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How thought leaders develop platforms Lecture 10 Karen Morath May 16, 2013
WRITING AS THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
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Lecture 10 (of 13)
• What is thought leadership? • Who are thought leaders? • How are platforms created and sustained? • Role of social media (blogs, Twitter) • Role of traditional media (op-eds, white
papers and books) • Role of speeches
Thought leadership
• term first coined in 1994 by Joel Kurtzman • “someone with business ideas which merit
attention” • someone thought to have progressive and
innovative ideas • a futurist • someone who leads thought in their
‘space’ or creates a new space Page 3
What is the value in it?
• be seen as an authority or a leader in your industry/subject matter
• attract media attention • attract more business (and be able to
charge more) as a result • create change/make a difference in the
world/leave a legacy
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Thought leaders
• In industries, sports, humanity, music... • Not necessarily about size of market • Who are you aware of? • Look at three individuals and three
‘industries’
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Thought l
Tom Friedman
• The world is flat • We know that because Tom told us • Thought leadership can be about
introducing new ways of thinking and understanding and introducing new terms that take off and become part of what we know/creates new language for new space
• (The Tipping Point, The Long Tail, Sophie’s Choice, Catch 22)
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Seth Godin
• Mr Marketing • Website, blogs EVERY day • Written at least 25 books, many mega-hits
that shape (lead?) thought • Books and ideas create new ways of
thinking and new terminology
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Sethisms
• Permission marketing • Meatball sundae • As remarkable as a purple cow • Connection economy • Linchpin • Tribes • The dip • Idea virus
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Sir Ken Robinson
• “Schools kill creativity” • Challenging people to think differently
about education/creating new space • Website, blog, books, TED talks, speaking
circuit • 172,666 Twitter followers • 38,234 Facebook likes
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Role of speeches - TED
• The ultimate speech platform in 2013 is the TED stage (not reach but gravitas)
• Most watched TED speech – ‘Schools kill creativity’, Robinson, 2006 – 8,660,010 views
• Once was the UN (in impact), now YouTube (in scale)
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Gandhi, Barack, Thatcher
• Politics is ripe for thought leadership platforms
• Exactly what we expect from our politicians and leaders
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BB, Elvis, Chuck, Madonna, Gaga, Pink, Adele • Thought leaders in music • Changed the nature of music • Pushed boundaries • Led the way • Became well enough known to need only
one name • Others?
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Andrew Bolt, Jana Wendt, Anderson Cooper • Do we look to traditional media for thought
leadership? • Do we get it? • Is that their role?
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Companies can be thought leaders too • Booz and Company – innovation (source
www.thoughtleadersipstrategy.net)
• Conduct original research • Media releases • Webinars • Articles • Speaking at universities • Develop a reputation
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And so can organisations
• United Nations (world peace) • Olympic Games (amateur competitive
sport) • World Health Organisation (world health!) • European Union (economics and politics) • Red Cross (humanitarianism) • Cancer Council/Heart Foundation, etc
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How platforms are created
• Writing original material on a subject or an industry that captures people’s imagination, changes the way they think, makes the writer the ‘expert’ in the field or at the vanguard of a new field of their making
• Ideas and work ‘ go viral’ whether or not online
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Some successful platforms
• Huffington Post – most successful blog in the world (80m unique visitors each month) and very influential
• Arianna Huffington a significant thought leader in ‘news’
• Perez Hilton 10.2m visitors per month – 10th most popular blog in the world
• Thought leader/go to guy in ‘celebrity gossip’
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Role of social media - blogs
• Blogs arguably the biggest influencer of thought in the 21st century
• Twitter and Facebook can deliver a platform of tens or hundreds of thousands, a huge platform
• YouTube the platform of choice for some • Email newsletters can be shared
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Role of social media - Twitter
• Top ten most popular people on Twitter • Justin Bieber has 39,033,855 followers
(source www.friendorfollow.com) • All but two (Obama and YouTube) in top
10 are musicians • But remember it is not necessarily about
numbers (create/own/lead your space)
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Role of traditional media
• Authoring a book is significant in itself but also creates media leverage
• Writing op-eds for newspapers • Being interviewed or writing for
newspapers and magazines in the field (engineering, cancer research, parenting)
• Writing ‘white papers’ or manifestos on areas of expertise
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Role of academia
• Publishing in academic journals can be thought leadership if the work becomes often-cited and influential
• Contributes to shaping thought in academic disciplines/professions
• Can then attract traditional media interest
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Key ingredients of successful thought leadership • Note the role of writing in each of these
examples • Credentials/something original to say and
a compelling way of saying it • Courage to be different, to lead, to publish • Presence to challenge the status quo
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Next week
• Visualisation and gamification of strategic communication
• Is writing now content production? • Impact of citizen journalism
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Example presentation title Page 24
Thank You
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