Smelter.ai approached ModumUp, our Social Selling agency, to expand its client base and attract strategic partners in Latin America through LinkedIn. Over the course of a year, we added 3,891 prospects from target companies to the network of Irina Chikomasova, the service’s head, and generated 51 SQLs who participated in personal meetings. Additionally, 183 individuals from the target audience became MQLs and shared their contact details.

Most importantly, we strengthened Irina Chikomasova’s personal brand and increased her recognition within the professional community across Latin America. To support this, we launched a LinkedIn Newsletter, hosted a LinkedIn Live webinar with local experts, and organized three in-person events that attracted an engaged audience.

This article outlines how Social Selling helped Smelter.ai enter the Latin American market and build visibility for Irina Chikomasova’s personal brand.

Smelter.ai is a B2B startup specializing in AI-powered media analytics. Initially launched as an experimental project in the LATAM market, it was later paused. Before the pause, the service helped collect and analyze news, publications, and customer reviews from over one million sources.

Our primary objectives were to attract clients and partners while boosting brand visibility in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru through the personal profile of Irina Chikomasova.

We targeted companies with up to 100 employees, focusing specifically on top managers and marketing directors in both B2C and B2B sectors.

We also targeted digital agencies, media, business schools, professional communities, and organizers of local events.

When we started working with ModumUp, Irina already had a LinkedIn profile and around 500 connections, but she rarely posted. Social media content plays a major role: consistent posts help warm up the audience and create familiarity. We developed clear positioning, built a content strategy, and began implementing it.

To keep the content varied and engaging, Irina shared her expertise in social listening, social monitoring, and marketing.

As part of the strategy, it was important to introduce the audience to the service and the team, so we highlighted achievements, product updates, news, and announcements.

The target audience was split into two groups: clients and partners (digital agencies). We started with friendly personal messages introducing ourselves, briefly describing Smelter.ai, and suggesting a WhatsApp call.

For partners, the most effective message sequence highlighted the platform’s advantages, particularly its ability to generate automated reports for clients. This approach resonated well with marketing and digital agencies.

For potential clients, personalized messages tailored to their industry yielded the best results. We emphasized the service’s unique features — such as ChatGPT integration and TikTok monitoring — which were crucial for companies that need to track competitors and respond to trends quickly. The platform helped businesses evaluate the market situation and use that data to develop effective promotion strategies.

All public content — profile information and posts — was published in English. This simplified communication since Latin America primarily speaks Spanish and Portuguese, but English is widely used in business. It also allowed Irina to easily transition to another market later without needing to restructure her content.

However, in personal messages, we switched to Spanish or Portuguese when it felt more comfortable for the recipient. This made a notable difference — response rates were significantly higher in the local languages.

During the project, we noticed that business culture in LATAM is friendly and relaxed. Flexibility and timely reminders are essential. People may not respond for days or weeks, and meetings often start late.

In LATAM, personal relationships and trust are crucial. People prefer discussing business in person rather than via messages or video calls. Despite strong online interest, some conversations stalled, and fewer SQLs converted into deals than expected.

Here is the step-by-step breakdown.

The Newsletter allowed people to subscribe and receive notifications about new posts.

We focused on business development and leadership — topics relevant to a wide audience without any sales angle.

The Newsletter helped maintain regular contact with the audience. Subscribers received notifications for each new edition and saw posts in their feed.

We aimed for 500 subscribers in six months. We reached 712 in five months.

LinkedIn Live allows speakers to share insights in real time.

The webinar was a panel discussion where Irina and local influencers discussed building teams.

We invited Irina’s audience to LinkedIn Live Events using the “Invite” button. This feature allows any event participant to send invitations to 1,000 of their connections each week. Thanks to this outreach, 27% of Irina’s audience registered for the webinar.

In total, we sent invitations to 1,139 of Irina’s target contacts. Of those, 317 registered for the event, and 344 watched it live. The client was satisfied with the result.

Our goal after the repositioning was to strengthen Irina Chikomasova’s personal brand not only as a representative of Smelter.ai but also as an individual — an active member of the professional community.

Irina began sharing simple and sincere stories that reflect her strengths, and the audience responded well.

The audience engaged especially actively with posts that blended personal and professional themes. A notable example was Irina’s reflections on how sincerity in communication influences trust and long-term client relationships. These insights resonated with readers and increased engagement.

The LATAM audience responds strongly to storytelling about career development. People also engage well with motivational posts related to personal effectiveness and time management.

We identified local media representatives and added them to Irina’s network to increase visibility. We introduced Irina’s background and offered article ideas that matched their interests.

As a result, four editors agreed to publish Irina’s article featuring Smelter.ai at no cost.

Following the updated strategy, we began inviting people to small offline meetups to strengthen local connections and build presence in Latin America.