Thought Leadership - more than a catchy phrase for PR professionals

published 2005

Most of us who are involved in the strategic end of PR will have heard of Thought Leadership, and many have probably included it under corporate communication activities in a PR plan.  How many of us though, have given it sufficient attention when addressing it in terms of activities?

For those not all that familiar with it, Thought Leadership is an effective tool for companies operating in B2B or IT environments, especially those where products and solutions are seen as somewhat commoditised.  Here’s a quick run-down on what Thought Leadership is and what it takes to effectively implement.

What is Thought Leadership?

Thought Leadership is a means of differentiating your company from others in your field by being seen and heard as informative, innovative, challenging and relevant to current industry issues and challenges.

Thought Leadership is personal - it centres on your company spokesperson.  As such, this requires a genuine commitment from that person to:

• be up-to-date on what the media is covering in the way of issues
  
• have innovative - even contentious - views
  
• be prepared to take some flack - not everyone will agree with those views
  
• be available - both for media and for other activities that build Thought Leadership

Thought Leadership Tools

Although predominately personal, Thought Leadership activities include some specific written materials.  Key among these are:

• Case Studies - show how your company helped another solve a problem or gain a competitive edge.  They usually follow a three step process of ‘situation, solution and results’.
  
• White Papers - a means of mounting a case for your company’s vision and product strategy.  A similar three step process to case studies, but this time looking at ‘problem, process and payoff’.
  
• Opinion Pieces - by-lined articles that contain a unique view of a current problem or issue.

On the personal side, your spokesperson needs to be committed to allocating time for activities such as:

• Media engagement - informal meetings with individual editors and key journalists to discuss current topics and issues.  This is undertaken not to gain immediate coverage, but rather to give media an idea of what you can comment on when they are writing articles and features.
  
• Speaking opportunities - a means of bypassing media to a degree and communicating directly with your customers and prospects.
  
• Media requests - those times when media phone to obtain an opinion of quote for articles being written

Thought Leadership in New Media

Today, people are looking for more and more information and answers on the Web.  For this reason, a complete Thought Leadership program should also include:

• Your company website - the materials you develop for your Thought Leadership program should be made readily available on your corporate website.  Remember that the leadership is often linked to the spokesperson, so make sure that is reflected in how you present the material on site.
  
• Blogs - do a search to see if there are web blogs dealing with your industry and the issues you wish to challenge or champion.  If there are, then consider creating your own and having you materials available for discussion.

As you can see, Thought Leadership is more than a bullet point on your PR plan.  It should be a comprehensive program of activities that are budgeted for in terms of written materials and spokesperson time. If you have not undertaken Thought Leadership as a total program up until now, consider treating it as a project in your next budget period - that way you will be more likely to maximise its effect and should find it easier to obtain spokesperson buy-in.