2. Planning to promote your expertise
Twelve tips:
1. Carve out a subject or issue niche
2. Senior figurehead to take the lead
3. You snooze, you lose
4. Plan ahead
5. Have a clear way of measuring your thought leadership
6. A modest budget will go far
7. Go easy on the hard sell
8. Don’t forget your owned channels
9. Be in engagement mode
10. Hang out with your audience
11. Equip your staff to speak for you and with you
12. Keep up the momentum
Read
on to
find out
more
3. Carve out a subject niche
This is the most important starting point and
no simple task. Hone in and define what you
know you’re really good at. Check what
competitors are doing in this space. Decide
whether to take them on in the same territory
or find your own ‘sweet spot’. Of course,
make sure that this is an area that really
matters to the achievement of your
organisational objectives.
4. Senior figurehead to take the lead
It won’t fly if your thought leadership
area is purely a marketing initiative. Your
senior leadership need to be genuinely
involved and business decisions should
reinforce your expert positioning.
5. You snooze, you lose
Be prepared to be fleet of foot. That way, it will be
your opinions that gain traction rather than tagging
onto someone else’s coat tails. Some organisations
stifle their own ability to be heard by putting
burdensome process in the way of spokespeople –
although the right level of protocol is important.
6. Plan ahead
A frequent flow of information is
important or you’ll lose followers. You’ll
want to plan ahead, coordinate and
schedule your communication flow
across individual departments and silos.
Your goal should be to create a shared
editorial or content calendar.
7. Be clear what you’re measuring
Is it about driving clicks to your website,
number of shares on social media, traditional
media coverage or downloads of white
papers? These are all outtakes but think
about outcomes too, for example the number
of people registering for a service, attending
an event, donating or signing a petition as a
result.
8. A modest budget will go far
One of the biggest advantages of PR or
“earned exposure” is that it provides great
value compared to advertising. However if
you’re able to set aside some budget you can
amplify your expertise by producing well-
designed materials, hosting events or by
boosting the reach of social media posts with
targeted sponsored updates.
9. Go easy on the hard sell
This is about winning hearts and
minds – winning loyalty by being
helpful. References to products and
services need to be subtle and
justified.
10. Don’t forget owned channels
Ensure that you put as much effort into your owned
channels (e.g. your website) as your earned media
(e.g. media coverage, social media sharing). Don’t
let there be a mismatch between your social media
content and your other “touch-points”. Consistency
is key. If you grab their attention only to lose it by
getting the basics wrong elsewhere, then what’s the
point?
Nearly
there…
11. Be in engagement mode
Your expertise should catalyse dialogue.
Some people criticise the term “thought
leadership” suggesting it should be “thought
followership”. Remember that you’re wanting
to capture the attention of others, not simply
spout forth in a one-way stream. So be open
to contribution, feedback and criticism in order
to refine and improve how you communicate.
12. Hang out with your audience
Identify who you wish to target and
then figure out where they
congregate. This can vary by age,
profession, location. Bear in mind
people are in different “modes” when
in different virtual and real life
locations.
13. Equip your staff
The flipside to leading from the
top, is that your expertise will
seem shallow or inauthentic if it’s
not imbued in all staff from the
receptionist through to your
salesforce.
14. Keep up the momentum
In the field of expertise, you need to
keep walking just to keep pace.
Allow your experts the time and
space to continue to push out the
frontiers of knowledge in their
specialist area.
15. Want to get started?
Let’s talk
hello@thinkcomms.co.uk
