Thought Leadership and the Danger of Self-Promotion

BY BART KING

There’s one big no-no when it comes to thought leadership. 

It can’t be self-promotional. That’s the first guideline you’ll receive if you reach out to an editor or event organizer about submitting an op-ed or proposing a talk. Self-promotion is for marketing assets and advertising, not thought leadership. 

When a reader or listener shows up for ideas, but what they get is a rundown of someone’s products or services, they quickly turn away. At best, they forget about it. At worst, they hold a grudge. That’s the opposite of what thought-leadership marketing is meant to achieve: trust. 

If you earn someone’s trust with thought leadership, you also earn the opportunity to tell them what you offer. But that has to come later. 

Thought Leadership Separates Ideas from Applications

So let’s get clear on the difference between thought leadership and self-promotion. 

In my experience, innovators often struggle when asked to stay on the thought-leadership side of the line. They’ve lived the creative process so deeply. It’s difficult for them to talk about the value of the ideas behind their products or services without talking about the products or services themselves. 

That’s understandable. However, for thought-leadership content, it’s necessary—and worthwhile—to clearly separate ideas from their applications. Going through the process invariably provides new insights and improves other marketing communications as well.

Four Approaches to Avoid Self-Promotion in Thought Leadership

When it comes to a truly innovative category of product or service, avoiding self-promotion can be as simple as talking about the problem and solution without referencing branded names, pricing or other specific details. But in other situations, finding the right approach requires more thought. Here are four tips. 

Build around the takeaways – This approach is particularly important for academics and other researchers writing about their work for non-academic readers. The focus of the writing should be to lay out useful conclusions. Only describe the research process (what you did) to the extent that’s needed to support the takeaways. (The Conversation is a terrific outlet for research-based articles, such as this one by a client at the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business.)

Share the credit – Another good way to avoid self-promotion is to give examples from the work of other colleagues and organizations—not just your own. This doesn’t mean you have to promote your competitors. If you need to, look to other industries or fields to find parallels. This will also widen the appeal of your thought leadership by demonstrating broader applicability and emergence of the ideas. (Here’s a good example by a New Growth Client who drew on a podcast he hosted with two other design leaders.)

Focus on the need – This approach is particularly good for consultants, who can shine the light on their clients. Essentially, you use one or more case studies from your work to support the central idea(s) of your content. But by focusing the narrative on the needs of a client, or even an entire industry, you avoid presenting yourself as the protagonist. This approach also has the added benefits of giving publicity to your clients (which they may appreciate) and proving your industry experience. (Here’s an example I helped sustainability consultant, Tim Greiner, publish on GreenBiz.) 

Give your opinions – Thought leadership is NOT reporting the news. It requires opinions—often about things that are in the news, and about the way things should be done. This is what people look to thought leaders for. So don’t be shy about stating your opinions and recommendations. They aren’t self-promotion, but a bold, substantiated opinion will promote your expertise and cause people to remember who you are. (Here’s a strong opinion that we placed for an academic leader on Corporate Knights: “It’s Time We See Paying Taxes as a Sustainability Issue.”)

If you succeed in writing a useful piece of thought leadership, editors and readers will typically grant you a sentence or two of self-promotion at the end. Sometimes it can be a call to action that points to another article or a white paper. Other times you may be asked to restrict it to a link in your author bio. But ultimately, if you’re consistently publishing good thought leadership, people will remember you when a relevant need arises. Then they’ll come looking for your marketing assets to learn how you deliver. (But that’s a different article.)

If you’re considering stepping up your commitment to thought leadership publishing, I may be able to help. Please get in touch. (See what I did there? :)

7 Formats for Thought Leadership Content with 3 Ace Marketing Tactics

BY BART KING

In addition to being a valuable service to your industry, true thought leadership is also a tried-and-true way to gain visibility and attract new business opportunities. 

Below are seven different formats in which you can publish thought leadership content. Plus, I’ll describe three content-marketing tactics that will help you get the most mileage out of the energy you put into capturing and sharing your ideas. 

7 Good Formats for Thought-Leadership Content

• Commentary – Also called an op-ed, the commentary is a short piece of writing (650-900 words) that presents a leader’s opinion and perspective on a particular topic. The bolder, the better. (Here’s a collection of examples by New Growth clients.)

• White Paper/Report – A good white paper or report captures the collective knowledge of an organization regarding a topic that’s timely for its industry or customers. This format typically has a somewhat academic tone and includes solid supporting evidence, if not detailed citations. (Here’s a terrific example on sustainable agriculture practices by a New Growth client.)

• Ebook – This longer format is effective when you have lots of practical advice and information to share, and when the reader will benefit from taking it in sequentially. In other words, the last chapters are more useful to someone who first reads the beginning and middle. (Here’s a dynamic ebook I edited on Enterprise Design Sprints.)

• Reference tool – Checklists, templates, process maps and swipe files are all examples of tools people may want to add to their desktops for quick access. They can be tremendously valuable, but not many organizations publish them.

• Q&A – This is probably the easiest type of thought-leadership writing to produce. (It’s also a great format for video.) Just send a list of questions to a leader or subject-matter expert and edit their responses for clarity. The alternating questions and answers are inherently readable and personal. (I’m particularly proud of this Q&A with Janine Benyus.) 

• Webinar – With so many people working remotely these days, webinars are more prevalent than ever. Essentially, it’s a slide presentation delivered as an online event. You know the drill, I’m sure.

• TED-style Talk – Whether delivered at an actual TED event or not, this 20-minute format has set the bar for compelling public speaking. The best talks are tightly structured, well rehearsed, visual, humorous and deeply informative. 

3 Thought Leadership Marketing Tactics

While similar in effect, the formats above are typically applied for different purposes within a marketing strategy. Keep these three tactics in mind as you consider what format to use, and how. 

Build a Cornerstone Campaign
Depending on your marketing capacity, this type of thought leadership marketing campaign could be done quarterly, or every six to nine months. It’s built around a valuable, cornerstone piece of content such as a white paper or ebook, which is typically offered as a download in exchange for an email address. Concepts from the cornerstone piece are then spun out into promotional commentaries, Q&A and/or webinars to drive traffic to the download.

Use Multiple Channels of Distribution
Unless you already have a large, engaged audience, it’s not enough to simply publish thought leadership to your own website. To get the impact you want, you need to send it to people’s inboxes via your email list and promote it on social media. Even better, place those commentaries and Q&As with media outlets that already have the audience you’re trying to reach. Or try advertising your webinar. You can also pitch to a podcast that might want to hear about your latest report or ebook.

Repurpose, Repurpose, Repurpose
The underlying and most important tactic is to repurpose your thought leadership across formats. Important ideas need to live in more than one piece of content to effectively serve your industry and organization. Once you’ve captured an idea for the first time, it will be quicker and easier to rework it. For example, a white paper, TED talk or webinar can spawn one or more op-eds or Q&As. If you have a lot of practical blog posts on your site, they could be combined into an ebook. Or check to see if any of the posts could be turned into a reference tool. Repurposing also means you don’t need as many brilliant ideas (which is a good thing for some of us! ;)

If you’re thinking about stepping up your thought leadership marketing, we may be able to help. Don’t hesitate to reach out. 

How to Ghostwrite a Leader’s Unique Voice

BY BART KING

Business or community leaders often don’t have the time or skill to write well. However, publishing their ideas is valuable to the organizations they serve. 

I’ve written previously about customizing the ghostwriting process to gather a thought leader’s knowledge and opinions. But there’s more to it than that, because good ghostwriting also captures a leader’s unique voice.

Two things constitute voice: the stories a person tells and the style with which she tells them. It’s the ghostwriter’s job to get both elements onto the page. 

What’s the Story Behind That?

Humans are hardwired to think in terms of stories. It’s how we create meaning and remember information. Good leaders naturally use stories to explain their ideas and connect with people's emotions.  

The ghostwriter works to harness the power of these stories in writing. 

If a leader has been talking publicly about a particular idea for a while, she will likely already know what stories are most effective for getting her points across. In these instances, my task as a ghostwriter is simply to polish the narratives and find the best way to work them into the piece.

However, if the topic is relatively new for the leader, she may not have settled on the most effective anecdotes and examples yet. Here the job is to help select the best material, make sure the narrative details are in place, and work out the timing.

The writing process is even more valuable in these instances, because upon completion, the leader will have a confident, new arrow in her quiver. Finalizing the writing requires the leader to crystalize her thoughts and explanatory approach. This ultimately prepares her for future speaking engagements.

Say That Again?

Capturing a leader’s communication style is a more nuanced task. 

I record my interviews, because the written notes I take are invariably in my own voice and arranged in my own way of thinking. These notes help me understand what a leader is trying to communicate, and I use them to create a writing outline. But recordings allow me to go back and focus on style.

Good writing, of course, is different from speech. (And the job is ghostwriting, not transcription.) However, a leader’s rhetorical constructs, timing and phrasing can be lifted from a recording, especially when it's a well-worn subject.

In the end, it’s up to the leader to make final copy edits for accuracy and voice. If the ghostwriting is well done, all the heavy lifting will be finished and the content, stories and style will be faithfully captured. The leader only has to make minor tweaks, if any at all.

Are you developing thought leadership for yourself or your organization? If so, we may be able to help. Contact me to talk it over.

Practical Tips for Reluctant Thought Leaders

by BART KING

Common wisdom tells us people who don’t want power often make the best leaders. Similarly, quiet people often have the most interesting things to say. Both situations can be a dilemma when it comes to thought leadership. 

Contacts in corporate communications or marketing often tell me they have people inside their organizations who would make terrific thought leaders, if only they could be convinced to step up to the plate. 

But they aren’t into it.

These reluctant thought leaders are incredibly knowledgeable. They know how all the pieces fit together. They aren’t buffeted by trends and buzz in the industry. But they’re hesitant to project their voices beyond the walls of their organizations. 

As a result, their full potential to the company, the industry—heck, even the world—isn’t realized.

What’s Stopping Them?

Have you ever been to a conference where it seems every Tom, Schmuck and Harry takes a boring turn on stage? Or what about all the threadbare ideas that people publish and re-publish online? 

If these people aren’t afraid to step into the light, what’s stopping the legitimate and unique thought leaders from doing it? 

Usually, it’s some combination of humility, skepticism and fear. Below are some tips for getting past these common roadblocks. 

Humility - Some folks don’t recognize, or don’t want to admit, they know as much as they do. I find this endearing in a person. But in the professional realm, it can be a problem. These same people often don’t read the opinion pieces published by colleagues. Deep down, I think they know they could do better. That’s why a little goading sometimes does the trick. Try sending them a not-so-great attempt at thought leadership with a short note letting them know YOU know they could do better.

Skepticism - Is thought leadership legit? I’ve heard this from people I know to be thought leaders. They’re busy folks who don’t want to waste time on what they think may be a useless marketing trend. I get it. As I wrote in my last post, thought leadership got a bad reputation from misuse of the term. These folks just need to hear the true strategic value. 

Privacy Concerns - Some thought leaders, particularly older ones, conflate thought leadership with social media and its inherent loss of privacy. From a tactical perspective, it’s a bonus if thought leaders are active on social media. But it isn’t necessary, if the organization has its own social profiles and other effective channels for distributing and promoting thought leadership content.

Fear of Public Speaking - This one’s pretty simple to address. A thought leader doesn’t have to speak in public. His or her role can be limited to the published word. Once captured in writing, others in the organization can represent the opinions and information in person or on stage. 

Poor Writing Skills - It’s the job of the PR or marketing copywriter to make sure the grammar is sound, the anecdotes are crisp, and the opinions are supported. The thought leader just needs to be willing to open up to the writer and review the drafts for factual accuracy. For more on how this process works, read “Is Ghostwriting Really Thought Leadership?”

Lack of Time - As with above, the time burden can be transferred to a professional copywriter. For a typical op-ed, we identify the topic via email before a first conversation. Then we record a 20-minute conversation that becomes the basis of an outline. If needed, the thought leader reviews and adds bullets to the outline. Then we talk through it in detail for about 30 minutes. After the first draft is done, the thought leader spends another 30 minutes reviewing and giving feedback (written or via phone). If the first draft was good, another 15 minutes for final review is all that’s needed. If it needs more work, an additional 15 minutes might be necessary for another round of review. In total, it’s about two hours of their time, spread over two or three weeks. 

The important thing is to have empathy for reluctant thought leaders. By trying to truly understand what’s stopping them from stepping forward, we can help them achieve their full potential. For me, that’s the most gratifying part of the job.

If you need help taking your thought leadership program to the next level, we’d like to hear from you.

What Web Marketers Have Wrong About Thought Leadership

by BART KING

Some people cringe when they hear the term “thought leadership.” 

To them—and perhaps to you, too—it’s just another marketing buzzword without any real meaning or usefulness. But I disagree. 

I understand how the term got a bad rep. And if you’ll give me two minutes, I’ll explain how it’s been misused and why it’s worth rescuing. 

It’s Not the Same as Content Marketing

Publishing thought leadership for marketing purposes—a.k.a. thought leadership marketing—isn’t the same as content marketing. This misunderstanding is what I think has given the term thought leadership a bad reputation. 

For example, here’s how web marketing guru Michael Brenner misrepresents thought leadership:

“I define thought leadership as a type of content marketing where you tap into the talent, experience, and passion inside your business, or from your community, to consistently answer the biggest questions on the minds of your target audience, on a particular topic.”

I’m OK with the first half of his definition, but not the second.

Consistently publishing the answers to your target audience’s questions is a legitimate strategy for building affinity and search engine optimization (SEO). But that’s rarely thought leadership. It’s a task for a junior copywriter with a list of Google search terms.

For example, a true thought leader isn’t going to write a blog post telling people how to recycle printer cartridges or where to find a decent gluten free beer. Calling that type of content “thought leadership” is just silly. In fact, thought leaders are probably more likely to ask questions than to answer them.

Isn’t it just ‘Leadership?’

No, thought leadership isn’t the same thing as “leadership.” It’s not a case of using two words, when one would work just fine. 

“Leadership” refers to the action of leading an organization, or the roles of responsibility within an organizational structure. Shelves full of books have been written about these two definitions, and we don’t need to burden them with any additional weight. 

Thought leadership is more akin to “strategic leadership” in that it involves inquiry, judgment and decision making. But it’s more than just setting goals and how to achieve them. Thought leadership is what determines strategic direction. 

In the case of sustainability, it involves not only deep business experience, but also the consideration of environmental and social ethics.

So What’s the Point?

True thought leaders have tremendous marketing value to an organization, but it isn’t lending their time or name to a bunch of search engine friendly articles. Real thought leaders wrestle with the ideas that turn heads within organizations, industries and sometimes entire disciplines of human endeavor. They know the critical issues that should have been solved yesterday, and the emerging ones that need to be addressed immediately. 

As a marketing or PR communicator, the job isn’t to tell thought leaders what to write. Instead, our task is to help them publish what they have to say in a way that makes the best use of their time and reaches target audiences. 

I’ll write more about this soon for readers of the New Growth Newsletter. In the meantime, you might want to check out “Can Ghostwriting Really Be Thought Leadership?”.

Can Ghostwriting Really Be Thought Leadership?

by BART KING

As much as 25 percent of the books on the New York Times bestseller list are ghostwritten, by some estimates. And if it’s a memoir by a politician, celebrity or well-known business person, you can definitely bet a ghost writer was involved.

Does that mean the stories and information in those books are made up? No.

It just means the person to whom they belong didn’t have the time (or the skill) to write them down. Instead, the person shared the ideas and anecdotes with a professional writer—often a former journalist—who asked probing questions, determined a compelling narrative structure, and then worked to capture the person’s unique voice on the page.

The same thing is done all the time with short-form writing. Whether it’s a blog post on a company website, or an opinion piece on Forbes.com or GreenBiz, ghostwritten articles are an effective way to increase the visibility of a thought leader or organization, and to generate web traffic and business leads.

But Is It Really Thought Leadership If Someone Else Writes it?

The quality of the ideas put forward is what determines whether or not a piece of writing is thought leadership.

It’s true there are plenty of organizations and individuals out there hiring writers to crank out articles on their behalf, with little or no guidance. They may do it for SEO purposes, or because they want to provide followers with a steady stream of useful or entertaining content. Both are valid strategies, but that’s not the kind of ghostwriting I’m talking about here.

A very small fraction of those ghostwriters may be coming up with original ideas, but the vast majority of them simply research and remix information and ideas that are already in the public domain.

Thought leadership is when a credible expert shares his or her unique opinions or information on the way that something can or should be done. It’s an op-ed on education policy. Or a commentary on best practices for supply chain engagement. Or a letter to the editor about Urban planning and zoning laws.

Whether or not the bylined author typed every word of the article is irrelevant to the purpose and effect of sharing the expertise.

So How Does Ghostwriting Thought Leadership Work?

I find most ghostwriting thought leadership clients fall into one of two categories—sometimes both.

The first is an incredibly busy leader of a business or nonprofit who doesn’t have the time to dedicate to writing. The second is a person who has important information and ideas to share, but doesn’t have the necessary skills, discipline or experience for the writing.

A good ghostwriter customizes the process to fit the client’s need. For the busy leader, this typically means one or more recorded interviews to gather insights and supporting details. In my experience, true leaders usually have enough ideas in their heads at any one time to generate several different articles.

The work of the ghostwriter is often to help determine which ideas are most compelling. That’s another reason why former journalists make good ghostwriters. They often keep up with what’s hot and what isn’t in industry discussions.

After selecting and discussing a topic, the ghostwriter will usually create an outline for the client to revise or approve before writing a first draft. (Shared documents make it easy for clients to make changes or suggest revisions to outlines and drafts.)

While ghostwriters do their best to write in the voice of their clients, the purpose of a first draft in thought leadership writing is primarily to try to capture and present the client’s ideas as accurately as possible. Then, as the client reviews the writing to make sure it correctly represents what they are trying to say, he or she will also make revisions to better reflect how they would say it. 

The complexity of the topic will usually determine how extensive the revision process is and how many drafts need to be bounced back and forth to reach the final version. But on average, a busy client only needs to spend 1-3 hours on the process, while the ghostwriter may spend anywhere from 7-14 hours on a 1,000-word article.

Ghostwriter as Coach or Editor

For the second category of client—the one who lacks writing skills—the ghostwriter serves largely as an editor or coach.

If the client struggles with the blank page, the interviewing, outlining and drafting process is similar to what I described above. But once the ball is rolling, this type of client may have no problem taking over the lead on the drafting process.

Some clients have the exact opposite problem. They spill too many ideas onto the blank page and need help clarifying and supporting a single idea or logical progression of ideas. In this instance, the ghostwriter is actually serving as an editor from the start, chopping away the irrelevant material and structuring what’s left.

Similarly, it’s the ghostwriter’s job to make sure the quality of the final draft is as high as possible. That often means pulling additional examples and anecdotes out of clients to be sure articles are balanced and readable. Or it may mean insisting on a better structure or narrative pacing, or correcting grammar. For my academic clients, who are accustomed to writing academic papers, it means condensing long, dry conclusions into commentaries with enough opinion to appeal to the editors and audiences of mainstream publications.

Lastly, the role of the ghostwriter can be to provide encouragement and accountability. Clients often have good intentions when committing to a writing project, but it’s the first thing pushed aside if things get busy. Friendly reminders and deadline agreements are key to keeping the collaboration moving forward and achieving the client’s goal.

How Does a Ghostwritten Article Get Placed in the Media?

Technically the job of the ghostwriter is complete upon approval of a final draft by the client.

However, thought leadership ghostwriting is sometimes performed as part of a PR contract in which the ghostwriter or a colleague will take responsibility for placing the article in a publication to achieve the client’s publicity goals. (This is yet another reason why former journalists with good media contacts make successful ghostwriters.)

Unless the client already has an in-house PR manager, this is a good arrangement, because in addition to contacts, finding a placement also takes time and experience.

If I’m handling the article placement for a client, we’ll agree on a list of preferred top-tier publications as well as acceptable mid-tier publications. These outlets typically discourage multiple submissions, so we begin pitching the article one-by-one to editors at the top of the list and work our way down. It can easily take up to three weeks to get a response from a single publication.

Competition is intense for placement in top-tier publications, which is why we’ll often begin reaching out to editors at the beginning of the ghostwriting process. This sometimes allows us to get feedback on the topics we’re considering and improve the chances we’ll produce something the publication is excited about.

Let’s Wrap This Up

I hope this answered your questions about ghostwriting for thought leadership.

At New Growth Communications we’re passionate about helping clients express their expertise. In bringing our skills and effort to their ideas, we feel we’re helping to make the world a better place.