So you want to be a thought leader? I talked to Brian Morgan, President of Think Deeply, Write Clearly about effective thought leadership communication.
Thought leadership can be used to attract an audience who may need your product or service. Or you may want to influence decision-making in a particular direction. You can see the overlap with content marketing.
In our conversation, Brian brought out a few points that may be helpful.
Thought leadership is about building trust. People need to trust you before they do business with you or take your advice. Being an expert is the first requirement in most cases. But that may not be enough. You have to know your topic AND add something new to the conversation. Otherwise it’s not leadership, right?
A significant mistake Brian sees often is not sharing your assumptions. It’s important for readers (or listeners) to understand your point of reference. Transparency builds trust and credibility but also makes you vulnerable. (People will find out whether you know what you are doing or not.)
What if you are not an expert? Maybe you want to stimulate a discussion to learn more. Brian’s advice is to detail your observations. You might say, “so I've been thinking about… or I've been wondering about...” The job of the writer is to make his or her reference point useful to you. (Personal aside, I think I fall into this category. I don’t consider myself a marketing expert. I think I’m pretty good at storytelling and creating marketing content. But I’m very curious about marketing and the people who do it.)
People care not only about what you think (your conclusions) but how you came to them. Even when someone has a different point of view, you can build trust by “showing your work”, as your math teacher used to say. Brian refers to factors and weights. What are the factors you are considering in your argument and how do you weigh each in your decision-making process? Make these clear to your readers and you’ll be off to a good start.
I’m learning a lot more in his course and have a long way to go. DM Brian on LinkedIn for a free trial.
Chat with Chris about content for demand generation.
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