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11 Jan 2010
This is a continuation of the post on the 4/1/2010 on how to take your thought leadership position to market.I spoke about six critical actions I believe need to be engaged in order to achieve this. I have covered the first two (1. Make it a strategic business imperative; 2. Know your audience) and today I will cover the third:
- Share openly
The three remaining will be covered in subsequent posts, they are:
- Cultivate the media
- Write and speak about your campaign
- Pump up your content online
Action 3 – Share openly
All the true industry thought leaders I have come across have willingly and openly shared their information. The very nature of thought leadership means exactly what it says – being a leader with your thoughts. And being a leader with your thoughts means being brave and going first; saying things that no-one else has either thought of or dared to say.
It means taking the lead on an issue or topic and owning it. It is nonsense to hide behind the excuse you hear so often: ‘But this is strategic information.’
Willingly and openly sharing information may appear to be obvious but I cannot tell you how many companies I have come across who shy away from sharing their intellectual property.
Thought leaders aren’t scared
Timidity, fear and reticence are not words that sit well with true thought leadership. Being a thought leader means rising above the crowd, sticking your neck out, being prepared to take a sometimes controversial point of view and going where no-one else has ventured before.
Forget what the competition thinks or what the competition will do with the information. You are the brand/company taking the lead – they are the laggards.
It will take them a long time to get up to speed in your chosen area of thought leadership. If they want to enter your space and you have done a good job in planning and rolling out your strategy, they will look like Johnny-come-lately.
The potency of a great thought leadership campaign is that your audience will feel the genuine intent. They will view it as something fresh, something that adds value to their lives and something that no-one else is giving them.
They will respect you for it.
Thought leadership is one of the most powerful ways to create customer loyalty, which produces that most potent of market forces, word-of-mouth or customer evangelism.
It is through your thought leadership actions or the act of openly sharing valuable information that you provide the platform for creating that special brand connection with your audiences.
2 Responses to “Tips on taking your thought leadership campaign to market – share”
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Craig, terrific point about sharing openly. Back in 2001, whilst working for a small communication firm, we talked with a PR agency about help with outreach for business development — byline article placement, speaking engagements, a book tour — and one point of contention was the recommendation that we write a book that outlined clearly our methodology, tools and recommendations in the book.
This was such a counter-intuitive perspective that we couldn’t wrap our heads around it. Give away our tools?
The agency told a story of a branding expert — you remember those — who followed that very dictum. Not only did he sell a lot of books (practical advice, clear instructions), he also became hugely in demand to consult. The sharing of his intellectual property didn’t hurt at all, far from it.
Still, it’s hard to grasp the concept of letting your hard work go for a song — and it takes a leap of faith to do it.
Cheers!
Sean
@commammo
Sean, it does take a leap of faith, however, the rewards as per your example can be substantial. There are also varying degrees in how much information you ‘give away’ or share and this all comes down to a judgement call. However, if you share too little people won’t perceive the value and will quickly move away from your site or your brand.