Define your objectives and make sure they are in line with your plan.

Aspiration and ambition are often reflected in thought-leadership objectives. They may be as high as raising stock prices or improving views of innovation and brand trust.

Thought leadership approach should be aligned with company strategy in order to determine the appropriate objectives. If a company wants to be renowned for delivering cutting-edge goods, it must first provide cutting-edge items. The tale concerning that invention should then be told. If a company wants to be regarded as the top Internet of Things provider, it must provide functional goods and share a market vision that shapes the emerging industry and allows consumers to see themselves in the future.

These are the most common categories for thought leadership goals:

• Make the firm seem appealing to investors.
• In a new market, establish credibility.
• Demonstrate the viability of new technology or new uses for current technology.
• Increase confidence in the organization’s capacity to [execute, collaborate, create, and so on.]
• Enhance the reputation of a company, a leader/executive, or a group of leaders/executives.
• Make the company a leader in…innovation, a new market, a new method, and so forth.
• Increase revenue/sales
• Raising brand awareness
• Create a new audience [for example, on a social media platform, becoming a reliable source for the overall target audience]
• Recruiting: Make yourself appealing to prospective workers.
• Establish the organization’s context…
• position its activities or products in a unique context in relation to existing or future social, technical, economic, environmental, or political conditions.
• In the face of hardship, demonstrate deliberate leadership, reason, and humility.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A THOUGHT LEADER?

At its foundation, thought leadership is a marketing approach that focuses on material that positions you as an authority in your subject rather than information that sells. The idea is to respond to the queries that your target audience has. You’ll still have chances to promote your service or product, but first you need to establish trust and reputation as a knowledgeable, experienced, and helpful leader in your field.

What Are the Advantages of a Thought Leadership Strategy?
Thought leadership is much more than a white paper found on a website’s thought leadership menu. When done well, thought leadership provides a variety of advantages to the company, including:

• Set the stage for market strategies and judgments. Increase investor confidence by revealing sensible cognitive processes.
• Increase your clout. Establish a favorable image for the company and people who work there.
• Increase the number of possibilities for earned publicity. Encourage the submission of articles, quotations, panels, and keynotes.
• Increase sales. Leads are generated through thoughtful content.
• Create a recruitment awareness campaign. People want to work for a bean company.
• Networking. Thought leadership strengthens network ties.
• Market perspectives are widened. An organization like this would showcase its social justice initiatives.
• Compassion is shown. In stressful circumstances, wise leadership may provide a variety of methods for a firm to demonstrate its appreciation and compassion.

Creating a Successful Thought Leadership Strategy

Choose your target market (s)

The majority of thought leadership information should be free, allowing everyone to access it. That isn’t to say it shouldn’t be written for a broad audience. Each piece of thought leadership should address a particular audience as much as feasible. CIOs, CMOs, CHROs, and CFOs all concentrate on very different aspects of the company, so saying the material is for a “CXO” isn’t accurate enough. This isn’t to say that all thought leadership material should be targeted at the same people, or that thought leadership should only provide ideas in one direction. Organizations may choose to give both thought leadership and technological leadership at the same time. Content that spans the business and technical (or human resources and financial) spectrum should, in theory, be synergistic, but each may and should provide valuable insights to the target audience. Each piece of information should be tailored to a certain demographic. The program’s target audience list should be clearly stated.

Gather information on existing thought leadership.

Many companies cultivate thought leadership in an ad hoc manner. It’s never too early to start gathering the organization’s previous thought leadership. This might take weeks, if not months, for big enterprises. Regardless matter how difficult the process may seem, it must be completed since the business must guarantee that the plan provides a consistent story. Previous thought leadership material that was released without sufficient evaluation might represent outdated techniques that no longer correspond with corporate strategy, or it could have been created by individuals who no longer work for the firm. Consider revising the material and republishing it under the new look and feel of the thought leadership program if the concepts remain relevant.

Choose a strategy for your thought leadership program.

Thought leadership is more than merely publicizing thought leaders’ opinions. Every business hires thought leaders who can speak for the firm in public. Those thought leaders, on the other hand, may not be well aligned with the thought leadership program’s established strategic goals. Thought leaders will need to be identified and nurtured in order to successfully convey a unified narrative in programs that feature them (see items below).

Research-based initiatives that use third-party research to make a point for the company may also be considered thought leadership. This has the benefit of making the company seem modest by asking questions it doesn’t know the answers to, as well as associating itself with a reputable third-party research agency that brings its own thought leadership aura to bear on the subject.

Position-based thought leadership is another option for organizations, in which the organization as a whole takes a stand rather than any individual(s) representing the company. Advocacy groups and trade associations often produce position-based thought leadership to lobby for member businesses in commercial marketplaces and among government lawmakers and regulators, for example, the adoption of a technical standard.

Large corporations are likely to develop hybrid thought leadership initiatives that combine the voices of internal business and technical leaders with supporting research and participation in trade associations and other organizations.

INTERVIEWS AND MEDIA ENGAGEMENTS CAN BE USED TO BUILD THOUGHT LEADERSHIP.

You must contact your target audience in order to position yourself as a thought leader in your field. This is where the media can assist you in amplifying both your message and your brand. There are various ways for you to reach and influence people, from classic media like newspapers, periodicals, and morning TV programs to emerging mediums like podcasts.

It’s crucial to keep in mind that media appearances will entail some effort on your side, particularly if you’re just starting out with your thought leadership. You’ll have to present your tale to the media and journalists, earn their confidence, and convince them that you should be included in an article or interview. The flood of diverse channels aids these efforts greatly. Focus on a specialized magazine that targets your sector if major stations or publications are disinterested. Partnering with the media may help you get in front of your audience and position yourself as a thought leader if you have patience and persistence. Once you’ve been featured, it’s more likely that additional journalists or magazines will want to connect with you. But keep in mind that journalists can spot a phony from a mile away. Only if you actually demonstrate competence in your subject and provide important thoughts and views can you be considered a thought leader.

STRENGTHEN YOUR BRAND ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND IN BLOGS

While media appearances need collaboration with a journalist or magazine, social media and blogs provide you the freedom to reach out to your audience on your own terms. This does not, however, imply that you should upload and distribute material on the spur of the moment. Developing a content strategy is a crucial step in earning your audience’s trust and establishing yourself as a thought leader.

You must first identify your target audience. You’re attempting to reach out to these potential consumers. Who are your customers, and what are their concerns? Once you’ve established this, you can start creating content specifically for this audience. This stage will also provide the best avenues for delivering your message. If your target demographic is older adults, for example, you should prioritize blogs and Facebook above Twitter and Snapchat.

It’s critical to define your periodicity regardless of how or where you distribute your material. You want to post often enough that people remember you and recognize you as an influencer, but you don’t want to spam your followers’ timelines with unresearched and irrelevant material merely to reach a target. Each post should be informative and have a call to action.

Brand voice is another key element to consider. Finding your brand voice may help you increase the quality of your blog and social media articles. This entails infusing your personality into your material, which aids in building a relationship with your audience and making your content more memorable than just regurgitating industry opinions.

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS CAN HELP YOU REACH NEW AUDIENCES.

Hundreds of videos including talks by diverse influencers across a broad range of sectors may be found by searching for “think leaders” on YouTube. Speaking engagements are effective because they enable you to deliver a message to a particular audience without being distracted by extraneous factors. There will be other articles, stories, or postings competing for attention in publications and on social media. With a speech, it’s just you in front of an audience, demonstrating your industry expertise.

Seminars and conferences devoted to your sector are the best places to communicate your message since they are packed with people who are ready to hear what you have to say. There are, however, alternative methods to express yourself vocally, such as via a vlog or hosting your own podcast. Any platform that enables you to talk passionately about your field can help you establish your position as a thought leader.

PERMANENT PARTICIPATION IN OP-EDS OR COLUMNS

While daily and weekly newspapers used to have a monopoly on the op-ed page when it came to shaping ideas and influencing communities, new digital media have considerably increased the number of people who can be reached. Even if the editorial sections of your local newspaper don’t reach the same readership as they did 10 or 20 years ago, there are plenty of other websites and specialized publications looking for excellent material that would be pleased to share your thoughts with their readers. Remember that reaching the correct readers is more important than reaching a large number of readers.

Determine which publications your target audience reads and contact their editorial staff. Many publications may already have an opinion section or would welcome your input in a column (with a valuable link back to your website).

Take a stand on an issue or dispute in your field, choose a side, and express yourself clearly and effectively. This will make your work stand out, and an editor will feel obligated to publish your op-ed. Once your op-ed or column is published, be sure to maximize your exposure by sharing it on social media, including a link on your website, and promoting it as much as possible. Even if an op-ed differs from a reporter referencing you in a news piece, having your name and thoughts connected with a reputable newspaper is still beneficial.

Determine thinking leaders.

It’s critical to develop a talent pool if the approach will incorporate internal thought leaders. Conduct an interview with each thought leader to ascertain the following:

• expertise field
• unique qualifications
• participation in organizations
• additional material and publications
• activities on social media, including video
• degree of presentation ability
• degree of writing ability that is superior to that of their contemporaries
• any backstories about him or her that the press would find intriguing
• Gather a recent headshot and a short biography for each person.
• Develop thought leaders.

Thought leaders may be specialists in their fields and have a long track record of publication in academic or commercial publications. However, they are often inexperienced when it comes to presenting their ideas with the target audience for a thought leadership approach. Artificial intelligence (AI) professionals may communicate with researchers and academics on a daily basis, but they are unlikely to communicate with CIOs. When asking employees to represent the business as thought leaders, it’s critical that they’re provided the tools they’ll need to succeed. The following materials should be made accessible to thought leaders by organizations:

• coaches for writing, public speaking, and responding questions in an interview
• a fashion designer
• assistance with presentations and interviews (backgrounders and notes for audiences and industries)
• Support for social media and webinars on a technical level
• legal assistance in obtaining disclosure clearance
• Make a decision on a content management system.

In most circumstances, a company’s thought leadership content management system or systems will be the same as any other web-based content management system. It may employ a publication platform like WordPress or Squarespace, as well as a marketing automation tool like Marketo, HubSpot, or Act-On to handle interactions and landing pages, and social media management tools like Hootsuite. The content management system should, in theory, work with all forms of material created and all distribution channels. To make the process easier, the content management system should have collaborative tools.

Formats for content creation

There are many different types of thought leadership material. Every customer interaction should be planned. The most popular kind of thought leadership material is a white paper. The content of a white paper should be available in a format that allows PDF reading and printing. However, white papers aren’t the only kind of document that needs design. Design is also required for consistency and clarity in infographics, press releases, ebooks, case studies, original research, and other media. Before rushing to publish, a strong thought leadership approach considers the design. It’s OK to work on content while designing, but the designs should be finished far ahead of the requirement to fill them with information.

Make an editorial schedule.

The editorial agenda (also known as the editorial calendar) is a list of themes that correspond to publishing dates. The concepts that were brainstormed should be arranged in a logical manner so that they build on one other. To build a fuller story and more possibilities for involvement, follow the publication of original research and/or positioning with commentary and observations.

Successful thought leadership initiatives publish on a regular basis and plan material weeks or months ahead of time. The following items should be on the editorial calendar:

• subject
• author: Who is in charge of creating the content?
• the deadline
• editor in chief
• the intended audience
• primary structure
• There are major and secondary channels, as well as
• Search engine optimization (SEO), subedits, and transformation into various channels and formats have duties and deadlines.

The editorial agenda should be seen as a content production strategy. On the content, the lead editor will collaborate with the thought leader or a third-party author. The timetable is controlled by the managing editor or content manager. Thought leadership represents an organization’s reputation, and its development and management procedures should meet the same high quality standards as goods or services.

The post Becoming a Thought Leader and Developing a Thought Leadership Strategy in 2022 appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

How not to use LinkedIn

Here’s a typical scenario: you get an offer to connect from someone who you don’t immediately recognize. The person seems legitimate enough (i.e. not a bot), but as soon as you accept the offer to connect, that person starts hitting you up with all kinds of spammy messages, trying to promote something.

Or here’s another scenario: you join a LinkedIn group, hoping to learn more about a certain topic and meet other likeminded individuals with interest in the same topic. Instead, you encounter spam message after spam message, with people just trying to get you to buy something or sign up for something.

How to use LinkedIn

There is a better way, folks. Let’s say that you are trying to build brand awareness. Fair enough. But brand awareness shouldn’t mean just plastering your company’s name wherever you can on LinkedIn. Instead, why not consider writing thought leadership pieces for your company’s page on LinkedIn? The idea here is to publish engaging content, not “salesy” promotional content.

In other words, writing content about the future direction of the industry is a “thought leadership” piece. However, writing content about the upcoming launch of your company’s new product is a promotional piece.

Moreover, LinkedIn has really been stepping up its game as a social network to showcase rich media, especially images and SlideShare presentations. So if you worked day and night on a new presentation, why not add value to the LinkedIn community by uploading it to LinkedIn for others to see? That might get you a real response, in fact, if people can see that you are a thought leader.

And what if your sole intent is to use LinkedIn as a promotional and advertising platform? Well, there are plenty of ways to use LinkedIn as it was intended to be used, and not just to hawk your products under the guise of friendship. For example, LinkedIn allows you to sponsor your content, much the same way that you would sponsor your content on Facebook. That is one way for your content to appear in someone else’s LinkedIn newsfeed without coming across as pure spam.

Don’t blame LinkedIn, blame Facebook

In many ways, you can blame Facebook for people using LinkedIn the wrong way. It was Facebook that created a mentality of relentlessly pumping out content, building up a massive amount of followers, and then doing everything within your power to connect with those followers on a regular basis.

But here’s the thing – Facebook is a social network for casual acquaintances and friends, not for business colleagues. It might be annoying when some people just use Facebook as a way to get attention… but at least they’re not trying to sell you something.

If you are using a Facebook mentality on LinkedIn, then it’s time to step back and reassess things. Blindly spamming as many people as you know (and, yes, telling me about your new product launch is spam!) is not the way to go if you want a real response.

The post The Right Way To Use LinkedIn For Marketing appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

For this inaugural “Listen To This”, I am pleased to recommend to you an amazing 33 minutes of audio: Seth Godin speaks volumes on the Read to Lead podcast. Why this episode? What’s so important? 

Action–>Belief

Though this entire podcast is gold, I found my inspiration a little over 12 minutes in, where the following question is posed: “How do I resolve the idea that I often know I can, but I don’t always believe I can?”

Woh. That’s a biggie. You might want to read that question again.

You should really listen to Seth’s entire answer, but here is how he boils it down: “We don’t take action because we believe; we believe because we take action. […] Do first; believe second.”

I’ll admit it; I had to listen to this section several times to really understand what Seth was saying. The idea of action preceding belief just would not jive with my brain, and it still turns me inside-out a bit. Generally, we act on belief, not the other way around. Or so my thinking goes.

However, what I finally understood was the angle of the question. He’s not talking about belief in something external (i.e., a cause or an event); Seth’s talking about belief in yourself. Like, how do I convince myself to do something? How do I jump out of my comfort zone to start something that I know I can do, know that I should be doing, but am just not sure yet that I have the right to do? Ultimately, how do I squash fear and do the good work that I know I should be doing?

And I whole-heartedly believe that Seth is right; just do it. How do you start believing that you can do something? Just start doing it. Like, right now.

What Is Your X?

We all find ourselves in this boat: I should be working on X; I know that I should be working on X; seriously, I need to start working on X. Then we whistle casually as we saunter back to A, B, and C. Why? Because it’s comfortable, it’s familiar, and it’s not that scary X-thing.

Doing X might mean doing good work, but also doing hard work. Doing X might mean exposure. Doing X might mean failure.

Can I do X? Yes. I know that I can type the words, do the research, connect a microphone to a computer, or whatever basic skills that X requires. But do I believe that I can do X…that’s the sticking point. It’s a sticking point that you have created as an excuse, but it’s still there.

How many times has that sticking point, that lack of belief, that fear of failure stopped you from doing what you know is your good work, the work that needs to be done? Yah, me too. Let’s stop that.

Today, let’s commit to action. No Fear; Just Do It; It’s Your Turn.

Why wait for you to believe in yourself when you have such an opportunity to make believers out of everyone else?

Your First Action

Let’s start today. Scroll down and leave a comment. It’s not for my ego, it’s not for analytics, and it’s not for nothing. Commit to action and put it into words (your first action). Make your commitment real (and public); that’s why we invite your participation. Or disagree with the post; that’s cool, too. I’ll just put the blame on Seth (kidding), but go ahead and push back, and we’ll figure it out together. Then leave me a link to what podcast you’re listening to; there’s a very (very) good chance that I’ll check it out. Thanks in advance for any of the above, and let’s keep this conversation going.

Lastly, thanks to Jeff Brown and Seth Godin for making the effort to share their conversation with the rest of us. *Shanti*

The post Listen To This: Seth Godin on the Read to Lead podcast appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Why do you want to be a thought leader?

What difference does it really make if you or your brand is a thought leader? As an individual, perhaps you’ll be more respected, have more credibility, get more speaking engagements, or even make more money. As a brand, perhaps you’ll be more respected, have more credibility, get more PR, get more customers, and generate more revenue. As you can see, there is quite a bit of ego wrapped up in all of the benefits being a thought leader offers. What if instead of focusing on being a thought leader, you focused on giving your greatest gift and only that? Do you know what your greatest gift is? What if all of this work trying to be a thought leader and letting ego drive the bus is what is holding you or your company back from your true potential? If it is, what good is being a thought leader at all? That sounds like a lot of work to end up being mediocre.

What does being a thought leader really mean?

This question is really at the heart of the debate. There are a lot of individuals and brands who have worked really hard to position themselves as thought leaders, but, when you pull back the curtain, how many are truly thought leaders? I would argue that a leader in thought does not make you a thought leader.

It’s actually much easier to come up with good ideas that sound great on paper than it is to come up with ideas that result in plans that get implemented with tangible results on the back end. If I were to analyze some people I believe are true visionaries in our lifetime, it’s a pretty short list: Elon Musk, Tony Hseih, Richard Branson, and Jeff Bezos are right at the top. These individuals are not leaders in thought; they are leaders who turn forward-thinking thoughts into action, today, despite a mountain of obstacles in their way. That’s something worth respecting and something that is truly inspirational at the deepest level.

Interestingly enough, they are celebrated both as visionaries and thought leaders.

If you or your brand were really a thought leader would you have to be positioned as one?

Results take a lot longer to formalize than an idea

Perhaps what it really boils down to is that real thought leaders don’t have to spend time positioning themselves as a thought leader because their results speak for themselves. How much positioning do you think Elon Musk, Tony Hseih, Richard Branson, and Jeff Bezos have done for themselves and their brands? I honestly don’t know the answer, but I’m guessing it’s very little. If we were to entirely remove ego from the equation of thought leadership, the only thing that is left is the work, the results. Results don’t need to be positioned. Results are what they are. They could be tremendous, they could be mediocre, or they could be really cruddy. In any case, if we started celebrating people and brands for what they do versus what they say, how would our lineup of thought leaders change? Would we have a really hard time coming up with a list? I certainly would because what I see is a lot of talk about ideas and far less talk about results. Results take a lot longer to formalize than an idea. Many times the gap of time between an idea and the results it delivers is so great that the idea doesn’t seem as sexy anymore. At that point, the next question becomes even more important.

Are you really a thought leader at all?

If the gap of time between the idea and the results being delivered is so great that the idea isn’t sexy anymore, was the idea ever thought leading? Probably not. If it’s still sexy when the results came in, perhaps it really was thought leading. All of this forces us to step back and ask, are we really thought leaders at all? Have we really done something that created visionary results? And if we were to look at our brands, can a brand be thought leading? I mean, a brand can’t think, so it really it comes down to how thought leading the people behind the brand really are. Are your leaders and employees doing something that is still visionary when the results come in? If not, then isn’t this thought leadership stuff just smoke and mirrors? Isn’t it all just a bunch of lies? If they are, the results will speak for themselves and your industry’s media outlets will be beating down the door to figure out the story behind how you created them. Thought leadership unlocked.

When I really started to look deeply at thought leadership, I found that in a lot of cases we are equating ego with thought leadership. We are celebrating a lot of ideas that haven’t proven out to deliver results. As followers of thought leaders, I believe we can stop this trend. We can start asking the tough questions that cut through the smoke and mirrors. If thought leaders were asked, “What tangible results has this idea delivered?”, we’d start to see who is the real deal and which ones have positioned themselves into a place of authority they may not deserve.

For ourselves, I believe we are all worth so much more than positioning ourselves as thought leaders. I believe we are all doing important work that will deliver results. When those results come to fruition, it won’t matter to us if anyone else celebrates with us, or if anyone else cares about our ideas, because we will have already won. The results will speak for themselves.

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