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Thought Leadership
The “smart” reputation building strategy
+What is a thought leader?
A recognized authority on a subject
A trusted source
A person who has innovative ideas
Someone who shares information so others can succeed
+Another perspective
A thought leader is someone who looks at the future and sets a course
for it that others will follow. Thought leaders look at existing best
practices then come up with better practices. They foment change,
often causing great disruption.
Shel Israel, Forbes
+Can anyone be a thought leader?
Thought leadership takes time (sometimes years);
knowledge and expertise in a particular niche;
a certain level of commitment; and
a willingness to buck the status quo or the way things have
always been done.
Denise Brosseau
http://youtu.be/A91ovXbZap8
+How to become a thought leader
Create a robust online
presence
Flaunt high-quality affiliations
Give public speeches
Appear on TV
Win some awards
Publish a book
Foster approachability
Listen and learn
Join your ecosystem
Become discoverable (build
online credibility)
Share openly
Think relay, not sprint
Dorie Clark, HBR blog Denise Brosseau (eLC)
+
B2BThought leadership in business-to-business communication
+B2B
Thought leadership is especially important in B2B (business-to-
business) communication
Important because of the:
Complexity of decision-making
Length of decision-making
Large number of people involved in decision-making
Michael Brenner, Forbes
+B2B thought leadership = content
marketing
2011 survey showed 90% of B2B marketers were using content
marketing
Visual content
Textual content
+
ExamplesVisual content
+Webinars
EFI (digital printers)
http://w3.efi.com/resources/webinar-library
Maersk Line
http://instagram.com/maerskline
General Electric
http://instagram.com/generalelectric
+Infographics
+
ExamplesTextual content
+Case studies
Allrecipes case study on Pinterest
http://business.pinterest.com/case-study-allrecipes/
+White papers
+Tips for writing white papers
At least 5 pages
Identify a business problem
Include facts and figures
Offer a solution
Not how-to tips but deeper insights
Summary
+e-newsletters
Arketi Group’s Core e-newsletter
+eNewsletters
Each issue should have a relevant theme.
Include your contact details and a short description of what your business does in every newsletter.
Make sure that as many sections as possible link through to something on your website.
Always include a 'call to action' at the end of each click-through.
Make sure all content links clearly to something you do. Be wary of writing anything which is interesting, but doesn’t conceptually link to something you can sell.
If you have something very relevant to sell on the back of the theme, you can include one ad for it. But it should be in the style of ‘find out how to…’ rather than ‘buy it here!’
+Blogging
IXIA generates a 2,800% ROI
on its social media efforts.
http://blogs.ixiacom.com/ixia-
blog/
Jeremiah Owyang
https://twitter.com/jowyang
Hubspot
https://twitter.com/HubSpot
+Regardless of the platform
Use keywords in the headline and share on social networks
Include compelling images or videos
Don’t talk about your products, talk about solving the business’
problems
Share other customers’ stories (testimonials)
Experiment with different formats
Jeffrey L. Cohen
+
ConsumersThought leadership is not *just* for B2B
+Dove’s Real Beauty campaign
Business-to-consumer
marketing can also use thought
leadership strategies to
enhance the reputation of a
brand
http://youtu.be/XpaOjMXyJGk
