Marketing Spotlight: How Aware and Alex Boyd perfect social selling on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is no longer just a platform for job searches, it’s a powerful tool for building genuine business relationships and driving sales through authentic social selling. In this article, we’re putting Aware, the SaaS startup, and co-founder Alex Boyd under the marketing spotlight as of October 2024. Why? Because their approach to LinkedIn engagement offers fresh inspiration for marketers tired of aggressive outreach and looking for smarter ways to connect.

If you’re ready for a detailed, insightful read beyond the usual quick tips and social shorts, this article is for you. We unpack how they fuse authenticity with data-driven tactics to grow faster on LinkedIn, without losing the human touch.

📝 A quick note before you start reading:
The data and analysis in this article are valid as of the time we wrote it. We don’t know when you’ll be reading this, maybe next week, maybe six months from now, and things might have changed since we looked at this company’s marketing and sales approach. Still, the insights and lessons here stay useful, even if the numbers or tactics have evolved a bit.

Understanding Aware and Alex Boyd

Launched in 2021 and based in Portland, OR, Aware is a SaaS platform co-founded by Alex Boyd that helps sales and marketing professionals engage on LinkedIn more effectively. What makes Aware stand out is its focus on authentic, genuine interactions and hand-curated LinkedIn feeds so users see only what truly matters, saving roughly 45 minutes dailuy by streamlining engagement with key accounts.

What are Aware’s services?

Their core services revolve around Account-Based Marketing (ABM) tactics: identifying the right companies, engaging with decision-makers, and facilitating personalized outreach, all done genuinely to build real connections rather than just blasting generic pitches.

How does Aware differentiate itself?

Aware promises users five times faster audience growth by connecting with the right people in one simplified place. Their website is user-friendly and transparent, featuring clear pricing, detailed product info, and testimonials from respected LinkedIn influencers. This openness builds trust in their unique value.

Alex Boyd’s LinkedIn strategy: The heart of Aware’s presence

Unlike many brands, Aware doesn’t flood LinkedIn with its own corporate posts. Most activity comes from Alex Boyd’s personal profile, where he has a following of 26k and posts almost daily. He engages deeply with his audience through comments. Alex’s presence is an excellent example of “people over brands”, because he understands that LinkedIn users prefer human interactions, not corporate noise.

Alex’s posts don’t aggressively pitch Aware but offer consistent, high value insights around social selling and ABM. This subtle, value-first method naturally raises awareness for Aware without over selling.

An interesting fact is that Aware doesn’t have any other social media accounts and the LinkedIn feed is mostly reposts of Alex Boyd’s. That shows us that they don’t rely on social media for capturing leads and they incline more on thought leadership.

He is very active in the comment section, replying to most of the comments he receives. From the human tone-of-voice used, we can presume that he doesn’t use ChatGPT to write them.

How is Alex Boyd promoting Aware?

First off, Alex doesn’t mention Aware in every post, so his approach isn’t aggressive. But naturally, whatever he shares connects back to Aware since he’s a co-founder, and people make that connection automatically. So, it’s not necessary for him to mention the platform every time. What really matters, and what he’s great at, is providing value in every post. Alex’s content is highly valuable and positions him as an expert in social selling and ABM. Therefore, you can get a sense of what Aware is about and how good it is, even without direct promotion. This value-driven approach builds trust and credibility, making people more likely to engage with Aware indirectly, without feeling like they’re being sold to. It’s a subtle way to promote the brand while maintaining authentic engagement.

Even though Alex doesn’t mention Aware in every post, he often shares analytics figures, like profile and engagement data, that come directly from Aware: they even match the style and colors on Aware’s website! By doing this, he shows how to interpret the data and also gives a clear picture of the insights you’ll get if you use Aware. He goes even further by saying things like, “Look, my comments help you get more reach. Check out the data. See how effective my strategy is.” By following this approach, you can see real results, and the analytics he shares are already part of the service.

He’s not afraid to use strong arguments, backed by statistics and math.

Aware has a dedicated research and data analytics team that turns all the data into meaningful insights. For example, they share: “Our research team sampled millions of posts. Over 13M. This is not, however, ‘all LinkedIn posts.’” This shows they use real data to back up their services and products with string arguments.

What’s really important here is that Alex doesn’t create false expectations or make empty promises. Yes, his tool works, but it doesn’t do all the work for you, you do. It is important that people know what they are paying for. Being transparent about what’s included, what’s not, and how much effort is needed helps set the right expectations and builds trust with customers. “Just being an Aware customer does not mean you will magically get more engagement”

He often shows the difference between his customers and the others, with statements like: “→ People who use Aware take LinkedIn more seriously, and/or vice versa (this is very plausible)” and “→ Having a tool to do more and higher quality commenting helps posts get more engagement, if it’s actually used (also plausible, because our usage rates are very high).”

He also promotes Aware’s capabilities. In one post, he talks about how he uses LinkedIn and mentions keeping track of lists of top prospects. And in this particular case, he tactically presents Aware as an alternative for doing so. Although he is very gentle with its promotion, he can also do it directly; because this is what social selling does: builds trust before selling. He is already seen as an expert in the industry, he has already built credibility. Therefore, mentioning Aware in its post, does not seem greedy or annoying. It can be seen as a sincere solution.

He also reposts others’ thoughts on Aware. Relying on social proof always helps build the brand’s credibility for prospects.

Social selling on LinkedIn

Social selling is all about putting in the actual effort to develop long-term relationships with potential clients, without compromise. It’s a form of digital networking that can open the right doors and start the right conversations that will eventually lead to closing a deal. Let’s take a look at how social selling can help your software development company transform and stand out in an increasingly crowded and noisy market. This works for any industry, but for a software development company, social selling can make a huge difference. It helps you stand out by positioning you as a trusted expert, not just another company pushing a product.

We have mentioned social selling before and we know Alex Boys is an expert in social selling and more than that he really recommends it. This posts give you an idea on how he does it. He shows how commenting and engaging with others on LinkedIn can help build those valuable connections that lead to sales.

His content is built on educating people on how to use LinkedIn to grow their engagement and of course, to position him as an expert in this field. But above all, his content is about building credibility. And how does he do that? By showing us real results and backing up his arguments with data.

How does commenting on LinkedIn help his business?

Alex Boyd’s consistent, insightful posts act as a demand generation, raising awareness for Aware by teaching how to grow with LinkedIn. His comment engagements are another subtle channel to reach prospects naturally without spamming.

His well-structured posts, occasional videos, and researched insights create a robust content ecosystem that continually fuels trust and interest.

We mentioned that the main idea of social selling is to bring value and build authentic connections. Creating those genuine connections means showing your human side while also offering an expert point of view in your comments. It’s about being yourself, but also making sure your comments are relevant and meaningful to the post.

Building credibility takes time

It’s not a one-and-done thing. Building credibility is like growing a beautiful garden. You can’t expect those vibrant flowers to bloom overnight, right? It takes some nurturing and patience. Similarly, credibility needs time to take root and grow.

Think about it this way: when you meet someone new, do you trust them right off the bat? Probably not. Trust is something that develops over time as we get to know someone better and see consistent behavior from them.

Credibility works in the same way. It’s all about consistency and reliability. When people see you consistently acting with integrity, demonstrating good intentions, showcasing your capabilities, and delivering solid results, that’s when they start trusting you.

It’s why sales takes more than one conversation if you don’t have a deep relationship with the buyer. They’re assessing your credibility.

This is the great opportunity that social selling provides. No more anonymous selling, no more cold email sequencers. Trust, great relationships, and deals that move quickly. Very similar to what happens in real life when you invest in quality networking.

Demand generation on LInkedIn

Alex Boyd could be using a demand generation strategy, especially through his focus on social selling and content marketing on LinkedIn. Demand generation is about creating awareness and interest in a product to bring in potential customers, and Alex does this in several ways:

• He consistently posts value-driven content about LinkedIn strategies, providing real data and insights. This builds trust and positions him as an industry expert. By doing so, he generates demand for Aware by showing how it can help others achieve the same results he’s sharing. His posts are quite long, but well structured and easy to follow.
• Rather than pushing Aware directly, Alex engages meaningfully in the comment sections of posts by potential clients. This interaction creates awareness and builds relationships, which is key in demand generation. By providing thoughtful responses, he increases visibility for himself and Aware in a natural, non-aggressive way.

Although he sometimes opts for video content to promote these ideas, written content remains his strongest point.

Conclusions

Social selling can make a huge difference in a business, especially when trying to bridge sales and marketing and get them working towards the same objective.

The main one, however, is that traditional outreach doesn’t really work anymore in an increasing number of industries. It’s become more and more difficult to stand out among everyone else who’s reaching out. In fact, in many cases, your prospect or lead might not even get to see your email or message due to the sheer amount they get daily.

Social selling is about building relationships, providing value, and engaging with your audience genuinely. And that requires a personal touch and a consistent and repeatable process. Most of that credibility-building happens before the buyer even enters your pipeline. It means that the “time to pipeline” is a lot longer from first-touch to qualified deal than traditional methods. The sweet trade-off is that because you’ve already tackled many of those credibility hurdles beforehand, deals tend to move much quicker once they’re in progress.

These are the takeaways that might inspire you as much in your sales and marketing efforts:

1. Stay alert to relevant discussions in the digital arena. Use social listening to identify key voices whose content resonates with your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Find influencers who post content that attracts your ICP.
2. A large number of followers or something that makes a big splash (like going viral), could help your brand, but none of these are mandatory to ensure you will sell effectively on LinkedIn. What is absolutely required is a good profile, and an engaged network.
3. When it comes to social prospecting, remember: conversation is king. If you’re just pitching non-stop, you’re bound to fail. Instead, think of yourself as a friendly neighbour, building real relationships. To succeed, focus on asking insightful questions and offering helpful resources.

Alex Boyd and Aware perfectly demonstrate that marketing and sales strategies based on authentic engagement and value-driven content win in today’s LinkedIn landscape. It’s a long game, built on trust, data-backed insights, and steady relationship-building, but the payoff is faster growth and stronger pipelines.

Ready to reimagine your social selling strategy? Let Aware and Alex Boyd’s example guide you toward genuine LinkedIn success. And if you need help with improving your LinkedIn presence and engagement, contact us to learn more about how we can help you achieve it.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who is Alex Boyd and what is Aware?

Alex Boyd is the co-founder of Aware, a SaaS platform launched in 2021 that helps sales and marketing professionals engage more effectively on LinkedIn. Aware emphasizes authentic relationship-building and curated LinkedIn experiences, saving users time and increasing meaningful engagement.

2. How does Alex Boyd use LinkedIn for social selling?

Alex Boyd uses his personal LinkedIn profile to consistently post value-driven content and engage directly with his audience in the comments. Rather than aggressively promoting Aware, he focuses on education and relationship-building, subtly integrating product value through analytics and data shared in his posts.

3. What makes Aware’s LinkedIn strategy different?

Aware’s strategy relies on authentic engagement through its co-founder’s personal profile instead of brand accounts. The platform doesn’t use other social channels and avoids aggressive pitching. Instead, it focuses on trust, data-backed insights, and personalized outreach to build credibility and drive growth.

4. What can tech companies learn from Alex Boyd’s approach?

Tech companies can learn to prioritize authenticity and thought leadership on LinkedIn, leveraging personal branding, consistent commenting, and insightful content. Social selling, as demonstrated by Alex, builds stronger pipelines by fostering trust long before a prospect enters the sales funnel.