Thought leadership is not an exclusive thing. Professional musicians may not know much in the way of real estate, but they can tell you all about sound engineering.
My oldest son, 6, can opine at depth on video game YouTubers and I'll learn something new. Point being: we all have something that we're especially knowledgeable on that other folks may not know as much about. In the business world, sharing this information can help your peers, inform your clients and even, benefit yourself and your company's brand.
From Paul Suchman, global CMO at CBRE, on great thought leadership:
When we examine companies...and how they steward their brands, we see great examples of thought leadership -- brands like IBM, GE and Accenture. What they are all doing is taking ownership of issues that are driving their respective industries forward. By owning these issues, by owning these ideas and responding to evolving marketplaces, these brands are in effect redefining and leading their industries. Thought-leadership campaigns align with how world-class professional services firms utilize marketing to deliver value to their clients, to their stakeholders, and hopefully distance themselves from their competitors.
In other words, thought leadership is free marketing. By talking about what you know, you define yourself and your company to the world. And it costs you nothing but the time it takes to write a blog.
It may be hard to settle on a topic, but if I've one piece of advice it's this: trust yourself. Go with your gut. Write on something you know about, be honest, and people will read it. They'll read it and share it and go out of their way to help you paint the picture of yourself that you want the world to see. How's that for branding?!
And you know what? We'll help you too. Are you an expert on anything real estate? Negotiations? Open house pro? Know how to do a quick deal or have any insightful tips on management? Write up a short blog (around 500 words is ideal!) and send it over to us at communications@lwolf.com. Don't worry about spelling or grammar. Our team of editors can take care of that.
Just send us something you're proud of and we'll share your expert advice with our 5,200 Facebook followers and over 11,000 fellow Tweeters! Thanks for reading, and happy writing!
