What "people follow people" got wrong

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Hey folks, it's your content friend Eric here.

Quick aside before we get to content marketing: I’m in the throes of sports pain this morning.

I spent a relatively irresponsible amount of money to go watch the Colombia-Switzerland World Cup match in Vancouver yesterday. We also convinced my wife’s entire Colombian family to spend an irresponsible amount of money attending the match. The crowd was 95% Colombia fans. Colombia lost in penalty kicks.

Let it be known: it is very eerie to exit a stadium of 50,000 extremely sad people. Also, Colombians are the highest-vibes people on earth, so that made the sadness extra eerie.

I’m not sure why we introduce sports pain (and occasional joy) into our lives when there are so many guaranteed sources of joy—I never seem to regret time spent reading, exercising, or gardening—but some of us do.

I’d wager it has something to do with the humanity element. SPEAKING OF WHICH…

Jimmy wrote an excellent piece, People follow people, that I’ve teased below. Before you think “I already know that” and skip reading it, I’ll challenge the industry’s thinking on this a bit.

“People follow people” became popular advice a few years ago. Nobody wants to read a corporate blog or branded LinkedIn page; people want advice from people they trust. Yep, we all get it.

What followed from that—and I’m just as guilty as anyone else here—is that many of us took that advice to mean “Post the same stuff, but ghostwritten under your founder’s name.” Add a human byline.

That’s not really what “people follow people” is getting at—even in B2B. There’s a necessary human aspect. There has to be a lived experience component to the content. And I feel like that’s much easier to convey through the eyes and voice of one person.

But I also don’t think “people follow people” automatically means being a creator/influencer—posting selfies, shit-posting, or oversharing on main (with no shade meant to those who do). I think that’s all great for personal branding, but I’m not sure that’s the true, result-driving B2B version of people following people (e.g., for an enterprise SaaS company).

I do think what Jimmy’s describing in his blog is closer to The B2B Truth of people following people.

It’s something I’ve struggled with—enabling other folks to make content without doing it for them. How do I help this very smart person share their work knowledge with others in a way that feels authentic and drives value for them and our business?

So give it a read. And let us know if you’ve solved this problem! Would love to add more examples.

Cheers,

- Eric

PS. We’re also hosting a free webinar with Wistia that you shouldn’t miss!

PPS. Whoever said you shouldn’t have more than one CTA in an email clearly has never had to write Superpath emails!

🎥 Free Webinar: Better Video Workflows for Lean Content Teams
Jul 23, 2026, 11:00 AM ET / 8:00 AM PT

Most content teams are not short on ideas. They’re short on a repeatable way to turn those ideas into video.

Join marketers from Superpath and Wistia as we walk through a practical video workflow, backed by insights from 1,000+ surveyed marketers and Wistia’s 20 years of video experience.

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This event is free and open to everyone—including you! So don’t miss out 👇

✍ New on the Superpath Blog: People follow people: Here’s how to operationalize it

Our dear friend Jimmy Daly is back with another blog post. It’s an out-loud musing on what it really means to operationalize the “people follow people” mantra of content marketing.

Here’s the thesis:

Jimmy has some great examples of this strategy done right and how we, as content marketers, should think about enabling our peers to create great content.

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🎙 New on Content, Briefly: Beyond the Blog: B2B “research” is costing you your credibility with Tanaaz Khan

This episode is the last in our The Art of Content series hosted by Rachel Bicha, where Rachel brings on guests to chat about big-picture content marketing theory. Each conversation is centered on a recent piece that person wrote for The Art of Content blog.

For this week’s episode, Rachel talked to Tanaaz Khan about this blog post. Tanaaz is a freelance content strategist with a background in infection biology, so she was a little shocked and appalled to learn what constitutes “research” in content marketing.

Tanaaz argues that the speed and efficiency demands of content marketing have hurt our curiosity and credibility, so she lays out some tips for doing better research:

Listen here.

💬 Great Slack Threads This Week

Here were some great discussions in the Superpath Slack community this week:

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