Thought Leadership – A Varied Meaning For Many

nicolem — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:41:11 +0000

In the last few days, “thought leadership and innovation” has been a discussion topic between myself and several different business people. It was first brought to my attention a few days ago by someone who passed on the assessment (from another business associate) that, after reviewing my blog posts, they felt I was not showcasing our business skills, expertise and brand offering because I was including full articles written by others below my daily thoughts. The reason I began this blog was to use the premise of our business name, SHARE, to share with people what I read.

The definition of SHARE from the dictionary is, “the full or proper portion or part allotted or belonging to or contributed or owed by an individual or group.” My intent and offering when I began this blog journey was to SHARE the many amazing articles and ideas that I read each day, particularly as it pertains to the digital space of advertising, branding and marketing—which is still a new and developing area for many businesses. The idea of engagement and the viral nature of social media which is most exciting and interesting for me, is the idea that the minute I read or come across interesting and knowledgeable information in this area of business, I have the ability to share it with others. The key idea behind social media is the transparency of being able to share with others. Incidentally, I have always begun each article with my thoughts which leads to why I decide to SHARE an article that day. The other reason is the ease of avoiding an extra click (an important consideration) “that stickiness factor”—which means finding a way to keep the visitor on your site rather than have them go to another site. If I include the article I read below in my daily post, I have the ability to keep that reader here rather than leave my site and go to the site where I found it. (Not to mention the fact that I am comfortable sharing what I find with the people who read my posts.) All of which are the methods to my madness which relate back to the name of the business and my brand, which is SHARE.

I think that in the world of business today, your website reflects not only your brand—but gives you the chance to show what you can do. Are you in the space that you are selling? So in our case, digital advertising and social media is an area where we are experts. When you come to our site we open with a blog. We prominently display one click access to our other social media sites (in our case linkedin, facebook and twitter) and we offer what, for many creative agencies, is most important: work examples with mini case studies that outline what the mandate was for each work sample. As Randy Pausch, the former Carnegie Mellon Professor who passed away of Pancreatic cancer, so eloquently stated in his “Last Lecture” (as a message to his young daughter), “it is a persons actions—what they do and not what they say that matters most.” In our business, when a client asks us for a proposal it will be our work creatively, our technological innovation and our participation in the world of social media that will best display our expertise.

This all brings me back to “thought leadership”: how it is defined and how it is accepted as all our businesses strive to be different in this changing economy. The consumer now has the opportunity to directly connect with and engage the brands that are vying for their attention and purchase commitment. Wikipedia defines thought leadership as “a buzzword or article of jargon used to describe a futurist or person who is recognized among peers and mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights (thinklets).”

My question becomes this: as I continue to SHARE my thoughts each week on this blog, is my “thought leadership” and creativity based on how I present information (always keeping in my mind my brand, SHARE, which is defined by the creativity of our work) and SHARE my ideas regarding my chosen topic, while supporting my beliefs with the words of others? Or do I only post my own ideas and simply SHARE links—sending those that I want to stay on my site off to that referred link to learn more—in order to establish that this blog belongs to my innovative thoughts alone? A great start for conversation. I feel both have merit as did the conversations and criticism that led to this post. Innovation, leadership, transparency and honesty are all components, from my perspective, that will be defining factors in how successful your social media marketing efforts will be once you understand your target audiences social computing behaviour. Is leadership based on acts or words? Great beginnings for conversation. So from now on, on Monday’s and Friday’s I will continue to discuss this conversation instead of sharing my thoughts on the great posts that I find. I will save the sharing for Tuesday through Thursday.

I hope that I have sparked some thoughts and innovative ideas in you, the reader, that will encourage you to leave your comments and thoughts regarding my post on Monday!

Best Nicole

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Thought Leadership – A Varied Meaning For Many