Posts Tagged ‘content curation’

Darwin effect to separate thought leadership content on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is making a serious play to be at the epicentre for business content and why not?

The logical step for any social media platform is to monetize and LinkedIn has seen the sponsored content dollar signs.   They already have a captive professional audience as well as industry and sector specific content that bodes well for related advertising spend – it could be a big money-spinner.

They have been successful with their LinkedIn Today initiative which enables users to follow industry related articles. Time will tell but we may see LinkedIn becoming the new hub of online B2B content.

Where does LinkedIn’s new ‘play’ leave thought leaders and content marketers?

LinkedIn can deliver content in an incredibly targeted manner and as a result content marketers should be forewarned – as LinkedIn’s audience becomes more discerning about their content choice it will only be the ‘fittest’ thought leadership-type content that will survive. Darwin’s theory will prevail in the content marketing wars.

Already there are tensions in the debate around the differences between thought leadership and content.  It’s nothing new.

Business people are turning their back on volume and more and more they are seeking quality, thought leading content.  It is the type of content that drives to the heart of their issues and challenges, offering new insights, shifting paradigms or cracking existing schemas.

The term thought leadership has been misappropriated by content marketers

How many times have you seen content erroneously labeled as thought leadership?  I see it every day on my thought leadership twitter feed and Google Alerts.  Often this self-labeled, self-serving thought leadership material is at best a collection of useful hints and tips at worst opinions of so called company experts.

But there’s nothing wrong with content. US-based Content Marketing Institute describes it as having the ability to:  “…attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience with the objective of driving profitable customer action.” All well and good but I appeal to corporates and those in charge of their content production not to label it thought leading content when it isn’t.

My co-author, Dr Liz Alexander and I define thought leadership as follows in our latest book: #Thought Leadership Tweet: 140 Prompts for Designing and Executing an Effective Thought Leadership Campaign: “Thought leaders advance the marketplace of ideas by positing actionable, commercially relevant, research-backed, new points of view. They engage in “blue ocean strategy” thinking on behalf of themselves and their clients, as opposed to simply churning out product-focused, brand-centric white papers or curated content that shares or mimics others’ ideas.”

Fiona Czerniawska from Sourceforconsulting put it brilliantly when she recently remarked that a lot of what passes as thought leadership these days is mostly thought followership!

Craig Badings is a director at Sydney-based, Cannings Corporate Communications.  He is the co-author of #THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Tweet: 140 Prompts for Designing and Executing an Effective Thought Leadership Campaign.  He published his first book on thought leadership in 2009: “Brand Stand: seven steps to thought leadership”Join him on twitter @thoughtstrategy and on LinkedIn.

#Thought Leadership Tweet – what space has already been claimed?

Thought leadership is not merely an opinion, opinions are everywhere and everybody has one, instead, thought leadership should be based on evidence/data/research.  I cannot stress enough how important research is for a thought leadership campaign to succeed.  And critically it should be across a number of areas.

First research the space you want to own, who else is covering this and are they doing it well – you don’t want to compete in an already overcrowded space unless you have something really different or a unique angle to share.  Then most importantly research the key issues affecting your clients’/consumer’s lives – Tweet #67 in the book asks: “What key trends are impacting your clients? Can these inform your thought leadership or is someone else already providing insights on these?”

The tweet prompts under this section in the book will help you in your discussions on where your focus should lie.  For example would you take on Dove on real beauty or IBM on a smarter planet?  Probably not as you would face an up-hill battle.

Thought leadership and content curation

The chapter also covers off our views of content curation and where it fits in the thought leadership mix.  If you are curating other peoples content and you want to use it to help drive a thought leadership position, you’d better be sure that you are adding something new or something of value to your clients if that is the case.  After all since when was merely collating other people’s content thought leadership?!

Our view is that content curation does two things:  It adds value to a conversation about a topic by assimilating a range of information on that topic, and; it can help you discover, inform and articulate your thought leadership point of view.

#Thought Leadership Tweet 140 Prompts for Designing and Executing an Effective Thought Leadership Campaign covers the seven essential elements of a thought leadership campaign. I have covered off on some of these in previous posts and in the new year I will conclude with the final two.

Already covered in this series:

1. Your guide to winning the content war and what is thought leadership? Covered in past post.
2. What does it take to become a thought leader? Covered in past post.
3. What impact do you want to achieve? Covered in past post.
4. How will you know you’ve succeeded? Covered in past post.
5. What space has already been claimed? Covered in this post.

Still to come:

1. What will be your unique point of view? Still to come…
2. What’s your communication strategy? Still to come…

Craig Badings is a director at Sydney-based, Cannings Corporate Communications.  He has consulted to companies small and large, listed and unlisted across Australia and South Africa about their communication strategies, corporate reputation and thought leadership.  He is the co-author of  #THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Tweet: 140 Prompts for Designing and Executing an Effective Thought Leadership Campaign.  He published his first book in 2009: “Brand Stand: seven steps to thought leadership”

Join him on twitter @thoughtstrategy and on LinkedIn.

#Thought Leadership Tweet – what impact to you want to achieve?

Tweet number 41 in #Thought Leadership Tweet probably best captures the essence of what you should be trying to achieve with your thought leadership: “Do you clearly understand your client’s issues and what keeps them awake at night?  Will your thought leadership address some or all of them?”

While most companies think about themselves when it comes to thought leadership they should be turning it around and focusing on what’s in it for their clients.  As the late Dr Stephen Covey said: “Begin with the end in mind.” And that end should be what matters to your clients.

Being a thought leader is not something you claim, it is something bestowed upon you by an audience.  To achieve this you need to be sure that you have done your homework, followed a rigorous process and ensured that the point of view you are developing has relevance to your most important market.

A great starting point for a thought leader is START IP

I first covered START IP in my book Brand Stand: seven steps to thought leadership published in 2009.

Essentially there are seven steps which will help you in your journey to creating maximum impact for your campaign.  They are:

1. Scan the online environment and the market in which your clients operate to help identify their issues and challenges. Scan the competitors to ascertain what their thought leadership or content position is.  Remember it is far more difficult to compete in an already crowded space.
2. Track your competitors to ascertain their thought leadership and content positions.  Remember it is far more difficult to compete in an already crowded space.
3. Analyse your ‘true north’ i.e. your vision and values and let them help guide your choice of a thought leadership position.
4. Research new points of view or review your intellectual property and see whether you can drive a thought leadership position around this or whether you can repackage and reinvigorate this IP to deliver great thought leadership content to your market.
5. Trends – understand the trends impacting your clients or target market and drive your thought leadership position around addressing these and thereby adding value to your market that goes beyond your product or service.
6. Identify a thought leadership champion.  You need someone to own and take your point of view to market but ensure they are involved from the beginning, that they are coached in how to deliver the story.  The second part of this is to include other members of the team across all disciplines so they can become word of mouth advocates and ambassadors for the thought leadership point of view.  This done well can have a remarkable impact on the morale of the business and pride of employees in their brand.
7. Panel – identify an independent panel outside of the organisation who  can add that much needed third party, objective advice and act as a sounding board for your campaign.

#Thought Leadership Tweet covers the seven essential elements of a thought leadership campaign.  Over the course of the next few weeks I will go into each one in more detail.

1. Your guide to winning the content war and what is thought leadership? Covered in past post.
2. What does it take to become a thought leader? Covered in past post.
3. What impact do you want to achieve? Covered in this post.
4. How will you know you’ve succeeded? Still to come…
5. What space has already been claimed? Still to come…
6. What will be your unique point of view? Still to come…
7. What’s your communication strategy? Still to come…

Look out in the next few days for the next blog piece in this series covering #Thought Leadership Tweet which will touch on how to know you’ve succeeded with your thought leadership campaign.

Craig Badings is a director at Sydney-based, Cannings Corporate Communications.  He has consulted to companies small and large, listed and unlisted across Australia and South Africa about their communication strategies, corporate reputation and thought leadership.  He is the co-author of  #THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Tweet: 140 Prompts for Designing and Executing an Effective Thought Leadership Campaign.  He published his first book in 2009: “Brand Stand: seven steps to thought leadership”

Join him on twitter @thoughtstrategy and on LinkedIn.

#Thought Leadership Tweet – your guide to winning the content war

On reading ‘#Thought Leadership Tweet: 140 Prompts for Designing and Executing an Effective Thought Leadership Campaign’, David Meerman Scott best-selling author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR had this to say: “This book echoes my view that people don’t care about products! Thought Leadership engages buyers about what matters to them, not your ego.”

And therein lies the clue to this book. Many organisations are squandering time, money and effort on thought leadership initiatives that do not move the needle in terms of establishing a differentiated brand identity, trust and a loyal following.

To win the content war requires smart thinking and content that critically goes to the very heart of your target audiences or customers’/clients’ issues.

Gaining an understanding first of what thought leadership is, is critical to the success of your campaign.

The first section of #Thought Leadership Tweet outlines what thought leadership is.

What is thought leadership?

There are many definitions out there.  In fact click on definitions of thought leadership to the right of this post and you will find a number of them.  However, co-author Liz Alexander and I have said this in the book: “Thought leaders advance the marketplace of ideas by positing actionable, commercially relevant, research-backed, new points of view. They engage in ‘blue ocean strategy’ thinking on behalf of themselves and their clients, as opposed to simply churning out product-focused, brand-centric white papers or curated content that shares or mimics others’ ideas.”

Why do some organisations struggle with thought leadership?

Individual thought leaders are in plentiful supply so why do organisations struggle with the concept?

My experience tells me it is for three reasons:

1. Organisations generally are not great listeners and many are not truly engaging with their  customers/clients around the genuine business, social, economic, environmental and political issues they face face
2. Many leave their thought leadership to the marketing department and it is not owned by senior management i.e. there is no culture of thought leadership
3. Most companies are too product or service focused and sharing content or intellectual  property is a big ask for them

As we point out in this book, we all need to listen more, understand better, and re-energise our relationships with increasingly discerning, demanding and sceptical customers and clients.  Our believe and experience shows that the way around this is to differentiate with compelling points of view that are intriguing, innovative, inspiring and wholly relevant to your audience.

Thought leadership is a discipline requiring a process

Adapting to the content war currently raging for share of consumers’ and clients minds requires a disciplined approach and focus.  #Thought Leadership Tweet makes this easy.  It takes the reader on a journey and in process delivers a complete methodology for a thought leadership campaign.

These are the seven essential elements of a thought leadership campaign covered in the book.  Over the course of the next few weeks I will go into each one in more detail.

1. Your guide to winning the content war and what is thought leadership? Covered in this post.
2. What does it take to become a thought leader? Next post.
3. What impact do you want to achieve?
4. How will you know you’ve succeeded?
5. What space has already been claimed?
6. What will be your unique point of view?
7. What’s your communication strategy?

# Thought Leadership Tweet no 8: “A hallmark of true thought leadership is the confidence to take the route that 99.9 per cent of the industry experts don’t even see.  Will you?”

Look out in the next few days for the next blog piece in this series covering #Thought Leadership Tweet which will touch on what it takes to become a thought leader.

Craig Badings is a director at Sydney-based, Cannings Corporate Communications.  He has consulted to companies small and large, listed and unlisted across Australia and South Africa about their communication strategies, corporate reputation and thought leadership.  He is the co-author of  #THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Tweet: 140 Prompts for Designing and Executing an Effective Thought Leadership Campaign.  He published his first book in 2009: “Brand Stand: seven steps to thought leadership”

Join him on twitter @thoughtstrategy and on LinkedIn.

B2B goes mad on content…but

B2B goes mad on content…but

If the research findings by B2B Content Marketing Trends is anything to go by then content marketing has moved from buzz word to an absolute must have for B2B companies…  But there is a worrying trend emerging of using marketing automation to deliver content.

Based on the discussions and interviews I’ve had with companies who have been practicing thought leadership for a long time, their clients want more customized content – the direct opposite of automated content.

I’m not dismissing content automation.  I think it has a place with the right audience but be very careful you don’t devalue your content through your method of distribution.

Content marketing goals

The three key content marketing goals that were flagged by the 740 B2B Technology Marketers who responded to the survey were:

1. Content marketing = lead generation (68%)
2. Content marketing = thought leadership and education (50%)
3. Content marketing = brand awareness (39%)

These make a lot of sense and I was particularly pleased to see that thought leadership had the highest jump from last year – from 37% to 50%.

Content and thought leading content

In addition, 94% said they created their own content from scratch.

Brilliant! But the questions begging to be asked are:

• Did this content specifically address a client issue or challenge?
• Did it say anything new?
• Was any research was done to measure the impact of the content on the market at which it was aimed?

I believe these are three most critical questions to explore when engaging in any form of content marketing.

The discipline of doing this will not only help you deliver content that truly makes a difference to your market, it may even be construed as thought leading content by your market.  Then you’re talking true differentiation.

Craig Badings is a director at Sydney-based, Cannings Corporate Communications.  He has consulted to companies small and large, listed and unlisted across Australia and South Africa about their communication strategies, corporate reputation and thought leadership.  He is the author of “Brand Stand: seven steps to thought leadership” and the forthcoming co-authored book#THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Tweet: 140 Prompts for Designing and Executing an Effective Thought Leadership Campaign.

Join him on twitter @thoughtstrategy and on LinkedIn.

12 experts views on thought leadership – free e book

Hear what 12 experts have to say about thought leadership in this free thought leadership e book.  The experts include:  Bob Buday, Erica Klein, David Meerman Scott, Jeff Ernst, Rob Leavitt, Britton Manasco, Dana van den Heuvel, Matt Church, Fiona Czerniawska, Dale Bryce, Elizabeth Sosnow, Marte Semb Aasmundsen and me.  Click on this title to get your pdf copy  Challenges facing thought leadership in 2012 – the views from 12 experts

If you would like another free ebook which covers a seven step methodology for arriving at a thought leadership positon, click here Seven steps to thought leadership – START IP eBook_

Happy reading – if you enjoy these all I ask is that you tweet about them or backlink to this page – much appreciated.

I’m a director at Sydney-based, Cannings Corporate Communications. Please check out my book: Brand Stand: seven steps to thought leadership, follow me on twitter @thoughtstrategy or join me on LinkedIn.

12 experts on the key thought leadership trends for 2012 – content curation

The overwhelming sense from these experts is that content curation alone does not lead to thought leadership

I asked 12 people who I consider to be leading global commentators on thought leadership as well as a couple who have produced some amazing thought leadership programs in-house over the years to comment on four critical thought leadership questions for 2012.

Inspired by their answers I couldn’t help chipping in with my own thoughts.

As a result of the overwhelmingly positive response, I have split the interviews into four different posts – one post per question.

In the New Year I will make available an e book containing all the answers.

Interviewees include: Bob Buday, Erica Klein, David Meerman Scott, Jeff Ernst, Rob Leavitt, Britton Manasco, Dana van den Heuvel, Matt Church, Fiona Czerniawska, Dale Bryce, Elizabeth Sosnow, Marte Semb Aaasmundsen and me.

This is the last post in the series and it covers their answers to question four:

Question four: Can content curation alone turn an individual or company
into a thought leader?

Bob Buday, president of Bloom Group LLC, a firm that helps professional services and other B2B companies gain market leadership through thought leadership (http://www.bloomgroup.com)

“No – especially if all you do is collect articles. There are tons of automated ways to do it without a human intermediary – Twitter feeds, Google alerts, etc.

“At the very least, content curators need to provide more value to readers than simply identifying and collecting content on a topic. They need to explain why some piece of content is worth someone’s time – what new light it sheds.

“Yet still, even if you add that kind of value – providing commentary on interesting content – playing the role of content curator doesn’t go far enough to demonstrate that you are a leading expert on a topic.

“All to say there are no short cuts in becoming a thought leader.”

Erica Klein, Thought Leadership Writer and Strategist Specializing in Financial and Technology Companies(http://www.ThoughtLeadershipWriter.com)

“This may be totally self-serving on my part, but I think aggregating content marks a company as a “me too” provider and not a distinctive brand able to offer prospects and customers real, quantifiable value.

“True thought leadership can do so much more for a company than round up content at the OK Corral!”

Matt Church, founder of the Global Thought Leaders Movement and creator of the Million Dollar Expert Program. He is the author of 5 books including Thought Leaders and his latest Sell Your Thoughts (http://www.mattchurch.com)

“In the next 36 months maybe.  But after that those who synthesise, aggregate and curate Thought Leadership will lose position. It’s about extending the conversations or contradicting them. This means you have to go beyond ‘here is a good idea’ and start to say ‘here is what I think about X idea’.

“It’s about contribution and contradiction as ways of extending an idea.  A reader reads a book and goes ‘cool’, a curator reads an idea and goes ‘how can I share that?’ a Thought Leader reads an idea and goes ‘What do I think about that?’

Elizabeth Sosnow, managing director of Bliss PR a business-to-business strategic public relations and marketing communications firm based in New York City (http://www.blisspr.com)

“I love this question – it’s one I’ve debated myself.  I think the short answer is “yes,” but the long answer is “no.”

“In the short term, curation is a way to signal to your audience that you understand industry trends and “what’s ahead.”  However, longer term, curation signals a “me, too” marketing posture.

“True thought leadership requires differentiation to succeed, so curation just isn’t enough.”

Jeff Ernst, is the Principal Analyst, serving CMO and Marketing Leadership Professionals at Forrester Research and is probably best described as a thought leader in B2B marketing and sales strategy(http://www.forrester.com/rb/analyst/jeff_ernst)

“No, content curation alone is not enough to be a true thought leader.

“For people to trust you to curate or filter content for them, they need to already view you as an authority and trust that you are able to filter through the noise to deliver the content that is most useful to them.

“At minimum, as you curate content, you need to be providing your perspectives on the content you are delivering. But ideally, you need a steady stream of your own fresh ideas and perspectives, while using content curation to supplement that.”

David Meerman Scott is one of the pre-eminent thought leaders on PR and marketing. He is a marketing strategist, keynote speaker, seminar leader, and author of the #1 bestseller The New Rules of Marketing & PR (which has been published in 26 languages) and the Wall Street Journal bestseller Real-Time Marketing & PR. He recently launched his new online book: “Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage”. (http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/)

“No.  While content that is interesting will be passed on, I am a perfect example as I tweet interesting content, however, some
component of original content is important.

“Content simply created by others is not nearly as valuable.”

Dale Bryce is the group manager marketing for Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM), a global strategic consulting, engineering and project delivery firm. He has been instrumental in their successful ‘client first’ thought leadership approach (http://www.skmconsulting.com/Home/)

“Content curation is an essential ingredient in the overall mix that is thought leadership.

“Great content needs to be relevant of course but it should act as a social lubricant for engagement with an audience. Ideally content is just the conversation starter; a catalyst to a real dialogue about how people might react and respond to the idea just placed on the metaphorical table. And from that first conversation, big things can come….!”

Marte Semb Aasmundsen, graduated this month with her MSc Strategic Public Relations and Communications
Management at The University of Stirling in the UK.  Her thesis was on thought leadership.

“No, I don’t think so.

“I think content curation may perhaps be a reason why critics are inveighing against thought leadership in the first place.

“Of course it is a useful way of identifying and re-branding an issue. But I think the trend will be to move towards more sophisticated thought leadership initiatives. For that to happen, a thought leader must be authentic.

“Authenticity, transparency and trust are values that will become even more important in the coming years.”

Britton Manasco is the founder of Manasco Marketing Partners which specializes in creating thought leadership marketing and sales enablement solutions. Britton produces a thought leadership strategy blog Illuminating the Future and the executive journal, Elevation Quarterly. (http://www.brittonmanasco.com/)

“Yes, but only if they are a skilled curator.

“Among other things, I have billed myself as a “connoisseur of contrarians.” I seek out unexpected perspectives and provocative points of view. By tapping into their contrarian insights of others, I’m able to generate content for my clients that truly resonates with their customers.

“I’m thrilled that I can get paid to do it.”

Rob Leavitt is a B2B marketing strategist, specializing in issues-based marketing. He is currently Director of Thought Leadership at PTC, a $1 billion enterprise software firm. (http://www.reputationtorevenue.com/)

“Definitely not.

“Curation is useful both internally (for education and customer/competitive/market perspective) and externally (to build interest, traffic, and credibility) but it is no substitute for your own content and conversation that provide strong and different points of view.

“I’m all for curation initiatives but strictly as a complement to your own more substantial research, publications, and presentations. Done well (which itself requires a great deal of work), curation can help you become a useful and valued resource for information and ideas, but if they are not your own ideas you are still not a thought leader.”

Dana VanDen Heuvel is a marketing consultant, author and speaker. He is a recognized expert on blogging, podcasting, RSS, Internet communities and interactive marketing trends and best practices as well as thought leadership (http://www.marketingsavant.com/)

“No, it can’t.

“I’ve seen a lot of back and forth on Twitter this year about this, but at the end of the day, curation is helpful and even essential.

“I often tell my clients that the best leaders don’t always have the answers, but they know where to get them, which is how the thought leader should approach curation.  Know where to get good content, know who to trust and know what your audience values but never think for a second that curation = thought leadership.

“The Bloom Group has articulated, what I believe, to be one of the staples in thought leadership discipline with their “seven fundamentals of a thought leadership point of view”, which every would-be thought leader should use to check their work. Moreover, “novelty”, that is, saying something new about an issue and “validity”, having proof, are two of the most critical points of a thought leadership position.

“Curation satisfies neither of those.”

Craig Badings – author of this blog and the book “Brand Stand: seven steps to thought leadership”, and a consultant at Sydney-based Cannings Corporate Communications.

“Find me one recognised thought leader who has attained their position as a result of curating content only.

“If you can I will be convinced that content curation can create thought leaders.

“The very nature of the term ’thought leadership’ implies original, creative or innovative thought.  In contrast, curating content implies that you are not the original generator of that content and therefore cannot claim to be a thought leader off the back of it.

“That said, I believe that curated content can play a very important role in supporting and informing a thought leadership content program. Furthermore, if the person curating the content arrives at new ideas or insights as a result of that content then it could be construed as thought leadership.”

Please download my free e book top right of this page. Follow me on twitter @thoughtstrategy and join me on LinkedIn.

What role does content curation play in thought leadership?

I’ve always said no because to be a thought leader necessitates generating original, new content or insights that address a certain markets issues or challenges.  By doing this you display your depth of expertise on a topic or a business sector.

After some good banter on one to two websites about this I have developed two observations on content curation and thought leadership.

Curated content plays a support role to thought leadership

The first is that curated content can play a very important role in supporting and informing a thought leadership content program.  For example, curated content feeds are a great way to keep in touch with trends which can inform your thought leadership topics and in that sense help with the content calendar.

New ideas as a result of curated content  could be thought leadership

The second is that if the person curating the content is able to, through that content, arrive at new ideas or insights which they then deliver to their audience this could be construed as thought leadership.

Regurgitating content doesn’t cut it

Simply regurgitating someone else’s content is not going to cut it.  Repurposing content is not going to cut it and neither will re-packaging it.  Content curation cannot be called thought leadership.  Only when it leads the curator into a totally new hypothesis or insight can it start approaching thought leadership status and at that point it is no longer curated content but rather the curator’s interpretation off the back of the curated content.    

I don’t want to take anything away from content curation.  It is fantastic for a content/editorial calendar and it can be a great support to a thought leadership campaign.  Content curation allows you to monitor trends in your space and help inform better what you are planning in real time.

Some great sites on content curation

If you are interested in reading more on content and content marketing/curation there are some great sites such as www.contentmarketinginstitute.com  www.junta42.com  http://optimalaccess.com/ and www.getcurata.com

Please download my free e book top right of this page.  Follow me on twitter @thoughtstrategy and join me on LinkedIn.

CLAIMING CONTENT CURATION IS THOUGHT LEADERSHIP IS LIKE PLAGIARISM

Content curation does not equate to thought leadership

Find me a thought leader through curation alone

Thought leadership = original, creative or innovative content

Does content curation have a place at the thought leadership table?

Can content curation lead to thought leadership?

I don’t think so and I will give you my reasoning.  But first I would like to share with you a comment on a thought leadership definition from Jessie at Hivefire.  Jessie sent this in response to another definition I shared on this blog from Jeff Ernst at Forrester.  

This is what Jessie had to say:

Thanks for sharing! We’ve got one we like to use as well from a content curation perspective,

“Thought Leadership – a primary benefit of content curation. Thought leadership status is gained when your brand is recognized, and cited, as an expert on critical industry issues. Creating a consistent stream of industry-relevant content is a key tactic supporting a thought leadership objective.”

Jessie also gives a site where they share a heap of useful definitions across a wide range of content and marketing related topics: http://www.getcurata.com/glossary

This was my response to Jessie:

Thanks Jessie, I have a particular view on content curation and thought leadership which is well known to some of the guys at Hivefire – I don’t believe the one (content curation) leads to the other (thought leadership).

I think you put your finger on it when you say that creating a stream of industry relevant content “…is a key tactic supporting a thought leadership objective.”

I do think that content curation done properly can be a very powerful tool for a content strategy but by its very nature of taking other people’s thoughts, insights and content and repurposing it, means that the person, brand or company curating the content cannot be a thought leader merely off the back of other people’s ideas. That’s not to say that content creation doesn’t work – it does and it can be a great magnet for reaching an audience. It’s just not thought leadership.

I look forward to reading some of your other definitions and thanks for sharing this with me.

Over to you guys – I’d be interested in any other views on content curation and thought leadership you may want to share…

 Please download my free e book top right of this page.  Follow me on twitter @thoughtstrategy and join me on LinkedIn.