The dummies’ social media guide to thought leadership portals

The Dummies’ Social Media Guide to Thought

Leadership Portals By Clive Roach

March 2014

www.Socialmediajedi.info

23 March 2014 2 www.socialmediajedi.info

Thought leadership, what is it?


Thought leadership, what is it? Wikipedia defines a thought

leader as “an individual or firm that is recognized as an

authority in a specialized field and whose expertise is sought

and often rewarded.” If we take this definition, a company that

creates a thought leadership portal seeks to be recognized as

an authority in a specialized field.

Let’s explore the social media aspects of thought leadership

portals from six major companies –

- What was the social media impact?

- What lessons can we learn?

- How can thought leadership portals be created that drive business results?

Adidas Go All In


Adidas Go All In


Social sharing is included courtesy of Gigya. This produced a more elegant share experience very much aligned with the style of the Adidas “Go All In” site. Users are given the opportunity to comment on each article, so Adidas is the only thought leadership platform I have reviewed that supports this functionality. However, the vast majority of articles do not have any comments, which I find odd. I only found four articles that had comments. The only issues I found on the Adidas site were that the terms of service and privacy policy links were faulty. http://discover.adidas.com/com/goallin

http://discover.adidas.com/com/goallin

http://discover.adidas.com/com/goallin

Coca Cola Journey



Coca Cola Journey

Social The Coca Cola journey is available for eight countries plus global. There are also polls. I love the tone of voice on this portal. Examples of fun “must visit” sections on the Front page are “just poured”, “Staff pics” and the “stay and sip” section. So much content, every section brimming with images, things to do and read. This portal also includes quick links to the company’s branded social media accounts. http://www.coca-colacompany.com/

http://www.coca-colacompany.com/




Pepsi Pulse



There is a huge choice of languages. The interface is filled

with articles ranging from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, audio

(via SoundCloud) and video. Each article can be shared to

Google+, Twitter, Facebook etc. The “What’s now” section has

the Pepsi content and the “Your voice” section is where you

will find the user generated content.

In summary, a fully immersive experience, with a nice mix of

cool Pepsi content and user generated content delivered in a

highly visual interface, with a huge selection of languages and

lots of social sharing opportunities.

http://www.pepsi.com/

Pepsi Pulse



Intel IQ


Intel IQ


IQ by Intel explores technology culture, news, trends,

innovations, and the people behind them.

The site mainly has the articles presented in a grid design.

The IQ Intel portal only has Twitter, Facebook and email share

buttons.

There is no user generated content or collaboration

opportunities.

http://iq.intel.com/



Ford Social


Ford Social


Ford Social; "fresh way of thinking, interacting and creating

that puts you in the driver’s seat. Ford friends, fans and

aficionados—this is for you. A place to share your stories,

pics, ideas and more. So press play to see what Ford Social

has to offer. And then come on in and be a part of the action".

Ford Social allows user generated content to be posted.

Users can also read about first-hand experiences from other

members and submit their own.

In addition they can post ideas and submit pictures. You can

also grab a badge that shows your love for Ford. A very nice

easy to use portal.

http://social.ford.com/



GE Reports


GE Reports


GE Reports has been around for many years. Interesting to

see that it is located on Tumblr. "GE Reports is a daily, award-

winning online magazine published by GE. The website and

its companion Twitter handle feature stories about innovation,

science and technology, as well as viewpoints on important

issues regarding GE and the world". This portal makes use of

the standard share bar in Tumblr, so that Tumblr users can

like and re-blog articles and follow GE Reports in Tumblr. In

addition, GE has added social share options for Facebook,

Twitter, LinkedIn and Reddit for each article. There is no user

generated content or collaboration opportunities.

http://www.gereports.com/

denied: http://www.gereports.com/



SAP Business Innovation


SAP Business Innovation


Each article has an AddThis share button bar as the main way

to share.

SAP allows non SAP people to become contributors on

request by email. There is more than enough content to keep

you interested; a proof point for opening up the portal to

external authors. We shall see if the huge amount of user

generated content would add anything to the social media

impact of the SAP Business Innovation portal, and I repeat,

the user generated content is huge here!

http://blogs.sap.com/innovation/



The Social Media Impact of Thought Leadership Portals


If your company created a thought leadership portal, you

would expect that it would (or should) give your company

some rewards, some business advantage. What are the

benefits of having a thought leadership position?

I quote Michael Brenner -

"The benefits of Thought leadership start with brand affinity.

By communicating thought leadership you become part of the

conversation, early in the buying journey. You allow your

audience to get to know you."

Social Media buzz


Social Media buzz


To be a part of the conversation, you must be found, be heard.

I conducted a simple exercise to see how many social media

mentions had occurred within the last 30 days directly linked

or referring to an of the above six thought leadership portals.

There was not much between them, with the exception of

SAP. It had almost 3x the figure of the smallest result. The

SAP social media buzz was mainly powered by Twitter, but

was the only one with a global spread. All the other five had

their social buzz centered around the United States for the

URLs listed in this post. All of the company results were

strongest in Twitter with the exception of Pepsi, which had the

majority of buzz generated via Facebook.

How To Create Thought Leadership That Drives Results? -


I will conclude with 5 steps suggested by Michael Brenner

(SAP), in a post published by Forbes.

- Identify the questions your customers are asking.

- Answer those questions.

- “Give to Get”.

- Make it interesting.

- Invite customers to participate.

These steps drive social media results. Business results are

measured by a different bean counting device. Thought

leadership platforms should be carefully plotted to track how

they contribute.


They might ideally be best deployed at the top wide end of the

traditional sales funnel. They can contribute throughout the

funnel, but this must be carefully plotted and measured.

The sections and content direction of thought leadership

platforms must have their roots embedded within the key

themes or segments of the business from the very start.

Coca Cola once said that the “s” in social media did not stand

for sales, and this blog post details the story behind that quite

well. However, did Coca cola really understand what their

platform should contribute and where and how?

How To Create Thought Leadership That Drives Results? -

https://econsultancy.com/blog/62383-coca-cola-the-s-in-social-media-doesn-t-stand-for-sales


Thought leadership platforms that just broadcast will not get

the job done. Aim to create awareness, engagement

opportunities and then conversion. Understand where the

thought leadership portal “adds value” along this path and plot

your digital Eco-system including all your relevant digital touch

points, above the line, below the line, and hand shakes

between them, and measure, and adjust for success!

Read the blog post for this SlideShare

In summary

http://cliveroach.tumblr.com/post/79810762084/the-dummies-social-media-guide-to-thought-leadership-por

http://cliveroach.tumblr.com/post/79810762084/the-dummies-social-media-guide-to-thought-leadership-por


I am a social media strategist, blogger and speaker about social media

marketing. Subscribe and learn about how to use and adopt Social media

for Marketing, and keep up with the latest news. Currently I am the Head of

Social Media for Philips Lighting. I am active with strategy development,

activation, governance, projects and educational training activities for all

aspects of social media within Philips Lighting. I have been working in the

digital marketing area since 1997, and previously held roles in engineering,

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