The Feed Is the New Funnel: How B2B Discovery Works in 2026

TL;DR: B2B discovery no longer starts with research, it builds passively through what buyers see, share, and talk about before intent appears. That early exposure shapes which companies make it onto the shortlist once measurable signals start to show up.

B2B buyers rarely experience vendor discovery as a clear starting point.

Traditional funnel models often picture buyers starting from zero and moving forward step by step. The challenge is that much of the influence shaping those decisions doesn’t follow a neat, linear path.

That gap between how discovery actually happens and what gets measured is getting harder to ignore.

In a recent episode of the Attributed Podcast, we spoke with Daniel Murray, founder of The Marketing Millennials, about how B2B discovery works today and why feeds, conversations, and gated communities now do more of the work than traditional funnels ever did.

You can listen to the full conversation here.

Moving to Passive Discovery

B2B discovery used to look intentional. A problem emerged, someone sat down, searched Google, compared vendors, read reviews, and booked demos.

But it was never truly this linear.

Today, discovery happens long before anyone decides to research. Buyers are exposed to brands passively, over time, across social feeds and comments, podcasts, gated Slack threads and Discord communities, and in-person conversations. They’re not necessarily shopping around for vendors, they’re just doing their jobs.

“Everything feels accidental,” Daniel explains. “But it’s actually marketers staying top of mind, creating great content that’s being shared in peer-to-peer conversations.”

This is how awareness is built now.

By the time a real need arises, choices have already narrowed. Buyers don’t arrive at your site in research mode, they arrive with opinions. Often even with a preferred vendor in mind.

It’s accumulated familiarity – every comment, conversation, meme, quote, and screenshot adds up.

The implication is uncomfortable but important: the decision period is getting shorter because the preference formation period is happening earlier (and mostly out of sight).

This also explains why traditional intent signals feel weaker. When someone finally searches “best attribution tool” or asks an LLM for recommendation, they’re not starting fresh. They’re confirming what already feels familiar. And increasingly, those systems surface brands that are already being talked about.

If your brand isn’t part of the conversation, you risk not showing up at all.

Sharability is the New KPI

If discovery is passive, then clicks stop being the signal we think they are.

Most buyers aren’t clicking because they’re not trying to do anything yet.

They’re noticing.

Saving.

Forwarding.
Dropping something into a Slack thread with a “this is so true” comment.

Which is why sharability matters. Even more than engagement.

Daniel argues that, in practice, people don’t share white papers, reports, or gated assets with peers. They share snippets and screenshots, memes and short video clips. They’re sharing the blunt take that captures a pain point in a way that instantly feels recognizable, the kind of content that makes someone think, “yes, this is my job.”

The shift is clear to Daniel: to win in the feed right now, content has to be entertaining, inspiring, or educating.

“Social is the best validator of ideas,” he explains. If something spreads organically, it’s because it resonates with real work, not because it was polished for a campaign.

A like is passive approval, a share is a signal of care. When someone forwards a post to another marketer, they’re attaching their own credibility to it. They’re saying, this matters.

From a measurement standpoint, this can feel frustrating. You won’t see this in dashboards, but that doesn’t make it optional. Sharability is one of the few visible signals that your brand is entering the conversations that shape future buying decisions.

If people aren’t sharing your content, you’re not part of the discovery layer.

And if you’re not part of discovery, you’re not part of the shortlist.

Brand is Where Discovery Happens

Once discovery becomes passive (and sharability becomes the signal), brand stops being something buyers evaluate. It becomes something they encounter.

Brands are absorbed over time through repeated mentions, trusted references, and social visibility. And that has two consequences…

#1 LLMs surface conversations

When buyers ask tools like ChatGPT or Claude for recommendations, those systems don’t “research” your brand the way Google once did. They surface what’s being talked about, what appears consistently across social, articles, press, and community discussions.

If your brand isn’t present there, it won’t show up when buyers are looking for options, no matter how good your product pages are.

This is why brand work that used to be deemed “nice to have” now directly affects discovery.

#2 People Become Distribution

It also explains why companies with visible founders and employees posting publicly tend to win attention. “Employee generated content is a big thing now,” Daniel points out. “Having employees and founders and leaders and experts in the space posting helps you stay top of mind, especially in B2B.”

People have become the distribution layer.

And it doesn’t require being everywhere. Daniel highlights that every niche is already talking somewhere on the internet, often in small, specific communities. The job is simply to show up where those conversations are happening and understand the language being used.

Conclusion

B2B discovery hasn’t disappeared. It’s happening earlier and mostly outside the places marketing is used to watching.

By the time buyers compare options, familiarity is often already in place. What looks like evaluation is usually confirmation.

The practical shift is this: instead of asking whether something converted, ask whether it got passed along. Daniel tests ideas in comments and conversations first, then builds on what people share.

Let relevance decide what you double down on so your brand feels familiar when it finally matters.

About the Speaker

Daniel Murray is the founder of The Marketing Millennials, one of the largest B2B marketing communities on LinkedIn. Coming from a marketing operations background, he built the community to spotlight the people actually doing the work and share practical, experience-led marketing insights.