Does the business case for strong thought leadership override the vanity element?
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Ahh thought leadership. It is a term banded around so much that it become refashioned as something that is pompous and erring on the side of self-aggrandising arrogance. Or is it? Well, yes and no.
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I say Yes because the world is increasingly being overrun by those who describe themselves as a ‘thought leader’ (more on this below). I say No in that once you sort the wheat from the chaff there are some truly exemplary pieces of sound content being created. This content adds value and provides much-needed insights and support among the consumers of whatever they’re reading, watching, or listening to.
I love looking at numbers. They can tell us so much about what is happening in the world and what it means. As a PR and content agency that effectively ‘sells’ our clients as businesses and brands who truly know their onions, we raise their profile as being the right product or service provider for their target customers. To do this, we will often use market research in the form of polls and surveys to tell a story that is both relevant to its intended audience and boosts the perception of our clients by default.
That story, as it were, can be told in many ways, from news releases that we pitch into relevant media to content marketing tactics that are veiled as ‘thought leadership’ content. Think: blogs, articles, videos, podcasts, animations, newsletters… and more.
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It is not enough to simply rock up with an idea or regurgitate what others have already said about it and then attempt pass it off as your own to become a true thought leader. You will be found out. Rather, you need to put in the miles first. Much like a runner who enters a marathon having never completed anything more than a 5k, you cannot expect to go from aspiring to be considered a thought leader by your peers to it becoming so. Just look at LinkedIn.
Indeed, in September 2020 there were 87,000 people in the UK who stated their job title on LinkedIn as Thought Leader. Today, that number stands at 107,000. That’s 20,000 more Brits kissing their own arses and trying to sell themselves to the world as being great. Sadly, the UK is not alone in seeing a meteoric rise in self-adoring eejits.
Globally, there were 1.2 million self-described Thought Leaders on LinkedIn last September. Since then, 400,000 more people have added their names to those rostra. Now don’t misunderstand me here, many of that 1.6 million are true thought leaders. But most are not, and we have the evidence to prove it.
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An international study conducted by McKinsey found that just 10 per cent of executives who produce thought leadership content rank above 5 on a scale of 10 for ‘true’ expertise, insights, and ideas. 1 in 10 is rather pathetic, don’t you think?
So, against a backdrop of me blabbing on, what exactly is a thought leader, why do we need them, how can you become one, and can thought leadership support the new business pipeline?
In the downloadable PDF below, we discuss this in greater detail and share a great example of how one of our clients generated a six-figure contract on the back of a single piece of thought leadership content that we produced for them.
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Thanks for reading, and if thought leadership content creation is in your marketing plans in the coming months then do contact me directly and I can share a plethora of examples of how this form of promotion and engagement – when done right – can boost your organisation’s profile, influence, and bottom line.
Paul
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