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Thought leadership initiatives require social media platforms in order to succeed, according to a 2015 article in Law Practice Today by Guy Alvarez, founder and CEO of Good2bSocial, and Lee Garfinkle, chief marketing and business development officer of the Americas at Allen & Overy LLP.

They explain that a thought leader is someone whose views on a subject are recognized as a major influence in their field. But they note that in the internet age, access to useful information is easy to access, making the achievement of thought leadership more difficult. Thought leaders, they explain, should also seek to actively and consistently understand their client’s businesses and the challenges they face.

Owned social media channels also important to achieving thought leadership status

Alvarez and Garfinkle underscore the importance of harnessing not only social media channels like Twitter and LinkedIn to both publish and engage, but the need to utilize owned channels like a firm blog. This permits firms wishing to achieve thought leadership status access to data on readers which can then be utilized to improve thought leadership efforts, as well as for business development purposes.

While Twitter and LinkedIn can be utilized to broadcast, engage and collect market research on existing and prospective clients, they will not provide the depth and breadth of information an owned blog will. The digital marketing and social marketing ecosystem created by a digital thought leadership platform, they explain, will with time and perseverance lead you to a thought leadership position in your industry.

Integrating thought leadership social media with business development

Integrating thought leadership social media efforts with your business development strategy is vital. As Liz Cerasuolo, Stefanie Marrone and Gina F. Rubel advise in a recent article on Law.com: “Develop a lead-focused content strategy” in order to effectively convert prospective clients into new clients. This includes placing calls to action in your thought leadership articles, funneling inbound new leads into your business development team and working closely with them to create thought leadership they can use in their engagement with prospective clients.

Plan for the challenge of producing consistent thought leadership content

It’s also vital to consider the time commitment required to publish regular, thought-provoking, and client-centric thought leadership. To do this, firms need to work with a professional writer capable of not only articulating your ideas in writing to your key audiences, while also helping you adhere to ambitious publishing goals (e.g. four blogposts per month). Most professional writers who focus on marketing as a niche are also often very capable of assisting you adopt and manage all the relevant social media channels you may need to create the all-inclusive digital platform Alvarez and Garfinkle recommend.

5 examples of thought leadership effectively integrated with social media

With all this in mind it’s important to consider who already appears to be working toward perfecting these efforts in their own industry niches in various parts of the world. While there are many examples of what might be considered excellent digital thought leadership platforms, I’ve selected 5 which you may wish to emulate (and perhaps you know of others you’ve already contemplated emulating). Each is not only utilizing its’ own blog, but is also active on important social media channels to distribute content and engage with key audiences:

UPS Longitudes – As United Parcel Service explains: “UPS created this blog as a forum to share not just our thoughts and views on the trends reshaping the global economy, but those of the true thought leaders in topics ranging from trade to transportation, ecommerce to emerging markets, Big Data to … well, whatever the future holds.” View it here: https://longitudes.ups.com/
World Economic Forum — As the BBC reported in 2016— in the past few years – WEF has gone from opposition to social media use – to a highly active and successful example of its’ best use. Read a more extensive description of their social media success here. And view their site here: https://www.weforum.org/.
Interel – Interel is “an integrated global public affairs and association management consultancy…with offices in Washington, Brussels, London, Paris, Berlin, Beijing & New Delhi, along with [a] worldwide network of affiliate firms.” View their blog here: https://interelgroup.com/blog/
Corporate Finance Associates is an investment banking firms serving middle-market companies in North America. Their blog is located here: http://www.cfaw.com/blog/
King & Wood Malleson’s China Law Insight – This multinational law firm with a substantial China mainlaind presence blogs in both English and Chinese on their blog, located here: https://www.chinalawinsight.com/

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The ascendance of content marketing

More and more companies are now utilizing the internet as a means by which to communicate with key audiences. And this communication is commonly referred to as content marketing. Content marketing utilizes a variety of forms of communication — including written, audio and video — often published on a range of social media channels.

Alexander Jutkowitz, vice chairman and chief global strategist at Hill+Knowlton has written about this trend, noting the “historic transformation for brands and companies” centered around content. In particular, Jutkowitz has detailed how “nine out of ten organizations are now marketing with content”. “The succes of content marketing”, he explains, “has radicalized the way companies communicate…mark[ing] an important new chapter in the history of business communications: the era of corporate enlightenment.”

With the importance of content’s role in modern marketing, those who might utilize it should first be aware of its’ essentials. This post is the first in a series dedicated to the Essentials of Content Marketing. It’s about getting the overall strategy right — before beginning any content marketing effort.

Content strategy tailors consistent messages to specific audiences

British public relations consultants Mackman Group have ably detailed the essentials of content strategy on their website. As they explain, a content strategy permits an organization to align their business objectives with meeting the needs of their customers via online engagement. Well thought-out content, as they explain, will be shared and more easily relevant in internet searches. This amplifies those key messages and ultimately leads to more interest and more customers.

The first step of a content strategy is research — which allows an organization to understand their key audiences. Once understood, content can then be consistently crafted to meet the ongoing needs of an audience. Too, companies should utilize platforms best suited to reaching and engaging with the audience that specific content is created for. In particular: “[Content] output must be consistently good…regular, original and varied, [while] in keeping with the brand’s overall style.” This is essential for building and maintaining an audience. And well planned social media is required to properly promote content and engage with an audience.

Importantly, “customers are not the only audience content engages… members of the media community – [including bloggers and writers] — should not be overlooked”.

A well-planned content strategy will lead to measurable results

Mackman Group concluded that a “clearly set out strategy” means content is easy to implement and measure. They recommend setting specific objectives which can be analyzed by using social media feedback and analytics from web traffic. This author would also note that content marketing, properly integrated into outbound business development initiatives, can be credited with a percentage of the sales proceeds firms generate from this unified effort.

While much more is available online about content marketing strategy, this post provides a basic overview of the central importance of strategy to content marketing. More of those elements will be detailed in this series in the future.

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Content and Social

Content Marketing and Social Media for International Business

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