Backing Bloggers

We have been betting for some time that traditional print media are in a slow but steady decline. The internet has transformed the economics of news distribution, making commentary less valuable, turning news into a commodity and making hard inside information more valuable (but only if it is put behind a pay wall).

More and more people are choosing to access news online or are allowing their friends to become editors, distributing free news that meets their needs through social networking sites (to which they contribute their own small parcel).  Such people do not share advertisements or puff pieces but they do share online (free) news stories, videos and blog postings.

We embraced the new media world a long time ago and have been talking to our clients about the potential risks and benefits of websites such as Twitter, You Tube, Linked In and Facebook as part of their wider communication and brand management strategies.

Our involvement in the Right2Link Campaign is well known. We have been looking more recently at how large corporations can find legitimate ‘work arounds’ to enable them to engage with these new tools without creating compliance problems or running undue risks. This is not easy but it is possible.

But bloggers have perhaps still not proved quite as important as they think they are. The current UK Election and dramatic political events overseas are led much more by the association of broadcast and social networks working in parallel to mobilise opinion and even promote radical political change.

The recent TV Debate broke the mould of British politics over a few days (although whether this is sustainable is unknown) and Twitter and Facebook commentary then played their role in shifting herd sentiment towards change.

Bloggers, meanwhile, tend to be more reflective but they can also get over-excitable. They may have stolen some of the territory of the print commentators but they also tend to speak largely and only to micro-communities that cannot move whole societies. Nevertheless bloggers can cause the occasional ripple, eddy or even whirlpool in the business or cultural pond.

Within these micro-communities, bloggers now stand shoulder-to-shoulder with journalists as opinion formers and leaders. We think of Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale or even Pickled Politics as gossips by the Westminster village pump to whom political groupies will go as soon as they have listened to the wise words of the BBC or the Guardian.

There are equivalents now in almost every significant business community – from aviation through automotive to banking – even if this trend is stronger in America than in Europe.

But while bloggers are emerging as key influencers in the market place at this very focused level, many companies are still not adapting their approach to engage with them. Opportunities to stimulate conversation around your company or even or products/services are being lost simply because PR people still communicate with bloggers in the same way that they do with journalists, despite their needs being different.

We must always keep the blogging community in proportion however. At this point in history, they still rarely move large markets and much of the relationship with them has to be defensive – to stop ignorance creating the no-win situation of clumsy litigation.

However, the emergence of social networks is shifting the balance of power more than a little in their favour. Whereas, until recently, most bloggers where small fish in big seas, the aggregation of bloggers into media like Huffington Post on the one hand, improved search facilities and the share function on postings are all radically increasing potential circulation.

A posting can now be put up periodically on Twitter and on Facebook and then, if it presses a cultural button or contains seriously new news, it will spread rapidly from micro-community to micro-community until it comes to have much more influence than you might expect or be able to track.

The new media are also making it very difficult for litigators so that the immediate instinct of a corporation to go to law may well be a bad one. Bloggers may require charm if they are to be managed far more than the blunt instrument of the libel law.

Last year’s Trafigura incident showed how an attempt to silence the mainstream media back-fired as the Twitterati decided to overwhelm the system with Tweets drawing public attention to the facts. The lesson was that it is almost impossible now to silence debate when the main intermediary (the official media) can be by-passed by the massive trans-national interactive conversation of Twitter and Facebook, mediated now through Google.

So, at this stage, blogger influence is still limited, restricted to micro-communities. It also depends on bloggers being dedicated enough to produce a great deal of content, some of which will be dross.

But a sort of survival of the fittest is going on as we write – and eventually aggregation of blogs will build a community of respected independent commentators speaking directly to the people who matter to your business.

So how do we manage this phenomenon without wasting too much time? How do we invest in the knowledge basis required to take advantage of its later maturation?

1. Research bloggers. Find out who they are, what they write about, what sites/blogs/online columns they write for, their interests, who their audience is and what angles they are likely to take on any news. It is also worth looking at who their peers are – many bloggers comment on and link to and from each other bloggers’ sites and you may be able to build up a network of providers and influencers.
2. Build relationships. Any PR person will tell you about the importance of building mutually beneficial relationships with journalists; bloggers are no different. In the same way that you may read a particular journalist’s column in a broadsheet, you can follow blogs. But the difference is you can engage with blog authors much more quickly and begin to develop relationships. Indeed, here is the little secret of blogging – you can comment, comment is debate and debate raises awareness in the other silent readers of the story.
3. Target your news. Bloggers usually have a niche area of interest. Make sure your news is personalised for them, highlighting key facts that they will find of particular interest. Remember that they are not reporting news but commenting on it so the information should be geared to that dialogue with them that can make best use of comments. When creating targeted content, think about what points will trigger conversations and encourage responses.
4. Send a social media news release. Traditional press releases just don’t work for bloggers – they find them too generic, bland and impersonal. Bloggers want to be able to pick up key facts and quotes with speed and be able to link to sources, pictures, videos and sound bytes to support their commentary. A social media release delivers all these elements in bite-sized chunks as well as links to sign up for RSS feeds, so the blogger can keep up to date on the latest information and commentary in the market.
5. Act and respond with speed. Unlike many traditional media outlets, blogs can reach a wide audience within seconds. Therefore if a blogger contacts you to ask for more information or to be put in touch with a spokesperson from your company, be sure to respond in a timely manner. In many cases, the speed with which news is released can affect the blog’s ranking on search engines, and that in turn can impact the number of views a blog has.

This approach is not rocket science. In fact, it echoes the approach for communication with any stakeholder group – understand their needs, deliver solutions to meet these needs in a timely manner and in a way that is convenient for the user, and respond quickly to any interest.

We are all still learning to adapt to the shifts in power between traditional and new media. If Murdoch is sometimes clearly not sure what is going on, then we ought to have the courage to say the same.

But Bloggers’ influence in the long term over customer’s awareness, opinions, attitudes and behaviours can no longer be dismissed as trivial.

Successful companies will need to embrace this shift, and (above all) start to bring multi-media elements into their releases if their messages are to stand out in an increasingly crowded and noisy market place.

“Thought Leadership” – The New CRM?

Thinkers aren’t leading…

The Marketing Director of a major professional services firm recently said to us that, “thought leadership is the new CRM for professional services firms, everyone is talking about it and hardly anyone is doing it…”

Thought Leadership is currently one of the most overworked phrases in marketing. It might be translated as “we need some press coverage on this topic”.

We have reviewed many marketing plans in which a stated objective is to achieve a thought leadership position in a particular market niche.

• What does this mean in practice?
• What are the benefits of thought leadership?
• What are the key success factors in achieving it?
• How does one go about becoming a thought leader?

In many businesses there is a latent potential to achieve the position of a thought leader. Professionals of all varieties often have great insight, way beyond their narrow technical specialisation, and they are good at, indeed paid highly for,  ’thinking’.

So why is more not happening? In a board meeting we only came up with a handful of examples where we could recall more than one action by the same organisation that might be called ‘thought leadership’ in building a position in a market niche.

What happens in practice… and why?

Everyone wants to be a thought leader but few really are. Thought leadership is usually nothing more than a book to be published, a survey to be publicised, maybe an event to speak at and probably a press release to be issued.

This is not thought leadership, it is the stuff of everyday PR, something to hang a story on for a brief flurry of media attention and, perhaps, to be blunt, to boost someone’s ego. This has its place but it is not thought leadership.

Perhaps we can find our feet here by asking why people feel the need to be thought leaders and what they should be doing to achieve that status? Well let’s start by defining the problem.

The fundamental problem is not that we often name one-off marketing initiatives “thought leadership’ but that, because well targeted issues are often treated just as a PR exercise, they have no wider plan in place properly to exploit the deeper levels of thinking that have taken place and wherein lies the value added.

Some mid-level marketeers or traditional PR Companies who are neither expert in the issue of concern nor in developing successful sustainable thought leadership campaigns often find it difficult to match the intellectual level of the ‘thinkers’. They are communicators and simplifiers in a situation where complexity and sophistication may be inherent in the message.

Most traditional PR companies are not particularly well placed to develop campaigns, although their traditional press contacts may be valuable.

This is not, of course, ‘stupidity’ or ‘laziness’ just as journalists are not ‘stupid’ or ‘lazy’ but only a reflection of the fact that media relations has historically required certain approaches to the management of information that tend to simplified narrative and cliche – as when everyone piles on to a green or CSR band wagon and the whole tribe of business goes hurtling down one track where the slogan comes to mean more than the underlying conceptualisation or any consideration of the consistency, qualifications, doubts and the caveats that are to be found in all serious thought.

Thought leadership requires effort, including, well, thinking … and that in turn is going to require some serious senior executive time.

We have observed, no names or pack drill, that some individuals who, often single-handedly, achieve serious profile for their organisation will often do so at the peril of their personal business sales targets, their position in the organisation or their domestic life, or all three.

It is unlikely that you will achieve thought leader status in your spare time … so, if “thought leadership” is a term in your marketing plan, quantify it as a cost, make an assessment of value and get the entire management on side.

There will be some element of leap of faith but thinking about thinking is a form of internal thought leadership in itself. But what about sources other than personal professional expertise?

Pulling material out of corporate or professional engagement with professional organisations or trade associations should be an obvious starting point. Often management does not see this pool of knowledge as a marketing resource but, instead, as a personal interest or a straight “pro bono” for the profession or the industry.

Despite some of the fluffy thinking in the last decade or so of CSR, the truth is that a duty to shareholders and partner priorities demands that there is no such thing as pure ‘pro bono’ on company or firm time. 

‘Pro bono’ should be integrated with a thought leadership mentality that positions the firm or company as top of the game – not just ‘we do good things’ but ‘we do good things because …’

Many trade associations, short of funds, are willing to jointly badge important work in recognition of the effort expended and this is a legitimate mutual exploitation so long as the trade association is not compromised with its other members.

Too often ‘thinking’ is shallow – little more than, say, yet another survey or series of articles. That’s OK, but lets just be honest about it and stop pretending it is more than it is. Journalists will roll their eyes at the survey and the public have learned to be cynical but, bluntly, it gets the column inches - yet it is not ‘thinking’ and it has little long term value. Thought leadership, in short, is deep!

Key sources and elements of thought leadership…

So, if you want to be a real thought leader and gather the benefits in brand building that this can produce, what should you be doing?

Genuine thought leaders as those who can influence future board or management decisions. They will tend to be the leading management thinkers or leading figures in an industry. You do have to have some serious track record here.

Most organisations are likely to target a specific issue or an industry that aligns with their business development programmes. They will be looking ahead to changes in technological innovation, society and trade flows and they will have a good weather eye on government legislation and regulation.

Firms of the scale and calibre of McKinsey may try and cover a broad spectrum of activities through its eponymous “Quarterly” but for most businesses the scope will have to be much more focused.

I have already mentioned trade associations. They carry weight where government policy and regulations are in play. The Institute of Directors had this reputation under Ruth Lea and in the context of a Conservative Government but has since gone a little off the boil.

Business schools may also add research capability and credibility to research-based projects. The level of talent in the leading Western economies is high and London’s financial and professional services community has its own specialist school on its doorstep in the Cass Business School.

The growing array of think tanks tend not be taken seriously by business, as they are not always seen as practical, though there are exceptions. If relations with most are dumped on the public affairs teams, some, like the Institute of Fiscal Studies, really do influence thinking at the highest levels. In short, if internal resources can’t or won’t speak, a commitment to external collaboration may well help deliver the goods.

The things that tend to make real thought leaders successful are also the things that count against most “wannabe” thought leaders. What are those things?

Real industry or issue specific knowledge, whether internal or collaborative, counts for everything. Good ideas, supported with research need to be matched to an understanding of the issues as they are important at board level. Senior management is busy - thought leadership should address a serious market or compliance concern.

The topics and issues chosen should thus be ones of importance to clients and potential clients or be issues that are of much wider public policy significance with impacts on business (although this requires much more sophistication in assessing the value of a particular position in the political climate of the day and the high speed at which the political agenda can move on).

For example, we monitor food security issues for a client and the degree of public policy concern has fluctuated radically (in PR terms) over the last eighteen months. Any thought leadership on food security would need to be carefully times to achieve interest on the upswing not after everyone has put it into their policy out-tray.

Thought Leaders must also bring an independent view on an issue, and not be leading into a sales pitch for their own benefit. That means giving a balanced commentary.

Professional services firms, for example, are frequently and embarrassingly blatant in how they present their `thought leadership’. Their sceptical audiences can be turned off. and the rest of us ‘cringe’.

More important, poor presentation or ‘selling’ actually detracts from the image of intellectual competence – if you are so dim as to think that the audience is going to take research as reliable when it is presented as a sales pitch, then it places all your claims at risk as unreliable. 

Even worse, since blatant sales do not work but indirect sales do, the thought leaders’ marketing aides usually fail to have a sales plan in place to exploit the potential that still does exist … Thought Leader should write and basks in the glow of appreciation as an independent commentator and the gnomes in the marketing department should get moving to link the material to client needs on the ground.

Thought Leadership is very practical stuff. No arcane references to Adorno or Aquinas, please. Thought leaders should be creative, innovative and provocative but they must do it from a foundation of reasoned argument and preferably empirical research as well as latest professional or industrial or consumer experience.

Audiences expect thought leaders to bring clarity and succinctness to their position, not waffle or legalistic technical jargon, the very things that some company spokesmen, by habit and training, are happiest with when talking to their peers. 

They must cover the angles of all the stakeholders affected by the topic. We recommend a version of the Stanislavski method, named after the great Russian actor – get inside the mind of the person you are talking to and ask what they want to hear about, not what you want to tell them. How does your knowledge relate to their emotional and practical needs (though not prejudices)?

Thought leaders should also plan to be around for a while, maintaining long-term relationships with their audiences – hence my very important point about calculating costs against value. They are not one hit wonders. Weak thought leaders usually publish, perform and then disappear. The value is far less than it would be in sustained engagement.

So if those are the factors that thought leaders are expected to deliver, how can you or your would-be leader become such a leader and reap real and tangible benefits?

Planning to become a thought leader?

Thought Leaders do three things well.

• They raise the profile of an issue and deepen understanding .
• They set the agenda with their industry peers.
• They introduce new topics to the boards of potential and current clients in their chosen fields and they do these things over a prolonged timeframe.

They deliver sustained awareness, publicity, differentiation and added credibility to their organisation. This brings added power in the market place and enhances the environment for new business generation.

The acid test used by advertising agencies for advertising campaigns is relevant here. Does the idea have legs? Is it “buildable”? (If not, it still may be a good one-off initiative despite our concerns about such an approach.)

General rules of thumb are that organisations are more influential than individuals; commentators who tackle immediate issues are most valued; and those who maintain regular contact with their audiences are the most highly regarded.

That means that you have to exploit the full potential of the original and creative thinking that has taken place in a series of simple rules:

• Think and plan beyond the initial PR burst
• Think about the long-term purpose of the message to key audiences
• Plan how to take the message to your audiences singly (particularly journalists who are key opinion formers), in groups and also to the mass market
• Do it over a sustained period
• Build it into your overall marketing and communications plans and activities
• Keep thinking up to date
• Recognize that the world is changing and the new social media provide a fast and influential channel for building, enhancing and refreshing your reputation and thinking – make sure you understand how this can help you, or get someone who does to help you!

If you build a position you need to reinforce and defend it, not open the door for the competitors.  Trust us, they will try to move in behind you and try to steal your territory if you do not keep clearing your path through the jungle.

To quote an old adage: Tell them what you are going to tell them; tell them; then tell them what you have told them. Then do it all over again, and again.

As marketing people you may be bored by this but most of your audience still won’t have heard your views even after a year!

So, thought leadership is marketing (not PR) and marketing for higher added value professional and business service firms should consider thought leadership as yet another weapon in the armoury.

Roger White is Managing Director of Pendry White Partnership, a strategic marketing and communications consultancy, serving professional services firms and international organisations. Roger was formerly Director of Corporate Affairs for PricewaterhouseCoopers and prior to that Director of European Communications for Coopers & Lybrand Europe.