Tweet

Tips on taking your thought leadership campaign to market: Three – share

Guest post by: Craig Badings

Article Overview: This is the third in a series of six articles on how to take your thought leadership campaign to market.

Tips on taking your thought leadership campaign to market: Three – share

I previous articles I have written about six critical actions needed to take your thought leadership campaign to market. I have covered the first two, make it a strategic business imperative and know your audience. In this article, I cover the third: Share openly.

The three remaining will be covered in subsequent aticles, they are:

1. Cultivate the media
2. Write and speak about your campaign
3. Pump up your content online

Action 3 – Share openly

All the true industry thought leaders I have come across have willingly and openly shared their information. The very nature of thought leadership means exactly what it says – being a leader with your thoughts. And being a leader with your thoughts means being brave and going first; saying things that no-one else has either thought of or dared to say.

It means taking the lead on an issue or topic and owning it. It is nonsense to hide behind the excuse you hear so often: ‘But this is strategic information.’

Willingly and openly sharing information may appear to be obvious but I cannot tell you how many companies I have come across who shy away from sharing their intellectual property.

Thought leaders aren’t scared

Timidity, fear and reticence are not words that sit well with true thought leadership. Being a thought leader means rising above the crowd, sticking your neck out, being prepared to take a sometimes controversial point of view and going where no-one else has ventured before.

Forget what the competition thinks or what the competition will do with the information. You are the brand/company taking the lead – they are the laggards.

It will take them a long time to get up to speed in your chosen area of thought leadership. If they want to enter your space and you have done a good job in planning and rolling out your strategy, they will look like Johnny-come-lately.

The potency of a great thought leadership campaign is that your audience will feel the genuine intent. They will view it as something fresh, something that adds value to their lives and something that no-one else is giving them.

They will respect you for it.

Thought leadership is one of the most powerful ways to create customer loyalty, which produces that most potent of market forces, word-of-mouth or customer evangelism.

It is through your thought leadership actions or the act of openly sharing valuable information that you provide the platform for creating that special brand connection with your audiences.

Related Articles
  The secret questions of successful thought leaders
  How to take your thought leadership campaign to market: One – strategic business imperative
  Thought leadership is a culture not a tactic
  Thought leadership's magic cube
  Three key challenges facing thought leadership
  Does product, sales or market leadership equal thought leadership?
  The impact of thought leadership on your employees
  Thought leadership blueprint and tips for 2011
  Does content curation have a role in thought leadership?
  Thought Jacking your way to thought leadership
  Tips on taking your thought leadership campaign to market: Two - audience
  David Ogilvy's greatest tip for thought leaders
  Economist on thought leadership - hypocritical or valid point?
  Tips on taking your thought leadership campaign to market: Four - media
  How to fill your pipeline pre- and post-sale? Thought leadership is the answer
  Thought leadership gems from someone who really stands out
  Tips on taking your thought leadership campaign to market: Five – write and speak
  How can failure and thought leadership go hand in hand?
  The nine fundamentals to thought leadership
  Public relations still has clout. Lots of it!

Article Tags: aticles, being a leader, business imperative, critical actions, crowd, excuse, font weight, leadership campaign, li class, li li, nature of thought, ol style, point of view, reticence, saying things, taking the lead, thought leader, thought leadership, timidity, true industry



Related Forum Posts
Re: First Facebook Ad - Experiment! - Hey David, Let me just say "Thanks" for taking the plunge! Like Trent, I've been very curious about Facebook ads as I've seen a lot of big name gurus talking about them. I don't quite have the budget for it yet, but I eventually want to test it out. Seeing your progress will be an inspiration to me and a lot of other people. I would definitely agree to let your campaign run for another two weeks yet. Who knows, you may bring in another sale during that time. If I learned anything from Google Adwords or testing landing pages, it's that you should only test one element at a time, rather than changing everything at once. Since you already brought in a sale, you know something is working for you. I appreciate you taking the time to post your results here and look forward to see how your campaign pans out in the long-run.
Business Tips - How about: Tips for managers to handle employees more effectively? Tips on how to deal with difficult customers? Tips on how to deal more effectively with suppliers? The only three I have in mind right now, but will try to come up with something else. Chris
Pitching without getting Poached - Hi Kevin, This is a great question and one I get ALOT! The short answer is a non disclosure agreement with a strict confidentiality clause and non-compete. Sadly, it doesnt always work. I recently hired a copywriter to edit some of my women's leadership work - and now I find out she is speaking on Women's leadership to my own Women's group. Eek! In any case, I'm the expert so I doubt it will go far. You do need to be careful and follow your gut on who to trust and how much information to share. Most people are honourable but you do need to cover your butt. J
Compete vs. Alexa - Thanks for the tip Clint. I checked out what Compete thought of EvanCarmichael.com and it says the top keywords that drive traffic to my site are: #1 mary kay - estee lauder - leadership #2 chris gardner, quotes by #3 gardner rich investment firm While I might rank for these keywords they are far from the top referring keywords. It looks like nobody has figured out the holy grail. I wonder how much ISPs are actually willing to share their data with Compete and other similar services. I would consider moving my hosting if I knew my ISP was sharing information about my website with outside organizations.
Bad books - One of my pet peeves: I really, [i:3gjt67s5]really [/i:3gjt67s5]hate those "franchise" books like The __________ For Dummies, or The Idiot's Guide to ______________. The titles offend me, and the way they're written (yes, I have looked at a couple), in a "yes we know you're not a dummy but we'll talk to you like you are, anyway" manner, get on my nerves. So any business books coming out of those franchises.... I never look at. I'm also not too sure about those "gimmick" books - leadership skills of Attila the Hun, or of The Sopranos (how sad that someone actually thought it might be amusing to write a book about the leadership skills of characters in a TV show based on the Mafia...)


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Download a template or see a lawyer?

Selling On Ebay The Good The Bad And The Ugly

Working Across Borders

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.