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That was the question I was recently asked by my friend Vivienne Neale. I wasn’t sure how to reply. After all, we all have our “thought leaders” whom we follow. Me, I always wanted to be part of a community where doing meaningful things made belonging matter. Honestly, I don’t consider myself a thought leader. I simply shared my ideas and work because I felt alone in my mission to change the future of business. I’ve always believed I couldn’t do it alone. I, we, needed one another to learn, unlearn, grow and change.
I once said that becoming a thought leader is about YOU being inspired to do something that helps someone else....
I found this genuine love for the craft of marketing to be a common thread among marketing experts while I was researching and creating the new list of 103 Genuine Marketing Thought Leaders. I noticed every person on the list had a passion for marketing driving them to explore, push the bounds, and do what marketers do best: be creative. For these marketers, “being creative” means everything from using comics to sell enterprise software (Tom Fishburne, #2) and blowing up the idea of branding (Cindy Gallop #9) to understanding the connection between doorknobs and white papers (Donald Norman #8). Ideas from these passionate marketers are changing the face of marketing and how it is executed....
Done the right way, written content can turn a company from one of many competitors into an industry thought leader and help businesses flourish.
Why any company should strive to become a thought leader
Thought leadership is more than simply a marketing buzzword. If a company establishes itself as a thought leader in their respective field, it turns from a business into an experienced and competent expert and a trustworthy source of information and guidance. This doesn’t only increase a brand’s visibility and traffic – it also increases the likelihood that customers will feel like they can rely on the company when it comes to making a purchasing decision. But to become thought leaders, brands have to do more than simply produce regular content that shows their interest in their specific field. Rather, they have to provide the audience with a compelling, informed, and original point of view. Any potential customer will have plenty of questions on their mind. A good thought leader anticipates those questions and answers them expertly, even before they are raised.
Thought leadership can never be a marketing strategy in itself, but is merely the intended outcome of any resourceful and creative content strategy....
Being recognized as a Creative Thought Leader in your niche takes you from being “just another expert to expert” to being someone who really stands out.
I can deliver marketing formulas (or what I call marketing prescriptions) all day long. But it’s not enough to just “do marketing” – you want to make it engaging, educational, inspirational and personally compelling.
You can have incredible content but if no one pays attention, if you are lost in the crowd – it won’t help your message, your business or all those people you want to reach. You’ll be a “best kept secret.” We don’t want that!
A thought leader is one who drives discussion and conversation in their field, influencing the way business is done. By virtue of their renowned expertise, these experts have a significant edge when it comes to marketing.
Thought leadership marketing is a relatively new term, but it has quickly taken hold in the digital world. As you may be able to guess, thought leadership marketing involves leveraging your experience to engage in marketing.
Before we get into the fundamental ingredients for successful marketing through thought leadership, it’s important to understand that thought leadership is relative to where you do business....
Publish or perish" is an adage often used in the context of academia.
For would-be professors to be considered for tenured positions, they must regularly showcase their brilliance through publishing relevant scholarly works.
I would argue that CEOs should follow the same advice, but the output shouldn't be doctoral-thesis-worthy communications. Rather, they should be writing compelling blog content to advance their business and personal interests.
Below are five reasons why organizations should embrace the CEO blog....
Charlene Li argues that being active on social media is different for leaders, and requires a special set of skills."It's one thing for your organization to be tweeting and making videos and sharing content, and it's quite a different thing for you as a leader to go out there."One of the challenges, she says, is that leadership is an art--everyone does it differently. This makes it hard to create a single blueprint for exercising leadership through social channels....
Influencer Marketing was a hot topic in 2014 and will continue to gain momentum in 2015 for both B2C and B2B marketers, especially when it comes to content co-creation.
Why the warm and fuzzy for influencer content you ask? According to CMI and MarketingProfs, over 90% of B2B marketers are investing in content marketing. Yet, in an age of information overload where 74GB of data are delivered per person, per day (USC), standing out to business buyers can require unreasonable budgets and resources.
Inspired by the need to scale content marketing performance, a growing number of B2B marketers are creating better quality content that gets shared more often, reaches more prospects and grows their influencer network – all at the same time. How so? Through influencer content programs....
The idea of becoming a thought leader is a nebulous andconfusing concept to grasp. Every leader’s approach is different, and there’s no secret formula to success.
Becoming a thought leader doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time — not to mention a willingness to share the “secrets” of your success — and the right mindset to master. But once you understand that it’s not about your ego or selling people on your company, you can start to unlock its true value.
To put the cycle of successful thought leadership in perspective, here are five distinct phases that need to happen...
Peter Aceto, the CEO of Tangerine, recently said in The Globe and Mail, “I would rather engage in a Twitter conversation with a single customer than see our company attempt to attract the attention of millions in a coveted Superbowl commercial.
”This is the preference of a truly social CEO. Unfortunately, chief executives that embrace and understand the promise of social media are rare, so rare that we call them “blue unicorns” in our book, A World Gone Social. Why blue unicorns? Because CEOs that embrace social as much as leaders like Aceto are still so uncommon that we aren’t just looking for any unicorn, we’re looking for a specific color of unicorn....
How do people become truly influential in the social age?
If you, like me have been raised with the notion that celebrities, sports stars and politicians were influential because of what they do and not who they are – we’re on the same page. But when you actually examine today’s influential people and how they became influential – the picture has changed dramatically.
Influence is both a natural and learned quality that is developed over time. It can still be inherited, received by winning an election, or conveyed by a new job title – but that’s becoming less prevalent now. I’ve seen influencers in the social age drive tremendous awareness for social causes, leads for companies and votes for presidential elections.
Many of these influencers have mastered the art of communicating what everyone else is thinking or what they should be thinking. They are curious and always ask, “What’s important here?”
"I mean, influencers are a nice idea. But actually, they’re not needed. They’re no better than a couple of normal people endorsing your brand and will have no long-term impact. They’re overrated and make no difference to your business as people trust them no more than anyone else on the internet…”
Imagine if someone said this to you, straight-faced. We’ve seen it happen and it’s stuck with us. Not only do we respectfully disagree, but we’d like to take this chance to refute the above notion and actually point out the benefits of getting ‘influencers’ on your side.
Increasing customer advocacy is now a top priority for 67% of CMOs, and with 74% of customers relying on social media to guide their purchasing decisions you can begin to see why it’s such a high priority.
Here’s 8 reasons why getting widely trusted people from your field to sing your praises can only be a good thing for your business....
When I was in graduate school, I took what I thought was going to be a “filler” type of class in Business Leadership. It turned out to be one of the most interesting classes I have ever taken and it set in motion a life-long study of what it means to be a leader.
The shrill, noisy, and extemporaneous nature of the social web is not exactly an ideal environment for the traditional notion of leadership. I’ve been thinking about this a lot and have listed below a few ways I believe social media presents challenges for leadership....
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With everyone claiming to be an expert should you listen to? This list of 103 marketing thought leaders is made to help answer that question. It's also incorporated into Twitter lists so you can easily follow everyone with a single click.
Seventy-seven percent of B2B buyers said they speak with a salesperson only after they’ve performed independent research online.
More than 50% of decision-makers have eliminated a vendor from consideration based on information they found online.
With this many eyes watching, it pays to build your personal brand in the most effective way.
I’ve had success with growing my personal brand because of careful planning. I had things ready to go before I started promoting myself.
Here are the things you’ll need to have in place as you work to develop your personal brand....
Americans hold a more favorable opinion of CEOs who take public stances on controversial topics, according to “The Dawn of CEO Activism,” a study released by Weber Shandwick and KRC Research. Weber Shandwick has identified CEO activism as a factor that can “drive and differentiate corporate reputation.” Leaders taking a stance on hot-button issues is powerful. However, “The Dawn of CEO Activism” advises caution, stating that CEOs should be careful in choosing topics they speak out on. The research, which can be found here, extracted five key tenets of CEO activism, illustrating the pros and cons of vocal corporate leadership....
Pat Kelly vividly remembers when he first knew he was a "thought leader":
"In 2005, I met another 'thought leader' and I asked him how he became a 'thought leader' and he said 'I don't know.' It was then that I knew I could be one too."
Pat Kelly showing that he is a true "thought leader" on the This Is That Talks stage in Whistler, BC. (Joseph Schweers/CBC)
Kelly proved his skill at leading thoughts on the This Is That Talks stage this past April in Whistler, BC. As you can see in the video of his talk, Kelly confidently made grand statements, spoke with his hands, and had slides - all hallmarks of a true "thought leader" or "influencer."
"My talk was a big success: I said things and the audience nodded their heads."
Based on the success of his talk, Kelly hopes to appear on a number of podcasts about "big ideas."...
There are many ways for industry experts to share their opinions and expert commentary.This can include guest writing Op Eds, blogs and columns for magazines, newspapers and websites. Snow recommends four tips for Thought Leaders to follow in order to increase their chances of having their points of view heard in the publications of their choosing.
Brilliant. Passionate. Overbearing. Impatient.Steve Jobs's management style has been described in many ways, both positive and negative. Love him or hate him, there's no denying what he accomplished: Within a short time, he built the most successful company on the planet....
So that begs the question:How in the world can I, company X, leverage content marketing practices to effectively emerge as a thought-leader in my industry? And furthermore, how can I do it affordably?Three months ago I found myself asking myself the same question and so I embarked on a journey to try and solve it. After a lot of trial and error I’ve come up with a scientific approach that I believe can solve this problem for anyone....
I was recently quoted as saying, “I don’t give a shit” if Instagram has more users than Twitter. If you read the article you’ll note there’s a big “if” before my not giving of said shit.
As quoted: "If you think about the impact Twitter has on the world versus Instagram, it’s pretty significant. It’s at least apples to oranges. Twitter is what we wanted it to be. It’s this realtime information network where everything in the world that happens on Twitter — important stuff breaks on Twitter and world leaders have conversations on Twitter. If that’s happening, I frankly don’t give a shit if Instagram has more people looking at pretty pictures."
Of course, I am trivializing what Instagram is to many people. It’s a beautifully executed app that enables the creation and enjoyment of art, as well as human connection, which is often a good thing. But my rant had very little to do with it (or with Twitter). My rant was the result of increasing frustration with the one-dimensionality that those who report on, invest in, and build consumer Internet services talk about success....
It may seem tempting to seek out people in your industry who have millions of followers on social media, but don’t get ahead of yourself. While there’s nothing wrong with including them in your strategy, pay attention to the little guys too. Many people in your industry are well-known among a niche crowd, and they may be much more accessible than a CEO with 10 million Twitter followers.
So how do you go about finding these influencers? Here are five different tools you can use.
Thought leadership is one of those things that’s easier to talk about than it is to achieve. I see it as a state, something earned, and not necessarily something you simply do. Smart thinking or communication or publishing does not necessarily equate to thought leadership. It’s own people value it on the other side of your work that sets the stage for something great.
According to Miller, “Thought leadership is an essential part of any successful content marketing strategy. Both B2C and B2B companies can benefit from the many advantages of thought leadership to build a more competitive reputation and ultimately drive more revenue.”
Miller along with his team at LinkedIn interviewed several experts to assemble a gorgeous and useful ebook to help brand marketers learn how to optimize thought leadership strategies. Experts include Joe Chernov, Ekaterina Walter, Shannon Stubo, among others. You can download it here....
“How do people become truly influential in the social age?”
Clearly, Mark and I admire many of the same people. His article is full of examples where he showcases leaders in new media marketing and speaks to their qualities.
Monsters of Influence
The Forbes article inspired me to create my take on the qualities of a person of influence. It became a slide deck with a fun Halloween-themed twist and earned a spot as SlideShare of the Day.
I hope you enjoy it, share it, and comment below with your feedback and any ideas you have about the qualities of influential people.
There is famous and there is famous to the family. Cousin Aaron is famous to my family. Or, to be less literal, the family of people like us might understand that Satya the milliner or perhaps Sarma Melngailis or Peter Olotka are famous.
And famous to the family is precisely the goal of just about all marketing now. You don't need to be Nike or Apple or GE. You need to be famous to the small circle of people you are hoping will admire and trust you. Your shoe store needs to be famous to the 300 shoe shoppers in your town. Your retail consulting practice needs to be famous to 100 people at ten major corporations. Your Wordpress consulting practice needs to be famous to 650 veterinarians or chiropractors. Famous the way George Clooney and George Washington are famous, but to fewer people.
By famous, I means admired, trusted, given the benefit of the doubt. By famous, I mean seen as irreplaceable or best in the world.
Here's how to tell if you're famous: If I ask someone in your community to name the person who is known for X, will they name you? If I ask about which store or freelancer is the best place, hands down, to get Y, will they name you? If we played 20 questions, could I guess you?
Being famous to the family is far more efficient than being famous to everyone. It takes focus, though.
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![Why Influencer Marketing Matters [Worksheet] - Pardot | Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/7WlvyZ3QFdYue3RVNYY_Gjl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
Brian Solis shares a short and to-the-point definition of thought leadership.