Tips on taking your thought leadership campaign to market – online

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This is the final post of a series across how to take your thought leadership position to market.  The last one was on the 14/1/2010.

I spoke about six critical actions I believe need to be engaged in order to achieve this.  I have covered the first five (1. Make it a strategic business imperative; 2. Know your audience; 3. Share openly; 4. Cultivate the media; 5. Write and speak about your campaign) and today I will cover the sixth and last:

1. Pump up your content online

Action 6: Pump up your online content

By maximising the use of the online world for your thought leadership material, you are making your point of view easily accessible to your identified audiences and sharing it with anyone in the online world who might be interested in the topic. This could be via a blog, twitter, your website, pod cast or vlog – you name it! There are many options open to you and more are becoming mainstream every year.

The objective is to inject your brand’s/company’s personality into the debate by using social media tools to give a human face to your company’s point of view.

Importantly the web gives you the right to engage with your online audience – it is a forum where you can ask questions, your audience can ask you questions and you can have discussions with other interested parties through discussion forums, chat rooms and the ‘ask us’ facilities available on most websites.

Traditional marketing tools for campaigns have changed

The traditional levers which we have pulled as marketers, advertisers or PR practitioners to sell products and services or change behaviours, advocate causes or build brands have changed.

Word-of-mouth is by far the most powerful form of marketing a company can access, and its greatest ally is the internet.

Brands today need either to be part of or to create their own conversations online. It is becoming just as important as driving media coverage. Why? Because the internet has accelerated and amplified public opinion – rumours start and spread online.

Moreover, while newspapers, magazines, TV and radio are here today and gone tomorrow, online coverage can potentially remain filed and accessible for a long time.

Online is the domain of new, powerful content created by consumers for consumers. It is competing for our attention and trust against traditional media sources, and in some cases it is winning.

This is well illustrated in a Media Centre Global Trust Poll conducted in the US in 2006 which found that 228,000 Americans think companies do not tell the truth in advertising while 276,000 think that word-of-mouth is the best source for purchasing decisions.

Word of mouth can be powerful for your thought leadership campaign

Word-of-mouth is enshrined in social media and is now commonly recognized as the most powerful form of consumerism in the marketing mix.

If you are looking at driving a thought leadership campaign for your brand or company you need to be aware of the tools available to you online in order for you to take part in and influence this powerful medium.

Your aim should be to supercharge your thought leadership content and, in so doing, engage the company with relevant online communities and help facilitate conversations in the digital world.

A digital influence strategy should deliver four key things:

·        Knowledge about what is being said about your brand/company in the digital space and the ability to track it and take part in it.

·        Productive engagement with customers, stakeholders and influencers in the digital space.

·        Optimised content, in order to attract the search engines and increase your ranking.

·        Measurement of your digital influence campaign’s return on investment.

There are a few key things you need to consider before embarking on an online campaign:

·        Senior management buy-in is critical, as they need to understand the importance of the task. This point cannot be over emphasized

·        Engagement online is done in a collaborative community: it is about marketing with rather than marketing to an audience.

·        Commitment – there has to be a commitment to communicating on an ongoing basis.

·        Honesty and integrity are also vital. Untruths, half truths and misrepresentations are cruelly exposed online and can be damaging to your brand.

That’s the last in a series of six posts on how to take your thought leadership campaign to market, however, I know there are a lot of people out there who know an awful lot about how to do this really well.  I would love to hear from you if you have any new or fresh ideas or if you merely want to add to what I’ve said already.

10 Responses to “Tips on taking your thought leadership campaign to market – online”

1. Sean Williams says:

   January 20, 2010 at 23:17

   Craig, good list and thoughts. A comment on:

   “Honesty and integrity are also vital. Untruths, half truths and misrepresentations are cruelly exposed online and can be damaging to your brand.”

   We are often in the habit of focusing on one particular attribute of our brand (inclusive of clients and organizations in general) at the expense of another. I’m all for transparency, but I cannot be surprised if we choose to direct attention to information more favorable to our brand rather then less. Does this fall in the “half-truth” category? In some cases, yes, but I’m not among the radicals that want all information known at all times by everyone. There are some things (a lot of things) that need context, explanation and perspective. Radical transparency doesn’t permit such things.

   Misrepresentation and bald-faced lies well and truly should be crushed. I just hope we don’t make everyone more stupid and ourselves less effective by interpreting all information downward into that category.
2. craig says:

   January 21, 2010 at 02:01

   Sean, oh how I grapple with this one – shades of gray mate, shades of gray.

   I reckon like everything it is a judgement call. However, there comes a point at which if your audience suspects you are not leveling with them you start incurring brand and reputational damage.
3. Shonali Burke, ABC says:

   January 21, 2010 at 02:20

   That’s such a good question, Sean.

   This is going to sound very new-agey, but as a former “flower child,” I plead guilty. It comes down to your stomach.

   Yes, sometimes we focus more attention on one aspect of a brand than others. That doesn’t mean that the others are dubious; it means that this [favored] aspect is easier to understand, more appealing, more likely to drive the action we desire. I mean, how often have you come across someone saying “you should really hire me except…”…?

   I don’t think that’s necessarily misrepresentation – it’s a human instinct and PR and marketing “take advantage” of those human instincts (again, I don’t use “take advantage” in the derogatory sense, so I hope it doesn’t come across that way).

   Where it *is* misrepresentation/dubious is when we promote those aspects knowing them to be untrue. That is revealed in our research, in our conversation with our clients, or… if nothing else, by the way we feel when we think about it. Our gut reaction – or our stomach.

   And in the online world, I think that “stomach” gets revealed pretty quickly, because people are quick to sense when you’re “different” in any way. So my bottom line is – just be honest. If people ask you questions, answer them truthfully (without hiding anything… ANYthing).

   If you have to think twice about what you’re saying… well, maybe it’s time to find another client.
4. craig says:

   January 21, 2010 at 02:59

   Shonali, I think that knowingly presenting an argument that we know to be a half truth or untruth is dishonest. While I do advocate, like you, honesty, I think there is a line.

   The line I draw is what I call the Coke formula line. There are certain things you are just not going to tell anyone – like the Coke formula. It’s not being dishonest, it’s merely being selective with the information you provide.
5. Angila Gillard says:

   February 15, 2010 at 05:46

   I have been a reader for a long time, but this is my first time as a commenter. I just wanted to say that this has been / is my favorite entry of yours! Keep up the great work and I’ll keep on checking back. If you’d be interested in swapping blogroll links with me, my website is Best Self Tanning Lotion.
6. craig says:

   February 17, 2010 at 01:36

   Angila welcome as a commentator. I am touched that you have been a reader for a long time – I truly hope that you are able to take some of what I talk about on thought leadership and apply it successfully to your business.

   Good luck and I hope you don’t take that long to comment again.
   Cheers
   Craig
7. Teddy Remele says:

   March 5, 2010 at 08:22

   Great posting, thanks a lot!
8. craig says:

   March 6, 2010 at 00:22

   No worries Teddy, hopefully there’ll be more which will be a help down the track.
   Cheers
   Craig
9. Rick Ford says:

   March 28, 2010 at 16:19

   Unlike many posts on the internet, this was fun to read and gave me some valuable input. I will have to put a backlink on my website. Regards. J
10. craig says:

    March 28, 2010 at 23:16

    Thanks Rick, glad you found it useful