This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lara Sophie Bothur, Deloitte Germany’s first corporate influencer. Bothur now works freelance as a tech influencer. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I joined the Big Four firm Deloitte in February 2021 as a business analyst in the innovation consulting division. A year later, I’d transformed that consulting role into something entirely new: I became Deloitte’s first corporate influencer.
The job developed very naturally. Around eight months in, a partner who knew that I had a background in marketing suggested I help on a campaign for the innovation team.
My job was to talk to Deloitte’s experts in quantum, AI, blockchain, smart manufacturing, and smart mobility teams. Techies are brilliant, but they are not the best storytellers. I didn’t understand everything they said, which made showcasing their work tough.
Around that time, I had a conversation with my 101-year-old grandpa that changed things.
I visited him in Berlin, and when I told him I’d arrived by car sharing, he asked what that meant. His curiosity made me realize how powerful it is when complex ideas become understandable. By explaining it to him, I turned something abstract into something emotional and relatable, and it made me realize I could do the same with how I communicate technology at work.
I wrote a LinkedIn post about that conversation. It went viral, reaching 350,000 people. I was shocked and impressed by the power of LinkedIn.
A Deloitte partner saw it and suggested I try it out full time. In January 2022, we created a new role called “Voice for Innovation.”
It wasn’t the most engaging title, so half a year later, when a business magazine called me the first full-time corporate influencer in Germany, I embraced it.
In the beginning, I worked hard to actively build up my network — connecting with 100 relevant people each week. There was no template to follow, but we figured out what worked week by week.
My day-to-day as the face of Deloitte
If you have a character in a movie that you can identify with, you feel part of the story. That is what I was doing for Deloitte — making people feel connected to the brand.
I wasn’t reposting job advertisements or promoting the firm like a PR. We wanted to show that Deloitte is not just an auditor, so it was my job to present the work and demonstrate our culture through storytelling.
I was still a salaried employee and earned the same as consultants. I spent my days traveling, visiting tech hubs, attending and moderating events, networking with potential clients, and generating content around it all. No one else was doing that community and content management. I wrote the text and cut the videos.
I also ran LinkedIn workshops internally and externally, and wrote posts for a Deloitte leader.
My work impacted talent, clients, partnerships, and the brand. One LinkedIn post generated a whole new project — a company that needed a cloud transformation had seen the post, but hadn’t been aware that Deloitte had a partnership with Google Cloud.
Another time, a woman told me she chose to join Deloitte over BCG because she’d seen me speak at an event and liked that they were clearly supporting my career as a young woman.
A new era of business communication
We’re entering a new era of business communication and influencer marketing, where it’s about employees becoming the face of a company. LinkedIn is a very, very powerful tool for that.
I am a LinkedIn Top Voice and have one of the largest and most influential profiles on LinkedIn for tech translation. Last year, I reached 400 million people across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland — which has a marketing value of $13 million — and I generated 10,000 marketing leads for Deloitte.
You can pay for advertising, or you can make your employees visible and position your topics through them. They are the best marketing tool: letting your people speak is the most authentic way to communicate.
But you should never point at someone and say, “You are the next corporate influencer.” There must be an intrinsic motivation to communicate a topic that you’re passionate about, and you need to share the company’s values. If that’s there, you’re a perfect match for a corporate influencer.
Deloitte Germany now has around 250 employees working part-time as corporate influencers. I trained them on how to use LinkedIn best, and two have become LinkedIn Top Voices.
Protect your personal privacy
It’s not easy being the face of a company.
Last year, I faced criticism from some German media outlets. They questioned my rapid growth on LinkedIn and said I must have bought followers and engagement. It was shocking, but trust is one of our key values at Deloitte, and we proved them wrong. It helped that Deloitte is an auditor — I had help from its data and statistics experts.
Through explaining my approach, I earned the name “LinkedIn algorithm whisperer” in Germany.
Any time you’re public online, people form opinions. I make sure my posts aren’t about me, but about the company and its people. I often bring others onstage to share the spotlight.
Still, as a corporate influencer, you must balance the company and your individual persona. This influencing approach requires followers to understand you and your values. That’s how you build trust. I focus on tech and innovation, and that’s what people follow me for.
Deloitte checked my posts to make sure they’re accurate and to avoid controversy to protect me. I never post about politics or religion, but that doesn’t mean I can’t stand up for my values.
Stepping out of the group can feel dangerous — but that’s what innovation is.
Authenticity requires engagement. You must connect offline, and online, you need to respond to comments and shares quickly — especially in the first hour, when the LinkedIn algorithm decides if a post will take off.
Sometimes it’s pretty hard, but if you have a mission, and I have one, then you can do it. You really follow what you believe, and I believe in translating tech to people.
Going freelance
Toward the beginning of 2025, I started taking on some self-employed work moderating and speaking, and this summer, I decided it was time to leave Deloitte.
I’ve become one of the most influential tech influencers in Europe, and I wanted the freedom to work with multiple companies. Requests have been pouring in since I announced my departure.
I’ll still collaborate with Deloitte, but can now partner internationally with other large corporates, tech companies like SAP, and startups.
Financially, it’s a good move — I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t profitable. But I also believe this field is the future.
We talk about AI taking jobs, but new roles are being created, and corporate influencers are one of them — especially in the tech world. These roles didn’t exist a few years ago, but now they’re essential.
There’s so much new technology and so many businesses, but they don’t speak the same language. If companies don’t become more personal, more human, and more visible, they’ll be left behind. It’s my mission to help them.
Do you have a story to share about your career as a consultant? Contact this reporter at pthompson@businessinsider.com
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