Thought leadership is something of a holy grail for the PR industry. 

It is an interesting area for PR consultants to get involved with as it provides an issues rich environment for them to really add value through research, insight and execution. 

The best PR practitioners recognise that thought leadership presents an opportunity for their client to add value to its customers and differentiate itself.  In practice, PRs often struggle to find clients that can enunciate and commit to a thought leadership position.  

Organisations encounter a number of issues when it comes to executing against a thought leadership strategy:

1. They believe that thought leadership exposes them to risk – what if people disagree?
2. They’re happy to fly below the radar – no-one else is taking a position so why should we?
3. They don’t have the industry insights required to take a credible position on a topic
4. They don’t have the individual talent to deliver the content or are unwilling to invest in it 
5. They’re focus is lead generation and sales – they don’t see the reputational value in thought leadership
6. They’re not prepared to invest in the necessary research or partnerships required to establish a thought leadership strategy
7. They unable to take an industry view - their industry perspectives are insular, biased and self serving
8. Marketing investments are focused on promotional outcomes, rather than ongoing corporate objectives

Occasionally, you see organisations jumping onto an issue because it has become a business imperative, a good example of this is the Environment where many organisations are keen to be seen to be doing the right thing.  Don’t get me wrong, I believe that most companies are genuine in their intention to reduce their impact on the environment but the adoption of these goals was largely responsive in nature – it become a business imperative.  It was not a proactive altruistic motivation that could be described as genuine thought leadership.

The challenges in this area can be mighty frustrating for the PR agency and in-house team that recognise the opportunities presented by thought leadership to:

1. Build positive brand perceptions
2. Proactively lead the media agenda and add value to media relationships
3. Initiate discussion and generate publicity
4. Provide PR campaigns with a consistent theme or message
5. Raise the profile of senior executives
6. Add value to their industry and been seen as a positive contributor
7. Motivate and engage employees and partner organisations
8. Help drive a shared agenda with stakeholders
9. Engage new audience groups; Government; Industry Associations; Industry Leaders

I think the importance of thought leadership will grow in the future as brands become more attuned to their customers and marketplace.  Brands will need an agenda in order to ensure the sustainability of their online communities.  They’ll need to have opinions and insights in order to drive activity online and empower customer advocates.  They’ll also need to respond to increasing customer expectations about the role that their brand of choice plays in the community.

As a result, we’ll see brands re-assessing their thought leadership strategy and working to identify the relevant opinion platforms for their business.  I think we’ll begin to see support from brands for thought leadership topics that genuinely reflect the interests of their community and, as a result, more credible, personalised, actionable and specific. 

What do you think? Does this also apply to individuals online?  Will it become more important to take a personal position on an issue or are we more likely to exist in communities that reinforce our own world view?

Tags: insight, leadership, Media, opinion, PR, socialmedia, thought