What is Thought Leadership Really? A Primer on Thought Leadership Marketing

“Thought leadership” is a phrase that many are quick to throw out to make something sound important — but what does it actually mean?

Let’s start with a basic definition, courtesy of Wikipedia,

“A thought leader is an individual or firm that is recognized as an authority in a specialized field and whose expertise is sought and often rewarded.”

To help make sense of what’s being said, let’s break this definition down into a few distinct components.

A thought leader:

• Can be a person or firm. In other words, thought leadership is associated with a brand.
• Is recognized in a specialized field. A thought leader has some sort of following in a clearly defined niche (not a general subject).
• Has expertise that is sought and rewarded. A thought leader can monetize their specialized expertise because their audience is craving the information a thought leader has to share.

Because of the implications of being a thought leader, many brands are focusing their content creation efforts around the possibilities with thought leadership marketing. Being a thought leader can help brands position themselves as experts, using the perception around this positioning to bring in more revenue.

Of course, Wikipedia isn’t the only entity with thoughts about what thought leadership marketing actually means. We got in touch with some thought leaders within our network to share their two cents on the topic.

What Does the Term “Thought Leadership” Really Mean?

Dan Golden, President & Chief Search Artist at Be Found Online

“Thought leadership is a term that gets aligned with any sort of content production: blogs, white papers, webinars, speaking at conferences, and so on.”

Monica Metzler, Executive Director, Illinois Science Council

“Honestly, it means nothing to me. I think it’s a trite, overused, made up corporate-speak term that people want to claim for their Linkedin profile.

I mean, really!? Does it mean someone has thoughts they lead with? (Because then others lead without thinking?) Or does it mean that one is in front of their thoughts?

Does it mean you have the best, well-regarded opinions in some field of knowledge? Then you have expertise. If you mean “expert,” then say “expert.” That has meaning.”

Brian Davidson, Co-Founder, Matchnode

“Thought leadership marketing involves shaping minds on new ideas or ways to think about existing issues.”

Michele Kelly, CEO, K+L Storytellers

“Thought leadership is devoting your resources and talents to solving critical problems in a particular field and then sharing your knowledge generously.”

Clearly, the exact definition of thought leadership marketing varies by a wide margin, depending on who you ask to weigh in.

In fact, some of the thought leaders in our network denied its usefulness entirely, reducing it to an ineffective tactic. Others see it as an act of generosity that has potential benefits for the audience it serves.

But popular definitions aside, what we really wanted to know is what true thought leadership involves from more of an action-oriented position.

Here’s what our colleagues had to say:

What Does True Thought Leadership Involve?

Dan Golden, President & Chief Search Artist at Be Found Online

“Frankly – 95% of the business blogs & articles out there shouldn’t really be considered true thought leadership.

Content marketing does not equal thought leadership if said content does not provide a new perspective, forward-looking predictions or highly practical advice. Frankly, a lot of content marketing includes the “thoughts” (mostly unoriginal) and not quite the leadership.”

[bctt tweet=”Content marketing does not equal thought leadership if said content does not provide a new perspective, forward-looking predictions or highly practical advice. @thegoldendan” username=”manamica”]

Monica Metzler, Executive Director, Illinois Science Council

“[The term] Expert indicates extensive experience and/or training in something. And with the research out there about proficiency requiring 10,000 hours of focused practice, the area of expertise had better be pretty narrow and well-defined.

I don’t give a lot of credence to a claim of being an expert (or ‘thought leader’) in something like marketing or human resources. Those fields are way too broad and complex for someone to be an expert in all of it.

Like with the overuse of the term ‘innovation,’ I think people should find clearer ways to talk about an individual’s intelligence, experience, knowledge, and body of professional work.”

Brian Davidson, Co-Founder, Matchnode

“Persuading others that the idea is worthy of consideration.”

Michele Kelly, CEO, K+L Storytellers

“Thought leadership requires three things: proven knowledge and experience, empathy toward the people your knowledge impacts, and generous sharing of that knowledge EVERYWHERE.”

A common theme that tends to come up in discussions around thought leadership marketing is authenticity. While you might give good advice unintentionally, it’s not quite as useful unless it comes from someone with an expert background in the topic and actual experience.

Thought leadership marketing is a tactic that every business should consider — if they can deliver. It can help boring B2B businesses find a new way to make connections with customers. It can guide the creation of meaningful content that your audience actually wants to read, instead of a regurgitation of content already available online.

Effective thought leadership marketing is hard to do because it’s hard to be truly original in the information age. So before moving forward, ask yourself — “How can I provide genuine value without being repetitive?”.

[bctt tweet=”Thought leadership requires three things: proven knowledge and experience, empathy toward the people your knowledge impacts, and generous sharing of that knowledge EVERYWHERE. @mkellywriter” username=”manamica”]

Final Thoughts: What is Thought Leadership — Really? A Primer on Thought Leadership Marketing

Thought leadership is influence and influence is the ability to effect change, to change behavior or to inflict change in itself. We call it thought leadership but recently in a poll we conducted respondents (including my friend’s 9 year old daughter who wants to be an Instagram celebrity) universally agreed that true influencers change us for the better.

And ultimately, that’s leadership – the ability to change people and situations for the better.

[bctt tweet=”Thought leadership is influence and influence is the ability to effect change” username=”manamica”]

How to Get Started with Thought Leadership

One of the biggest obstacles for our clients is how to get started. They have strong points of view and expertise but how can they practically turn that knowledge into this influence we talk about.

Here are the 6 steps to take:

1. Practice awareness. When you have a moment when you experienced something that triggers and idea or an association that you are particularly passionate about, write it down. It can be as simple as this: I had [this experience] [today]… and it made me think ____________.  The experience here could be a conversation, a work situation, a revelation. It requires reflection and allowing ourselves permission to stop and document.
2. Ask your employees, your team mates, or friends: what are the things that you see me teach that I may not even realize I do.
3. Listen: do keyword research, look at google trends, listen to your customers, solicit questions… think through it – provide thoughtful solutions to these questions, in a format that explains a matter with more depth and better than anyone else. Ok, I set the bar high… you don’t have to do it always, but when you produce content, how it’s packaged matters.
4. “Producing the experience”: you have to write or turn it into a blog post, LinkedIn blog post, video, an Instagram or Facebook story or live video, a presentation, or a social media post etc. All formats work and you may have to use all formats. But unless it’s a super original idea, you’ll want to package it in the most compelling way, better than anyone else has before. Luckily, most people phone it in and use jargon, corporate talk and don’t write to help, they write just to write. Write to help. Paint a picture, use analogies, metaphors, stories, examples, bullets, lists, numbers.
5. Collaborating with other thought leathers or as Instagram kids call it, “collab.” This could take the form of supporting others by resharing their posts etc or actually producing content together.
6. Recycling a blog post that was already published on the website with added personal commentary.

But it doesn’t stop there. Just publishing original content once in a while won’t turn you into a recognizable thought leader. You will need a persistent and consistent way to express your knowledge.

For our clients, we write up social media schedules which we named The Daily Workouts. They may look something like this:

Audience	Type of Content & Owner	Task	Frequency	Channel
	Tracy C: workforce development issues and how we are blazing our own trail
		Write and publish to LinkedIn Publisher	1 x per month	LinkedIN
		Reshare what you published to all of your social channels	1 x per month	LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook personal
		Watch for strategic partners/peers/employees’ posts and reshare where appropriate	3x/week	LinkedIN, Twitter
		“Like” you company’s official channel’s posts. Also comment where appropriate.	As needed	Your company pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter
		Post and congratulate people on your team who do well, or win an award.	As needed	LinkedIn
		Post about events you participate in that are part of Fixer’s culture such as fundraisers and charity involvement, employee rewards events etc	As needed	LinkedIn, Twitter, personal Facebook

[bctt tweet=”Just publishing original content once in a while won’t turn you into a recognizable thought leader. You will need a persistent and consistent way to express your knowledge.” username=”manamica”]

Thought Leadership Take-Aways

Thought leadership marketing can mean different things to different people but the basic tenets involve a brand with recognized expertise sharing what they know with an audience who’s eager to learn more, with the ultimate purpose of effecting positive change.

Now that you have a better idea of what thought leadership marketing is, perhaps you’re interested in creating a strategy around it for your company. If you’re looking for assistance around how to approach this the right way, the experts at Lightspan Digital are just a call away. Get in touch for a free consultation!