Every year, students at Michigan’s Lake Superior State University release a list of overused words and phrases that they deem worthy of banishment from the English language. Among the offenders in 2011 were some tried-and-true favorites (ginormous and man cave to name a couple), as well as relative newcomers to our daily vernacular like occupy (as in Zuccotti Park) and the new normal, a darling of Wall Street since the financial crisis.
All in all it’s not a bad list, but it seems to me that our friends at LSSU missed an obvious target. I’m talking about 17 letters that can be combined to form what has become a ubiquitous and, frankly, increasingly cliché term: thought leadership.
Among content marketers, few words are so widely batted around or have generated greater buzz. As more and more people proclaim their content to be thought leadership, the term’s meaning has become diluted. These days, anyone with an opinion and a pulse can claim to be a thought leader, requiring little more than an internet connection to start publishing their so-called thought leadership.
No más!
It’s time to take a more critical look at thought leadership, and to define what it is and isn’t. Maybe we need the thought leadership equivalent of a Good Housekeeping seal of approval: a set of criteria to separate what’s often passed off as thought leadership from the real deal. The minimum requirements for earning that seal of approval would include ensuring that your content meets a few criteria:
It offers bold ideas that are new and noteworthy
To drive thought leadership, content either needs to put forth new ideas or provide fresh insights into old ones. Simply regurgitating what others have already written or said, while sometimes useful in its own right, isn’t a recipe for success. Don’t have anything new to say? Then sit tight until you do and remember that sometimes less is more. Producing one piece of thought leadership content that really says something innovative and bold is a much better strategy than publishing a dozen pieces that don’t say anything at all.
One of my favorite examples of a real thought leader who provides bold ideas is Bob Reynolds, the president and CEO of Putnam Investments. Mr. Reynolds does an admirable job, consistently producing insightful and provocative articles in his blog, “The Retirement Savings Challenge.”
It takes a stand and presents a clear point of view
Leaders shouldn’t sit on the fence, so make sure that your content offers a definitive point of view. Putting a stake in the ground can mean taking risks, but if all your content does is toe the line, it doesn’t qualify as thought leadership. This is often a particular challenge for big corporations. Concerned that they might alienate a part of their customer base, some corporations shy away from taking a stand. Unfortunately, doing so turns their content into factual reporting, rather than providing insightful thought leadership.
It reflects high-quality (preferably original) research
Sometimes content that’s floated around as thought leadership can come across like a high school term paper. You can help avoid that pitfall by making sure that you’re using the best sources and respected research. Use online tools like LexisNexis to direct you to high-quality news articles and industry reports, rather than turning to the likes of Wikipedia or Yahoo News (both are fine resources, but not ones that you should be citing in your thought leadership efforts). Ideally, your content will also reflect your own research (conducted in-house or commissioned through a third party), which will help guarantee that you really do have something unique to say.
It hinges on its credibility
Your thought leadership efforts will fall flat if your content isn’t credible. Help ensure that all of your work is accurate and logical by thoroughly fact-checking it. You can also raise the caliber of your content by collaborating with people who are well known and respected in your industry. One way to do this is by soliciting influencers or subject matter experts to write a foreword to your next white paper or provide quotes for your next report. If you don’t have access to anyone who fits the bill, you can build up your own credibility by looking for opportunities to contribute content to other places and building a name for yourself over time.
It’s also important to remember that no one is an expert in everything. Stick to creating content that falls into your sweet spot, rather than trying to pontificate on subject matter that’s beyond your realm of expertise. For example, in his blog for Putnam, Bob Reynolds can get very political. When he does, however, his posts are limited to news from Capital Hill that pertains to retirement savings issues, not U.S. foreign policy or gun control.
It looks to the future
The best thought leadership efforts don’t just look at present situations, but also help forecast the future. If your content offers informed predictions about how things will be at some point in the future, it’s going to stand out. See if there are ways that you can use current data to forecast future trends or make other predictions that your readers will find useful.
(If you would like to read more about thought leadership efforts, check out this post from my company blog.)
So tell me, do your thought leadership efforts pass the test, or are we making a ginormous mistake by not retiring this overused phrase?
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Human mind image via Shutterstock
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