Thought leadership must tell a genuine story

Guest post by: Craig Badings
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Your content will die if you don’t shift your paradigm - By Craig Badings

A few years ago, Amy O'Meara, Amnesty International's USA Director of Business and Human Rights, had the following message forbusinesses: 'Show us that you are trying...and we will take you seriously and work with you over time to help you become socially responsible. It's cool to be green but don't exaggerate...have a genuine story to tell."

For me,in those few sentences aimed at companies and their corporate social responsibility programs, she inadvertently delivered a message to prospective thought leaders and companythought leadership programs -have a genuine story to tell.

True thought leadership absolutely is about being genuine. The quick-fixresearchpackaged as thought leadership in order to drive a bit of media coverage really isn't going to cut it in the long run. It may help drive a great PR campaign but please don't label itas thought leadership.

There are some excellent examples of companiesthathave well and trulyintegrated their thought leadershipinto their businesses,aligned them with their values as an organisation and importantly linked them tothe needsof theircustomers. They do it because they genuinely care about the issues and challenges their customersface.

In the process theytake one step ahead of the competition and set themselves apart as the 'go to' experts in their field.

Without a genuinue story to tell, this very quickly falls short as the conversations you, your business leaders and your sales staff have with your customers will not reflect the depth that a true thought leadership position should deliver in the chosentopic in yoursector.

Those campaigns with genuine intentreap real, long-term benefits:

They gain a unique position in the market and create excellent word-of-mouth.
They help mitigate brand risk
Ina crisis, customers tend togive you thebenefit of the doubt forlonger
They cement your position with your customers and create better brand stickiness
They can even act as a great talent magnetas your brand becomes synonmous with innovation

Think long and hard about any thought leadership campain upon which you embark and ask yourself:

Is it genuine i.e. goes it go to our values and what we want to be as a business?
Is it compelling for our customers/clients i.e. does it deliver them insights to help them?
Is it compelling for our own staff?
Will it differentiate our brand from our competitors?
Is it something on which we can deliver?
Does it have senior management buy-in?
Does it have a champion/s?
Can we put budget behind this?
What are the measurement criteria?

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Your content will die if you don’t shift your paradigm - By Craig Badings

About the Author: Craig Badings

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Craig Badings has spent the past 21 years consulting to small and large brands about their public relations challenges. He is a director of leading Sydney-based financial and corporate communications consultancy, Cannings. Cannings is a member of the ASX-listed, STW Group Ltd, Australias largest communications services group. In 2009 Craig published a book on thought leadership 'Brand Stand: seven steps to thought leadership'. He believes that thought leadership is an incredibly powerful yet underutilized communications tool which if correctly packaged can add tremendous value to your stakeholders and, in turn, your brand. He was a main board director South Africa's largest PR company, Simeka TWS Communications and a regional director of their Cape Town office. In 1999, he started Rainmaker Public Relations. After two years, Rainmaker was bought out by London-based PR multinational, Citigate and Craig headed up their PR division. One year before immigrating to Australia he was appointed managing director of Citigateï¿½s Cape Town PR, advertising and design agencies. In 2003, he moved to Australia and joined the Gavin Anderson Melbourne office. In 2004 he started his own business and in 2005 joined one of the Ogilvy Public Relations Australian sub-brands, Savage & Partners in Sydney. Savage & Partners merged with Cannings in February 2009.
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