CEO of iResearch Services, a global thought leadership agency that focuses on evidence-based research to power thought leadership campaigns.
getty
Influential leaders are often like contortionists, having to balance the needs of the business with the needs of their employees and their own responsibilities. As a result, it feels like we are being pulled in a million different directions and pushed beyond our limits. Finding the right balance can be difficult.
For example, a leader may need their team to be creative and productive. However, too much productivity can dampen the team’s creativity. This is where their insight as a leader comes into play. They need to understand their team to know when to push for content and when to allow room for creativity to flow. It can be tricky to find the right balance.
Thought leadership works the same way. It can be challenging to determine when you should continue pushing out content and when to slow down for creativity purposes.
Content, creativity and insights can form a new equilibrium in your thought leadership strategy. But before we dive into the balance, here’s how each plays a role in effective thought leadership:
Content
If you are a business practicing thought leadership, you are constantly pushing out content, whatever it may be (blogs, videos, podcasts or even a mix of these channels). This content should serve to demonstrate your team’s expertise and boost your business’s visibility. Content that is valuable and high quality can help establish your business’s credibility as a leader in your industry.
MORE FOR YOU
Creativity
Creativity is a desirable quality that allows you to look at ideas in new and exciting ways. It can allow you to solve problems that others have not since you do not view them the same way others might be. Creativity also allows for innovation, which can help you stand out in your field.
Insight
Insight is the ability to accurately and intuitively understand a situation, individual or other things. In thought leadership, this insight should be for data and research. Having insight into data and analysis can help your team solve or avoid problems while uncovering new opportunities your team would otherwise not see.
Forming An Equilibrium Between Content, Creativity And Insights In Your Thought Leadership Strategy
How do you balance the attributes mentioned above through your thought leadership? Here is how you can begin:
• Find balance in producing content.
When your team is constantly pushing out content, it can be easy to burn out or run out of ideas. It is important to pace your team and find the right balance in producing content and putting it out. Pushing out too much content at once can overwhelm your audience, oversaturate your field and lead to low-quality work.
While your audience should want to see more of your content, you should not sacrifice quantity for quality. Your audience will appreciate the effort you and your team put into producing high-quality work. You want to add value to your work so that your audience will always want more.
However, just as you don’t want your team to push out too much content, you also don’t want too little content. Content helps boost your business’s visibility and credibility, so posting too little can hinder your thought leadership strategy.
How much content you push out varies by brand type. B2Cs typically post more frequently than B2Bs.
• Find inspiration and slow down to stay creative.
Your team needs to balance content with creativity to keep it interesting. As already discussed, innovation allows your team to look at ideas in new ways, keeping your content entertaining and engaging. If your team discusses the same topics with very few differences, your audience will get bored. Creativity allows for your team’s content to not get dry.
If you are struggling to put out content, implementing a creative process can help you find the inspiration you need to produce more.
For example, our team at iResearch uses a method called The Friday Shelf where we put all our topic ideas on an imaginary shelf. If a particular idea stays with us until Monday, we pick it up and stay the course on it. It’s also a good idea to tap into quick qualitative interviews and use social listening tools.
• Participate in research.
Insight might be an attribute that does not come naturally to you, and if so, that’s okay. You can enhance your insights through research. This does not have to include hours of wading through websites and looking for credible internet sources. Your team can also engage in research by sending questionnaires to your audience or consumers. The questionnaires can include questions about what they like about your brand, what they want to see you post more or less of and what they would like to see in the future. You can then gain further insight into your audience’s minds and desires using the data you’ve collected.
You can also use qualitative research, such as interviews or focus groups, to gain further insights into what is working or not working for your brand.
Improving your insight can help you find the right balance between content and creativity—what content you should and should not post, how often you should post and whether your audience will enjoy your content or feel alienated.
Finding Balance
Remember that while you should be continually putting out content, you do not want to oversaturate your audience. Creativity is essential to a successful thought leadership campaign. It helps if you continue to take time to reflect on your creative vision. You can find the right balance of content and creativity through insight by understanding your audience’s needs and wants and your limits and capabilities.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
Go to Source
Author: Yogesh Shah, Forbes Councils Member
