn copyeditor, executive advisor with 30+ years of experience running marketing agencies, and have x2 Content Manager roles we’re interviewing for. 

– Finishing the month with record-breaking revenue – a sign we’re moving in the right direction! 

– Our New York presence continues to grow – with 2 new clients based there kicking off this month and an in-person trip planned to spend time with clients and partners.

– A few client wins worth calling out: One of our Harvard professor clients generated 723,280 views; I caught up with a client this week who said he had $500k in new pipeline from our work – testament to our LinkedIn ecosystem approach. 

None of this came easily.

January was long days, five-hour stretches of back-to-back calls, thousands of Slack messages, kick-offs, iterations, and decisions. But ending the first month of the year on a high!

For the first time, a bi-partisan bill is recognizing creators as workers, small business owners who are “building the culture and economy we rely on” – not just 'creating content.'

What Khanna’s doing isn’t just “protecting creators.” It’s the government publicly admitting that creators are no longer a side-hustle category – they’re a meaningful economic contributor and an increasingly important source of information. Especially given that more than 10 million Americans now identify as creators.

The creator economy is growing up — and institutions are starting to catch up!

Niall Cleaver

Documenting the journey of crafting a timeless coffee cup brand | CEO & Founder of Cupsly

My story isn’t about a polished entrepreneur. My journey hasn’t been traditional. I left school without an English qualification, uncertain of what the future held. 

That failure shaped me, it forced me to think differently, fall into business, and ultimately embrace creativity, resilience, and the belief that change is possible, even when doubted. Fast forward to today, I’m growing and scaling businesses while sharing the real lessons that come from it.

Founder

Are you struggling to grow an engaging community for your business or personal brand.

Stop right there, I think I have you covered ⬇️

This is me (Niall), I'm a 22-year-old who is fascinated by growing communities in the online space. Actual communities that have meaning and purpose. 

The services we provide at Social Library 

➡️ Personal Branding (LinkedIn)

➡️ Guidance & support consulting


Drop me a message to discuss your social media strategy, review how well your current socials/posts are doing, and research how we can build your community and gain you more followers and leads.

or you can email us @

hello@sociallibrary.co.uk

For years... I thought starting small wasn’t even an option.

This year, I want to start small. You need to read this.

Everyone is so scared to start small and I was one of those people. I used to overthink about creating something big instead of worrying about starting small.

Turns out, starting small is how you build big.

It’s how you take the first step forward.
It’s how you stop overanalysing.
It’s how you actually start.

It almost feels wrong when you say it out loud.

But every successful founder and business you see today didn’t get where they are by massive moves. They got there by starting small and then scaling.

So if you’re starting a business, building a hobby, or whatever it may be… stop worrying about “scaling big” and focus on the small step that gets you going.

Growing @thistlescientific and sharing the lessons while I do

Building vs scaling a business. What's the difference?

A few years ago, I learned one of the most valuable lesson in business. I left school with qualifications that made it hard for me to get any sort of job.

Luckily, my family ran a business. I jumped in and started learning. And here’s what I learned: There’s a huge difference between building and scaling.

Building a business:

Proving the idea
Short-term survival
Doing everything yourself
Energy, speed & scrappiness

Scaling a business:

Letting go of control
Long-term decisions
Patience, systems & people
Making sure it works without you.
Alignment throughout the whole company.

Building feels exciting. Scaling feels uncomfortable. Both are essential. I didn’t realise how different they both were until I lived them.

But the one thing that never changes between both? 
The hard work that comes with it.

I just spent 2 hours yesterday in one of the best meetings of my life!!!

What about? How do we build further on our foundation?

Yesterday was a special day, do you know where you get the team together and you leave feeling excited for what's to come? That's what happened.

It's been a pretty wild couple of months for Thistle, but it always comes back to the same thing. How can we deepen the connection we can have with researchers?

The personal touch.
The real support they deserve.
The professionalism and trust they have in us.

This year, we’re looking at how we double down on that.

We’ve set some big objectives, and the whole team is ready for them. If yesterday was anything to go by, this next phase is going to be an exciting one.

We can't wait to share more on this very soon.

We’re excited to announce our new collaboration.

I'm genuinely proud of the impact we're creating in research at Thistle Scientific. It started with one clear objective to make research the best it can be, not only to impact our lives, but also to impact the lives of generations to come.

Last week was a big reminder of this as we announced our collaboration with arcorisbio AG, which will help accelerate the industrialisation and commercialisation of their breakthrough MUSE® platform.

A collaboration that will help keep the world safe.

One of the best mistakes I learned pretty quickly in business.

Thinking strategy comes first in business. But it doesn’t… 

Understanding who you’re building for is.

I’m nowhere near successful yet. But I’ve been lucky to spend time around people who definitely are. And one topic comes up over and over again: 

Strategy.

How did you come up with your strategy?
Why has your strategy been effective?
When do you adapt your strategy?

The answer usually sounds complicated.
But, it keeps coming back to one word: audience.

Before you can plan anything, you have to understand them. What do they care about? When do they need to hear from you? How do they feel when they see you show up?

This is where a lot of founders go wrong. No strategy is 100% correct. It’s custom‑made based on how well you understand the information your audience is giving you.

So copying what works in another company or industry rarely works. You’re playing a different game, with different people, at a different stage.

Strategy is an understanding game.

I used to panic hearing the word strategy in business.

It sounded complicated... but it wasn’t.

I would hear the word and be like that sounds proper technical. I'd just nod like I understood exactly what it meant, when I didn't but now I get it and it's simple.

It's just a plan.

What are the objectives?
What action will you take to hit them?
Which data tells you it's working or it isn't?

We love to make words sound more complicated than they are. 

It's easy to overcomplicate things when you hear all of the advice online but it's simpler than you think. If something isn't working don't wait, go and find the reason why.

Try something. Learn. Adapt. Evolve. Repeat.
Just enjoy the process of figuring out.

That's what business is!

When I was younger, I hesitated on the idea of working for my family business.

Today, I’m 3 years in, working alongside nearly 50 incredible people.

It’s crazy how life works. Some days you’re completely against something before you’ve even tried it…then you try it and realise it was exactly what you were meant to do.

I always had this doubt in the back of my head:
That I had to prove myself somewhere else first.

That’s why:

- I started posting on LinkedIn.
- I kept looking for “my own thing”.
- I started learning more about business.

Now it feels like all of that happened so I could come back better and help continue to grow a business I genuinely care about. But this growth has hardly been me. It’s been the team I get to work with every single day.

A few things this has taught me:

- Don’t write something off until you’ve actually tried it.
- You can prove yourself elsewhere, but always bring the knowledge back

So don't resist an opportunity just because it didn't fit your picture in that specific moment of your life. It might be worth taking a closer look.

Stop listening to too much advice.

Read that again... throughout my journey, I've fallen for many distractions. Stuff that didn't feel right personally, and so many of us are going through this.

There's advice here, there and everywhere.

And it's very hard to know which is the right or wrong advice, and you know what you'll never really know. The only way to find out is to...

Listen to your gut and try.

In a world full of advice after advice, trust yourself first. 
There's no right or wrong way to do anything.

If it works, it works!

P.S. Have a little day in the life vid

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Niall Cleaver

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The Battle

Matt Swain

Niall Cleaver

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