10 Things a B2B Company Can Do to Express Thought Leadership Today

Thought leadership marketing is not something that most organizations take lightly or that’s whipped up in a morning over coffee on the back of a napkin.  That said, there are plenty of things that an individual or an organization can do today that will go a long way toward building their position as a thought leader in their industry or community.

Following are 10 actions that you can take toward developing or expanding your thought leadership:

1. Ask a Question. Thought leaders ask the most questions of their employees, customers, prospects and the market in general in order to understand the challenges, issues and opportunities that they can offer solutions to as part of their offering.  When you look at the great thought leadership content from IBM, McKinsey, Accenture, Cisco and so many others, much of it starts with a simple question about the economy, technology or unique situation that a customer or a target market is facing.  Get out and ask a question today, write about it, study it and lead your field with an innovative answer.
2. Tweet an Idea. There’s a great section in Success magazine every month called “Success in Seconds” that talks about the things that you can do in under a minute to be more productive and successful.  Tweeting a thought  leading idea is one of those things!  Keep an eye on the great ideas coming from your company, your industry, your customers or even your competitors and keep your Twitter finger ready to re-tweet or offer 140 characters of insightful commentary (with a link, of course) that will show your audience just how you think and guide them to a good idea. Remember, the leader (even a thought leader) doesn’t always have to have all of the answers, but they do have to know where to get the right answers.  Pointing (leading) people to a good idea is thought leadership too!
3. Mind Map it! I’m a huge fun of Chuck Frey and Innovation Tools and was really excited when I read his post on mind mapping for thought leadership. We’ve been mind mapping for years (see our maps here) and a majority and any thought leading concept that we develop is born in mind map form.  If you’re not familiar with mapping, I highly recommend Chuck’s book on mind mapping. Check it out and start mapping your thought leadership.  In the interest of Dogfooding, you’ll find a link to a mind map of this post at the end of the post.
4. Think. When is the last time you really sat down to “think” about something and come up with an innovative solution? Perhaps it was already this morning or perhaps it been, well, way too long.  I was in a meeting recently where someone was discussing the topic of brainstorming and how it was almost a forbidden concept in their former organization. Wow.  That’s certainly not a path to thought leadership. Take some time today to go think. Really_go_think. Then come back and follow the rest of the ideas here!
5. Mind Your Tone. I advise every marketer to read The Hero and the Outlaw by Margaret Mark and Carol Pearson. However, I realize that you may be pressed for time, so let’s cut to the chase. When communicating for thought leadership, you are typically communicating to the Sage archetype, as detailed in Hero and Outlaw. Hard sell tactics and FUD (fear-uncertainty-doubt) language won’t work here. Thought leadership speaks to the Sage who enjoys the process of research, finding out more about your brand, learning about the solutions to challenges
6. Schedule a Webinar. One of the quintessential thought leadership content delivery vehicles is still the venerable webinar. In fact, according to a recent article in B2B magazine, firms like Lithium Technologies are drawing in 400 to 800 registrants per webinar and seeing participation rates of 45 to 50%. That’s HUGE inquiry generation that’s certainly helping their lead generation efforts and helping to showcase their thought leadership prowess.
7. Answer a Question on LinkedIn. This is been, and still is one of the greatest little ways to express thought leadership on micro-issues (single questions) that can have an immediate impact on your thought leadership efforts.  Not only  are you answering a direct question from someone in your market-space for whom you may have a plausible solution (part of the essential formula for thought leading content) but you can also turn that answer into a blog post or article later on.
8. Blog Something. Speaking of blogging, each blog post is a ‘thought nugget’ or social object that can serve as a lowly thought leading snippet or become as lauded as a well referenced and well-tweeted piece of content that helps you garner a significant share of voice on an issue that you’ve been mulling over.
9. Post a Slide Deck on SlideShare.net. Presented anything lately?  Take that great slide deck and put it on Slideshare.net and ‘socialize that content’! We put a bunch of slideshows on Slideshare and often get nice accolades like these were someone notices our work and shares it with their peers.  You’ve spent a lot of time putting thought leadership into your decks, why not get some social media mileage out of them?
10. Comment on Another Thought Leaders Blog. Think you’re so smart? Add to the conversation by commenting on the blog or site of another thought leader. Industry and market stewardship are hallmarks of the thought leader and active participation in the community is an essential component. Maybe you can’t speak on a panel or get in front of an audience today, but you can add to the conversation and participate in the community through blogs, forums and other industry venues.

BONUS: Mind Map of this post!