Like content strategy, thought leadership is a relatively new option for companies that want to improve their visibility and connections online in ways that prompt sales leads to come to you.
But thought leadership is, much more than content strategy, subject to the Bill Joy rule, which says that most smart people in the world don’t work for your company.
How, then, do you possibly develop a thought leadership strategy?
If you get your thought leadership strategy right, customers will see you as a go-to source of expertise, your new products or incremental improvements will find easier acceptance, you’ll stand a good chance of bolstering product price (which is critical in many industries where commoditization is at work), and you’ll attract talent more easily.
Inevitably, some companies will get it wrong, so in this article I will outline why that happens, how to avoid the major mistakes companies make, and what to do to excel in thought leadership.
I encourage you to go to the source and drill down on Haydn’s strategic recommendations. When you’re looking for the tools and tactics to make it work, come right back here and I’ll get you started! Comment or ‘connect’ to discuss how this applies to you and your organization…
A friend who works with in construction industry is skeptical. He’s not convinced that ‘inbound marketing’ [blogging and other social media tools] can be applied to the construction industry. I respectfully disagree! I’ve seen content management and marketing for thought leadership applied to everything from Agriculture to Yoga and I believe it will work in the construction industry as well. Why?
Here are some of my beliefs:
Most companies have great stories and content — they just don’t use it as well as they could…
At the core, all great marketing is great storytelling
At the end of the day, every business is a people business
First, though what is this ‘thought leadership’? A simple definition might be a public display of expertise that can be easily found by people who are searching for it. How does a brand accomplish this? Though effective content management and content marketing. Because of my core beliefs, I think any company — even a construction company — can use the content they have or can create to tell great stories that attract people to their brand.
In his thought leadership classic ‘Brand Stand‘, Craig Badings tells the story of Dick Dusseldorp, a thought leader in the Australian construction industry before the phrase ‘thought leader’ was cool…
During the 1970s and 1980s, when union action on most construction sites in Sydney were crippling the construction industry, the sites on which Lend Lease was building suffered no such misfortune. This was because Dusseldorp’s philosophy was to create a community of interest between Lend Lease’s key stakeholders. When other companies around him were banging heads with the unions, with resultant long delays and cost overruns on projects, Dusseldorp was sitting down with the workers and unions and discussing their issues. The results were agreements, jointly committed to by workers and management, and a share in the resulting rewards for buildings completed on time. He was a master at getting people to transcend their traditional conflicts and work towards mutually beneficial goals.
How did he do it? In part he used content management and content marketing along with other communication skills to position his firm at the thought leadership center of his industry in his country. Speaking of Dusseldorp’s organization Lend Lease, Badings says…
It launched a website… along with a four-part DVD series, using a former TV journalist to interview a number of independent third parties about their views on the future workspace and its impacts across business, design, people and location. As a result, Lend Lease reached those who made decisions about office space and helped stimulate and frame the debate around the impacts and implications of future work environments in Australia. Through the series, the company engaged communities linked to its industry and positioned itself at the centre of this debate. It is the logical place to be as a leader in the construction industry, but Lend Lease has done it in a way that doesn’t push the company’s point of view. It took the approach that it would rather invite leading experts in this field across various disciplines to participate in and frame the discus-sion.
Joy Davis, CSI, CCPR, of CSI in Albuquerque, says…
“In many ways, construction is a relationship-driven business, and at the root of every great relationship is trust. No single person can know everything about construction, so we need trustworthy experts we can turn to who can help us achieve our goals. Thought Leadership is a strategy based on the idea that you can be your clients’ preferred expert – a person they trust, and whom they think of first when they have a question, or a new project.” Source: Thought Leadership and Social Media in the Workplace
Every business — not just construction — is a people business, but because of the critical nature of construction projects trust may be even more important. How can that trust be most effectively engendered? Content management and marketing for thought leadership may be an answer that the construction industry has overlooked! Comment, call or ‘connect’ so we can talk about how this applies to you and your organization…
Blogging is fundamental to an effective content marketing campaign. In my humble opinion no other tool is more effective in driving people to your thought leadership position. Why?
Blogs are easy to update and can contain a wide variety of content
Most blogging platforms are open source [i.e., FREE]
When you consider that 2012 is the ‘year of content content marketing’ and that you can add a blog to your website for free, my question to you is what’s holding you back?
I see three reasons why people hold back…
Perception
Fear
Time
I think the answer for most people is simple. The words blogging and blogger bring up images of 40 year old white guys sitting in their pajamas in their parents’ basement spewing out politcal rants. While that demographic has clearly capitalized on the benefits of blogging, it doesn’t take away anything from the power of blogging for content marketing.
I wouldn’t be too concerned about that one either. You or your brand can become a thought leader in your space if you engage in a content management and content marketing campaign tailor made to demonstrate your expertise.
Blogging, on one level, isn’t much different than writing an ’email to the world’ — from that perspective, most people or organizations are already producing more than enough content to feed an interesting blog.
Comment or use the ‘connect’ form so we can talk about how this applies to you and your organization. In the meantime, here are the best articles I found on blogs and blogging this past week. Enjoy!
Two years ago, I wrote an epic post called ‘From Thinker to Thought Leader in one easy workflow’. The original title was ‘By Jove, I think I’ve got it‘ [shows how little I knew about writing effective post titles, eh?]. Well, it took me a couple of years, but I’ve finally found it. It? That elusive personal niche that everyone keeps talking about. I call it ‘content management and marketing for thought leadership‘ and it is my passion and my purpose in life.
What is content management and marketing for thought leadership you might say? First some terms…
Content management?
“Content management, or CM, is the set of processes and technologies that support the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium. In recent times this information is typically referred to as content or, to be precise, digital content. Digital content may take the form of text, such as documents, multimedia files, such as audio or video files, or any other file type which follows a content lifecycle which requires management.” Source: Content management – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“Content marketing is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation and sharing of content in order to engage current and potential consumer bases. Content marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action. Content marketing has benefits in terms of retaining reader attention and improving brand loyalty.” Source: Content marketing – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I like the perspective Mindy Gibbins-Klein’s shares in her book 24 Carat Bold:
“What does a real thought leader look like? How would you go about finding one, or becoming one, if that is of interest? Well, let’s start with the Wikipedia definition stated earlier: ‘A futurist or person who is recognized among their peers and mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights.’ Not bad, but there is one important word missing here: market. It’s not just about being recognized by your peers and mentors. To effect real change, you need a market, or followers, or fans or constituents or a congregation… you get the idea.
Gibbins-Klein, Mindy (2009-09-01). 24 Carat BOLD: The Standard for REAL Thought Leaders (Kindle Locations 309-313). Ecademy Press. Kindle Edition.
So to me, a thought leader is a person who…
Is an expert in their field
Has innovative ideas or perspectives
Promotes and shares those things using the “good, fast, and cheap” tools available on the internet
Becomes recognized
So then what is ‘content management and marketing for thought leadership‘? My simple definition goes like this: It is “becoming and being known as the expert“.
Here’s a little riff that I did last summer on the difference between thinking and thought leadership…
When I first rebooted e1evation, llc 3 years ago and shifted the focus from lead management to lead generation using inbound marketing tools, my tagline was ‘marketing, sales and technology for small business, non-profits and academic institutions’. I laugh now because that focus is so broad that not even Mashable! with their massive staff can cover it comprehensively. As time has gone on, I’ve continued to sharpen my focus so that I can increase my expertise in this emerging area. This is who I am and what e1evation, llc and this blog is about; content management and marketing for thought leadership.
When Michelangelo was asked how he created his classic work ‘David’, he said “”Ho iniziato con un blocco di marmo e scheggiato via tutto ciò che non aveva l’aspetto di David” [loosely translated: “I started with a block of marble and chipped away anything that did not look like David”]. I was inspired last week by Chris Brogan‘s comment “My blog is a piece of crap. Time to work harder.” If his blog is crap, what is mine? Why am I settling for less than sharp focus and clarified outcomes? In the month of February, my goal is to chip away from this blog everything that does not look like ‘content management and marketing for thought leadership‘.
Henceforth, this blog will be about the following topics:
Social Media [including blogging, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter]
and the strategies, tools and tactics that make them available for every thinker who aspires to thought leadership
…and I will parse out my thinking in the following categories…
Thoughts
Tactics
Tools and technologies
Trends
I’m going to continue to perfect the ‘e1evation workflow’ — my ‘lather, rinse, repeat’ cycle for ‘thought leadership’ marketing — while applying the zenlike simplicity of ‘getting things done’ principles to content management and marketing for thought leadership.
If that’s what you’re looking for, stick around. Watch me. Interact with me. Let me know how I’m doing now that I’ve found my niche. If you want If you’re looking for something else let me recommend http://google.com…
The highlights of my week included a couple of convos on blogging and Search Engine Optimization [SEO] with a brilliant guy named Ronnie Bincer that have my head spinning with the possibilities and cracking the code on autopublishing from Google Reader with the help of a tool called ‘If this then that’ or ifttt.com…
Using ifttt, I can direct content to several places at one simply by starring it or tagging it. This has great implications for my ‘content marketing for thought leadership’ workflow because it makes it easier for thought leaders to go from consuming content to producing content. I’ll have to so a screencast next week to show you what I’m talking about…
I just started digging into Craig Bading’s book “Brand Stand” and it looks very promising…
There is a growing need among consumers for brand authenticity and informative content from which they can make up their own minds. Audiences are asking for and, in some cases, demanding true engagement with their brands. With the expectations and buying patterns of customers aligning more closely with their values, fertile ground is now provided for thought leadership campaigns.
Craig Badings has put together an epic post on thought leadership trends for 2012. He starts…
I asked 12 people who I consider to be leading global commentators on thought leadership as well as a couple who have produced some amazing thought leadership programs in-house over the years to comment on four critical thought leadership questions for 2012.
In it, he quotes my friend Dana VanDen Heuvel on the topic of curation alone as a means of thought leadership marketing…
“No, I don’t think so.
“I think content curation may perhaps be a reason why critics are inveighing against thought leadership in the first place.
“Of course it is a useful way of identifying and re-branding an issue. But I think the trend will be to move towards more sophisticated thought leadership initiatives. For that to happen, a thought leader must be authentic.
“Authenticity, transparency and trust are values that will become even more important in the coming years.”
I agree with Craig, Dana and the general consensus of the article. Curation alone does not a thought leader make. It is, however, an effective means of bolstering a thought leadership position. “Content curation as a blogging model is widely misunderstood by most bloggers and marketers.” says curation enthusiast Jack Humphrey:
You absolutely must tie the content you curate into a post (i.e. links to different angles from different authors, bloggers, and news stories around the same topic) with original commentary. Commentary that makes sense and seeks to draw new connections, parallels, or shed new light on a topic others are writing and sharing information about.
I was recently taken to task on my curation style and I readily admin it may not be for everybody. In response I wrote this:
I always attribute content that I curate under Fair Use Guidelinesso that everyone benefits; the original author, the reader and me and I always encourage my readers to go to the source and read the original author’s entire article. I frequently use a curation post simply to share great content with my clients – my standard close of ‘Comment, call or ‘connect’ so we can talk about how this applies to you and your organization…’ – is an invitation to get customized ‘value add’ that I deliver via telephone to fill windshield time as I drive across the great State of Wisconsin.
How you do it is up to you, but I strongly encourage you to consider Craig’s article before embarking on a thought leadership marketing strategy. Perhaps it would be a good idea to read his entire 4 post series? Should you decide to pursue thought leadership marketing, please connect with me so we can talk about how the ‘e1evation workflow’ can help. I’ve developed a ‘lather, rinse, repeat’ cycle of thought leadership marketing that can help take your strategy to new levels. Questions? Feedback?
Dana VanDen Heuvel shared this with me as something we need to show at our social media bootcamp today. Had to share it here! btw, there’s still time to sign up. You can get more info here…
Back in 2000, I picked up a book at Barnes & Noble in Long Beach, CA. The Cluetrain Manifesto (affiliate link) was on the end cap display and having been involved in “Internet stuff” for a while for a few years, I was keen to explore what the book had to offer. Little did I know (same for most of us I’d imagine) that Cluetrain would be even more relevant over a decade later than when it was first written. Frankly, I can’t think of too many business books that can make that claim, so that in and of itself is really something. Over the past several years I’ve read and re-read Cluetrain a few times and have kept the 95 theses document close at hand. As we all look forward to what 2011 brings, it seems an appropriate time to get reacquainted with the full Cluetrain set of 95 theses albeit with a bit more depth. (one liners such as “markets are conversations” don’t have the same immediate resonance with everyone and thusly some explanation may be required.). So, in in the spirit of getting fully engaged in the Cluetrain mindset that I’m embarking on the project of bringing all 95 of these to life over the next 95 work days.
Dana VanDen Heuvel of MarketingSavant Group is engaged in a rather ambitious project over at his blog, but as I have said so many times before — when Dana talks, I take notes. Follow the ‘via’ link over to his site and track his ’95 days of Cluetrain’ — I know I will…
The good Lord has put some amazing people in my path. For a guy ‘straight outta Wisconsin’, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to collaborate with some pretty high octane people. One of them is Nilofer Merchant. Now Nilofer herself is not in need of a ‘total beauty makeover’ but her web presence was another issue altogether…
Nilofer and I met and worked together at Apple during the ‘Think Different‘ campaign — she at the ‘mothership’ in Cupertino and me at the field office in Chicago. We both left Apple and went on to other things; she to GoLive, Rubicon Consulting, writing a couple of books and me to eventually start e1evation, llc. Thanks to social networking, our paths crossed again recently. I commented to her that I was surprised to see a global thought leader like her using Posterous for her blog. She remembered that comment and a couple of weeks ago asked if I would guide her through the process of moving to WordPress…
The old Posterous site; click to enlarge...
For her theme, we chose the highly modifiable Canvas from Woo Themes and designing the site was ‘easy peasy lemon squeezy’ due to their flexible and powerful approach to WordPress theme design. We still have a few things to clean up, but Nilofer, being the hard charging kick ass girl she is, couldn’t wait to ‘go live’. You can view her site online at http://nilofermerchant.com but don’t follow her unless you want your world rocked!
The new site; click to enlarge
Are you a great thinker that wants to engage in ‘thought leadership’ marketing? Do what Nilofer did. Ask me to guide you through the process. Comment, call or ‘connect’ so we can get started…
Here’s what I’m thinking at the close of the weekend and the start of a new week…
To paraphrase my good friend Dana VanDen Heuvel of MarketingSavant, the difference between a thinker and a thought leader is that while the thinker has a point of view, the thought leader has a PUBLIC point of view; a point of view that is searchable, findable and knowable. This public point of view gets the thought leader a share of voice which leads to a share of mind which leads to share of market which in turn adds to the bottom line. Almost anyone can establish a thought leadership position using the tactics and tools I discuss and use every day; a good thought leader can beat the great thinker to the customer by learning to use these tools well. If you want to know about the STRATEGY of being a thought leader, then you need to head over to MarketingSavant.com, subscribe to the rss feed and newsletter and learn from Dana — he does the thought leader thing much better than I do. If you want to know about the TACTICS AND TOOLS of thought leadership, however, read on…
As of today, this website is ranked 364,509 in the United States by Alexa — and thanks to my friends in the UK, it’s ranked 273,939 there [btw, I want to use my incredible influence there to say one thing: “Hey, British dudes! Give Ireland back to the Irish! but I digress.”]. Three months ago, my site was not even within the top 20 million in the world so that’s a pretty rapid ascent. Traffic this week is more than double that of last week. Traffic this month is 59% greater than that of last month and today is only the 18th of the month. What’s the secret? Home bases and outposts. Home bases and outposts. Home bases and outposts….
Every day I use my ‘top 10 tactics and tools’ [tomorrow I’ll be writing about #2; using Google Reader to help establish your point of view] to market my business. Using a systematic process, I take the reading I do every day and spin it into a blog using good, fast, and cheap cross-platform tools widely available on the internet — kind of like Rumpelstiltskin spinning straw into gold — and I could teach you how to do it too. If you want to be a thought leader, Dana has the data and the strategy and I’ve got the tactics and tools; together we can help you get the market share you want!
Questions? Feedback? Leave a comment or use the contact form…
6/22/2011 Hey, kids! Back when this was first posted in 2009 I thought I was really on to something. And I was right. Here’s my Alexa ranking today…
If you want an effective but inexpensive website that rocks traffic, comment, call or ‘connect’ so we can talk about how this applies to your organization…
Nilofer Merchant is a kick-a$$ woman from Silicon Valley about whom I have posted several times before [search box!]. Here she is at TED speaking about innovation…
I think you can why I’ve been blown away by her for years — she’s a deep thinker and engaging communicator, Nilofer totally rocks!
Well, today Nilofer just ask lil’ ol’ me for help in putting together her ‘thought leadership marketing’ toolkit. What a great world it is when a Silicon Vally powerhouse can call on an ‘internet plumber’ from Algoma, WI and they can collaborate using this wonderful thing called the internet…
I know that when you get in the end zone you’re supposed to act like you belong there but I’m awed. And humbled. And I’ve been practicing and perfecting my craft every day for 5 years just waiting for an opportunity like this. I’m ready to kick a$$ for you — let’s roll, Nilofer…
Way #1? Curate content. The author suggests something like what I’m doing here: “Find your ten favorite websites, and then find your favorite post on each of them. Publish a post listing these top ten posts, and explain why you like them. You don’t even have to think about being creative, and everyone you feature there will appreciate it. This is what we do with our Best of the Web feature, and there are lots of other examples.” In this case, I curated a quote from his site to make my point. You can follow the ‘via’ link above if you want the rest of the article. Comment or ‘connect’ above if you want to be a world class curator and discuss what this could mean to your organization…
I’d like to call your attention to a new webinar being offered by Dana VanDen Heuvel of Green Bay. In a couple of weeks, Dana will be speaking on the topic of business blogging for thought leadership and few people know this topic better than him. Dana says…
“Blogging is one of the most important aspects of a thought leadership or social media presence, yet so many organizations struggle with blogging or decide to dismiss it altogether because of the content publishing demands of blogging. Blogging doesn’t have to be hard, take a lot of time or take an entire staff to publish.
The Blogging for Thought Leadership webinar will take you through the steps from developing your thought leadership position to creating a realistic publishing plan that any organization can manage.
Some of the highlights that we’ll cover in the webinar:
Developing your thought leadership and blog point of view
How to use insurgent marketing to claim a thought leadership position in a crowded market
The social media thought leader’s equation
The weblog publishing roadmap
20 types of blog posts to take your blog to the next level
How to create your own efficient blogging process
How to create the ideal social media publishing calendar
Getting the most from your chosen blog platform
How to connect your blog to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
Case studies of organizations with highly successful thought leadership blogs”
You can go to the source to sign up. Whether you can attend in real time or no, you’ll still get the content to view later…
This humble blog is one of the highest ranked websites in the US thanks to business blogging…
…and many of the concepts Dana will be presenting are ones we both consider to be ‘common sense‘ in this space — I wholeheartedly endorse his content and recommend it to you without reservation. Understanding the connection between business blogging and thought leadership could propel your online presence to new heights and there are few people better suited to explain it than Green Bay’s own Dana VanDen Heuvel. Be there when he lights it up…
A blog is an important asset to any business. It allows you to gain visibility as a thought leader, engages your audience in conversation, and acts as link bait. But you can only reap these benefits if you can actually get visitors to your blog. By now, we all know that content is king and that creating remarkable content on a regular basis will pay off sooner or later. But here are some simple strategies you can apply to each of your blog posts that will make your blog traffic soar quickly.
This is the start of a new series on how to use “good, fast, and cheap” social media technology to become a thought leader on the internet. The first step to becoming at thought leader is to realize you are an expert — no one gets to this point in their life without being great at something! Your area of expertise my only interest .0000001% of the population but if you multiply that percentage by the current world population of 6,817,500,000 I guarantee you it is interesting to someone else somewhere in world.
If you live in a small town like Algoma, WI with a population of 3,500 it’s quite possible that your area of expertise does not interest anyone else in your town or even your county. However, if you use the “good, fast, and cheap” publishing tools we have at our fingertips today, you could become a globally recognized thought leader. Let’s face it — if it weren’t for the internet you probably wouldn’t know I exist! imho, effective blogging combined with social media usage is the key to finding your audience…
So let me guide you as you take your first steps toward thought leadership on the internet. Your first assignment is to read Seth Godin’s free ebook called ‘Everyone’s an Expert’ [just click this link if you can’t see the book below]. It won’t take long — it’s only 32 pages — but the most important part of becoming a thought leader is actually believing you have thoughts that are worth sharing. May I suggest you click the ‘fullscreen’ button? Read it now. Think about it. Stay tuned for part 2 in the series…
I had a conversation last night with a friend and business owner who is struggling to get his mind around blogging and social media. I couldn’t help but think of him when I saw this…
“It’s quite easy for small business owners to become distracted by their day-to-day responsibilities. But in this competitive economy you can’t afford to miss out on the newest business innovations.
That’s why we asked 50 of the top small business bloggers to share their best tips for small business owners. Their response was incredible. While some shared nuggets of wisdom, others gave us actionable tips you can use right away. Here’s your crib sheet to the best business advice the blogosphere has to offer.” 101 Tips From Top 50 Small Business Bloggers | Wise Bread
Personally? I believe that a blog connected to social media is the single most important weapon a business owner or thought leader can have! Everyone has a point of view — that point of view needs to be PUBLIC to have an impact…
Each thoughtful post on your blog is a public demonstration of your thought leadership, personal integrity, humor, and professional insights. Source: HubSpot
The truth is, you don’t have time NOT to blog…
The question is, how to get started. For example, there are over 300 tools for managing your Twitter account. Which one[s] is/are right for you? That’s where having a guide to social media land can help. You can reach me via the contact page — I’ll be happy to talk you through it…
Ann Handley who literally wrote the book on content marketing tweeted this article by Haydn Shaughnessy on how to do thought leadership right…
Craig Badings has put together an epic post on thought leadership trends for 2012. He starts…
To paraphrase my good friend 
I’d like to call your attention to a new webinar being offered by 
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