Building a Thought Leadership Culture: Strategies for Success
Thought leadership is a business strategy that aims to establish an individual or company as a respected authority within their industry. It is achieved by consistently providing valuable insights and expertise through various content formats such as articles, podcasts, and webinars, positioning the business as a source of valuable information and a leader in their field.
Thought leadership isn’t just about showcasing broad, product-focused expertise. Every employee with mastery in a specific area can become a thought leader. For instance, software UI/UX experts could establish themselves as a go-to source on topics like flowcharting, tooltips, and user interaction. Meanwhile, a sales leader can bring insights to the table on areas like creating CRM reports for company stakeholders, product demo best practices, and team motivation. Marketing exposure of the content generated by these internal experts elevates your brand, expands your reach, and builds a following.
A strong foundation starts by incorporating thought leadership responsibilities into job descriptions to attract and inform future hires of this possible expectation of their role.
Integrating thought leadership into the workload of current employees can be challenging. Some may view it as extra work beyond their core responsibilities. Consider offering incentives such as company-wide recognition, bonuses, or gift cards to motivate your experts. While marketing teams typically drive thought leadership initiatives, fostering a culture of expert content creation through support and direct endorsement from top-level management is essential.
To recap:
Identify employees with expertise: Look for employees that have a deep understanding of their field and are passionate about sharing their insights.
Encourage them to share their insights: Create a platform for employees to share their insights and expertise through blog posts, articles, or webinars. Encourage them to write about the latest industry trends, their own best practices, and other relevant topics.
Provide marketing support and guidance: Provide employees with support and guidance throughout the writing process, including editing, research, and promotion.
Promote their content: Once published, promote content through your company’s website, social media, and email marketing channels. Make sure to tag the employee as an author and share their bio, this will help establish them as a thought leader in the industry.
Make it a part of the company’s strategy: Make thought leadership and content creation a part of its overall strategy, and ensure that the content aligns with organizational goals and values.
Reward participation: Encourage participation by rewarding employees who contribute to the blog with bonuses, promotions, and other incentives. Spiffs and gift cards are standard methods.
Measure impact: Measure the impact of the content created by your experts by tracking metrics such as website traffic, engagement, and leads generated. Use this data to adjust and improve the process. Share the data with your experts to reinforce the value of their time.
Your experts already have a full plate, and thought leadership might not be a fit for everyone. Anticipate resistance and steer clear of forcing participation from uninterested parties. Cultivating a supportive and enthusiastic culture around thought leadership is essential for sustained success over the long term.
Create a culture of sharing: Encourage employees to share their insights and expertise with their colleagues and the broader community through internal and external communication channels such as blogs, webinars, and industry events.
Reward and recognize thought leaders: Recognize and reward employees who demonstrate thought leadership through promotions, bonuses, and other incentives. This will encourage others to step up and become thought leaders in their own right.
Lead by example: The leadership team should lead the way by being active thought leaders themselves, showing the company’s commitment to this strategy, and setting an example for the rest of the organization to follow.