Archive for May, 2011

Great thought leadership job offered in London

Most professional services firms are very sophisticated in their approach to thought leadership.  The advert I found online at The Times for a global thought leadership position at PwC based out of their London office is testimony to this.

In particular I love this line: “We are committed to taking our thought leadership to new levels with the implementation of a new thought leadership strategy, which has been fully endorsed by leadership.”

One of the keys to success for any thought leadership campaign or effort is the endorsement and buy-in of the leadership team.  Without that your thought leadership is doomed from the start.

The one thing I found curiously absent from the job description is any reference to or a focus on the customer or client.  There  lots of excellent stuff in there about collaboration, content management, research, third party endorsers, etc but all of this comes to nought if its not focused on the client and their needs, issues and challenges. 

But then maybe that’s a given and they saw no need to reference it in their outline?

If you fit the bill I suggest you apply – sounds like a dream job for those who believe in the power of thought leadership.

Bookmark this savvy thought leader

Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Bookmarketer displays some great thought leadership characteristics

Every now and then you come across an example of a campaign, a company or an individual who exemplifies great thought leadership practice.

Dana Lynn Smith is the women behind the Savvy Book Marketer and the author of The Savvy Book Marketer Guides.  She specializes in developing marketing plans for nonfiction books and teaching authors how to promote their books online. 

In doing so she displays all the marks of a thought leader in her niche.  She is an expert in how authors should market and promote their book/s. 

Characteristics of a thought leader

Some of the thought leadership characteristics she displays include:

·         A clear understanding of the challenges and issues authors face in raising their profile.

·         A single-minded focus on an area she can own and one which plays to her expertise more importantly one which she is targeted at her clients’ needs.

·         Deep diving i.e. she has done a really deep dive into her niche providing insights across all the challenges faced by authors.

·         Saying something new – the information she provides differentiates her from the competitors and in the process, she has positioned herself as a trusted advisors or ‘go to’ expert in her field.

·         Leveraging and packaging material and content across every touch point of her target audience and her prospects.

·         And while I can’t say this for certain, as I haven’t met Dana, thought leadership and providing new, insightful information to her audience seems to be very much part of the culture of who she is and how she does business.

Thought leaders share

What I love about Dana is her willingness to share and give away heaps of useful content.  Visit her site, subscribe to her enewsletter and you will see what I mean.

Besides her blog, The Savvy Bookmarketer, Dana has authored The Savvy Book Marketer Guides, a series of ebooks on book marketing topics. 

She has a heap of useful guides which you can download for a minimal fee.  These include topics like: Sell More Books on Amazon; Successful Social Marketing; Twitter Guide for Authors; Facebook Guide for Authors; Selling Your Book to Libraries and Texas Book Marketing Handbook.

In addition, she has a treasure trove of free articles on how to market and promote yourself – great stuff for all those aspiring or already published authors.  

Finally, Dana is making maximum use of social media to deliver her content far and wide from her ranch in Austin, Texas.

For aspiring thought leaders, Dana is a great example of how you can set out and become a thought leader in a niched area.  Visit her site to take a look and learn.

Have you carved a niche for yourself in a particular area?  Do you know someone who has?  Is there someone you admire as a thought leader?  If so let me know.

Follow me on twitter @thoughtstrategy