It is all too easy to misunderstand the concept of thought leadership and how it relates to your personal brand. People often mistakenly think the word refers to some sort of wunderkind on the order of a Steve Jobs or Jack Welch. Or they belittle the concept as some type of hollow, self-promoting blimp.
Here is David Brooks of “The New York Times” making fun of thought leaders:
The Thought Leader is sort of a highflying, good-doing yacht-to-yacht concept peddler…Month after month, he gets to be a discussion facilitator at think tank dinners where guests talk about what it’s like to live in poverty while the wait staff glides through the room thinking bitter thoughts.
To which we can only say, “Bah humbug.”
Done correctly, thought leadership is a valuable way to brand yourself and your company. It allows people to feel comfortable with your firm even if you’re a small business in your industry and not the market leader. After all, if you had a choice to buy a pricey electronics gizmo from a no-name company or one with an established name, who would you buy from?
What Is Thought Leadership?
Now I know I am opening myself up to the thought leadership protection brigade but here goes:
Becoming a thought leader in your industry doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily the smartest kid on the block. Or even the most knowledgeable. It does mean that you’re the most receptive and understanding of your customers’ needs. And strategic and tactical in educating customers and prospects.
One of my favorite thought leadership examples is that of Marcus Sheridan, who seemingly arose from nothing to become a web and content marketing maven and motivational speaker. Google his name and you’ll get a mere 5 million results.
Sheridan, an owner of River Pools and Spas, was hitting a rough patch in 2009 and had overdrawn the company’s bank account on three consecutive weeks. Realizing he needed to do something different, he started blogging. He didn’t just blog to blog but answered customers’ questions strategically—answering the biggest questions they had—or at least posing the questions—thereby securing top rank in the search engines for the answers to the questions most on customers’ minds. Suddenly, River Pools was the authority on fiberglass pools. His approach has worked with revenues now exceeding what they were before the downturn and Sheridan hailed as a web marketing guru.
Now, Sheridan is an extreme case; most of us are not going to become as well known—nor do we necessarily need to be—to succeed. However, you can distinguish yourself in your respective field and go from, as we like to say, “anonymity to the ‘New York Times.’”
Enhancing Your Personal Brand through Thought Leadership
Ready to enhance your personal brand through thought leadership? Here are 11 ways to help you do just that:
1. Develop and tell a coherent, compelling story: What makes your company (or yourself) tick? How do you delight your customers? What sets you apart from the pack?
Pro Tip: Don’t be too generic or bland. Hone in on your key difference.
2. Get on the podium: Getting yourself on panels at industry conferences is one of the best ways to gain attention and attract decision makers.
Pro Tip: Try to present with a client/customer. It makes you more appealing to conference organizers and nothing sells you better than a happy customer.
3. Assess your content marketing strategy: Develop articles, blogs, columns, videos, and other content platforms that educate and speak to customers’ needs while establishing your expertise.
Pro Tip: Don’t reinvent the wheel. Repurpose content for different media.
4. Follow influential journalists, bloggers, and thought leaders on Twitter: Develop lists of key reporters, editors, bloggers, and industry thought leaders; follow them, engage with them, and retweet their posts.
Pro Tip: Muckrack.com is a good place to find journalists.
5. Don’t just tout your product or service: Develop key messages that answer the question: Why should anyone care? Pro Tip: Don’t think about why you care, but why your customers care.
6. Talk in plain English: Avoid obscuring your message by using industry jargon and talking “inside baseball.”
Pro Tip: Do the mom test. If your mother or another non-industry-savvy person understands what you’re saying, you’re talking straight.
7. Tell an exciting story: Use compelling elements such as data, visuals, and infographics to illustrate your points.
Pro Tip: Use these elements strategically to advance your story, not just to sex it up.
8. Be newsworthy: Tie what you’re doing to something happening in the news —especially if it’s in your sector or a target vertical market. Pitch your article to business and trade publications.
Pro Tip: Monitor key websites for items you can comment on.
9. Get others to tell your story: Gather and promote testimonials, case studies, and white papers from partners and clients.
Pro Tip: Promote this on social media calling out customers and partners.
10. Expand your circle of influence: Don’t just limit yourself to a blog post. Tweet about it. Create a video addressing some of the questions. Post in other social media channels. You want to be everywhere your customer and prospect is.
Pro Tip: Use a tool like Hootsuite to post on multiple platforms.
11. Curate content: Provide a quick synopsis of articles in your industry. Post links to the articles in social media in addition to blogging about them.
Pro Tip: Don’t just post links. Add your unique perspective to the content you curate.
Are you ready to make the leap from anonymity to thought leader in 2014? I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please post your comments in the box below.
via Business 2 Community http://www.business2community.com/branding/amplify-personal-brand-thought-leadership-2014-0728192?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=amplify-personal-brand-thought-leadership-2014
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