Thought leadership on a marketing blog? Indeed, at first read it sounds not relevant to marketing your business online — but really it’s more important than you can imagine. Thought leadership, as defined by Wikipedia, is a (company) or “person who is recognized among their peers and mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights.” Thought leadership is the art of being that “go to” person (or business) for a particular area of interest – a key adviser to those looking to dive into a specific topic area.
While thought leadership, as a whole, has been tagged as an effective tool for large businesses and service professionals (notably B2B) — it’s also a significant factor in huge success online (regardless of whether you’re a business or solopreneur). And, it’s importance will only grow moving forward.
Why is Thought Leadership Important?
Thought leadership is a true driver of mega business success, especially online. Businesses or people who simply follow the crowd or ride the wave of others, never truly impact their audiences like those who pave the way. In today’s market, whether you’re marketing directly to other businesses (B2B) or directly to consumers (B2C), your best bet to stand out — to lead, not follow — to have real impact, will come from being a recongized thought leader.
You can use branding to differentiate, you can use technology to get reach – you can even self-publish and repackage massive amounts of content all day long — but, real impact comes from being the recognized leader in your area of expertise. Without it, you’re just another business offering just another service or product.
Consistent demonstration of thought leadership, can contribute significantly to your overall marketing strategies — at every point in the relationships you build with your audience. What results from thought leadership, will literally contribute to every “role” you play in your online (and offline) marketing; Branding, attracting new clients, building loyalty, building trust, and more.
What does Thought Leadership look like?
Thought leadership is always about novel insight. Thought leaders always go beyond the usual rhetoric and regurgitation of information. They always provide insight that others seem to miss. Thought leaders tend to be the creaters of novel and timely information that is important to their specific audience.
Thought leadership is always about solutions. Thought leaders can always identify a real problem and provide a real, practical solution. They tend to spot opportunities and hit challenges head on — then share it in a manner that is practical and effective.
Thought leaders are always rigorous and never anecdotal. When a thought leader identifies a problem, leading to a solution — they go far beyond providing anecdotal evidence of a solution’s success — they are able to quantify success with real evidence of their work. Thought leaders never publish for the sake of publishing, or sell a solution they’ve never had real-world experience using.
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My question to you (blogger, service professional, internet marketer, etc, etc, etc) — are you a thought leader or just another identity online saturating the Internet with more of the same old… ?
It matters, especially in times like these… tough times always have a way of sifting the wheat from the chaff. It’s no longer enough to mass publish your content – throwing it in as many places as you can – especially if it’s the same crap being thrown out there by everyone else.
Something to think about…
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… looking forward to connecting with you!
Maria 
Read more about thought leadership…
Why thought leadership is not just giving information away from Marketing Profs Daily Fix
More thoughts on thought leadership from Buzz Marketing for Technology
13 essentials for thought leadership marketing from Larry Chase
Four A’s to be a thought leader from Marketing Profs
Using thought leadership tactics for lead generation from The Customer Collective
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