By Don Bulmer
Social media is a tremendous environment for B2B companies to
establish competitive advantage through compelling thought leadership.
In a social environment, thought leadership allows companies to
frame and stimulate conversation and collaboration around important and
sometimes complex ideas and real-world business and socioeconomic
problems – where their solutions are uniquely positioned to help
address.
Through social media, companies can reach highly
targeted audiences by role (CEOs, CIOs, developers, etc.), industry
orientation and geography through any form of generic or specialized
social network or community (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter,
MyVenturePad.com, YouTube, etc.).
If compelling, people will
contribute, share and internalize the thought leadership – giving
companies a tremendous opportunity to influence agendas and establish
standards in the market.
As outlined in a recent post by Rob Leavitt, in order to make an impact -
thought leadership requires focus, depth and continuity.
For
many companies this represents a big challenge due to a lack of skilled
and trained staff (in house) to produce good, deep and continuous
thought leadership - on their own.
Where resources are limited
(in-house) many companies rely on external 'thought leaders' and
influencers such as high profile academics, analysts, consultants and
industry experts to help shape industry conversations.
Every company is a media company
Tom Foremski has made a passionate and compelling case for why every company is now a media company - in the wake of a disrupted and distributed media industry.
The cascade of the strengthening forces behind the disruption of the
media industry (that Tom outlines) has forever changed how corporations
manage their communications, reputations, brands and execution of
business strategies.
On the positive side, companies now have the
ability (and forced accountability) to communicate directly with its
key audiences – giving them greater reach and more influence than
traditional media has ever offered as a primary channel in the past.
On
the flip side, success in a new media environment requires a shift in
how companies use their cadre of resources including employees,
customers, partners and external influencers to be successful.
As every company is now a media company...every person is now (also) a media entity.
Those
companies that maximize and mobilize its employees and external
stakeholders around important ideas and issues - will be successful.
This is where thought leadership can play a powerful role.