Thought leadership starts with a point of view
The first step in establishing your company as a thought leader is to develop a unique point of view. You can’t simply parrot what others are saying about your industry and market; there’s nothing special or worth paying attention to in that. You must have an angle—or point of view—that brings something new to the discussion.
Understanding and developing your thought leadership point of view can often be accomplished by answering a series of questions. While an executive brainstorming session might suffice, you may want to get input from employees and customers, or other industry experts and analysts if you have relationships with them. Ultimately, your thought leadership point of view comes down to distilling the answers to seven key questions.
Seven questions that help establish a point of view
1. What is your company’s position on how your industry is changing?
2. What new challenges will your customers face in the next 1-3 years?
3. How is technological advancement shaping your industry?
4. What innovations do you see on the horizon?
5. What is your company’s approach to helping the marketplace understand and overcome challenges?
6. What differentiates your company’s market position from others?
7. What can your company do in the market that other companies cannot?
Your answers to these questions will likely overlap. From this common ground you will begin to identify your unique point of view. Hopefully, others will adopt your point of view over time, coming to see the industry as you do, approaching and solving challenges the way you recommend. But when you are first setting out to establish thought leadership, your point of view belongs to your company and your company alone.
Four characteristics of a powerful point of view
When developing your company’s thought leadership point of view, seek a position that embraces these four characteristics:
• New-a new way to think about an industry issue, or a new solution to an emerging or existing problem.
• Relevant-your point of view should be relevant to a market need or challenge.
• Valid-you should be able to back up your point of view, either with empirical evidence, research data, or customer case studies.
• Practical-building a position of thought leadership is not the same as having a grandiose vision of the future of your industry. Thought leadership must be practical and realistic. You must talk about ideas and strategies that can be implemented.
Combine new, relevant, valid, and practical and you can establish a thought leadership point of view that motivates people to follow you and take actions that you recommend.
Develop content to support your thought leadership
Once you have a point of view established for your thought leadership initiative, you will need to develop content to support it. The content should be educational in nature, offering your audience helpful advice and guidance on solving the challenges and addressing issues that are important to them. Your thought leadership content should not be sales-oriented in any way. You’re trying to build trust and gain the confidence of your audience—not sell them something.
Here are examples of content that can support your thought leadership position:
• White papers—for both executive and technical audiences
• Presentations/speeches
• Webcasts
• Podcasts
• Blogs—a great way to publish quickly, helping you stay current and topical; also provides an opportunity to listen to your audience through reader comments
• Videos—interviews with executives or executive presentations
• Bylined articles—if you are trying to position an individual as a thought leader, use their byline in articles
• Books—especially valuable if your point of view warrants a longer discussion
• How to guides—strategic counsel or practical instruction on how to solve an industry or technical challenge
Need assistance in putting together a Thought Leadership strategy for your company? Give me a call and we can discuss the perfect formula for your business! 502/599-8313.
No comments:
Post a Comment