What makes a thought leader?

Blue fish going one way, being redirected by red fish.
Thought leaders change people’s questions.

Three weeks ago, I told a teacher of mine that I was working on a thought leadership project. “What makes a thought leader?” he asked.

His challenge led me to search for a common thread. I studied titans like the IBM Institute for Business Value, Think with Google, and the US Federal Reserve. Then, I discovered what they had in common. Each changed a predominant question in their field.

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Divide & Conquer Blogging with Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling writing app on Zoho Creator
A screenshot of my Rudyard Kipling writing app powered by Zoho Creator.

I just created the writing app your content marketing team needs to create thought provoking blog posts that stand apart from your competition. My app, named Rudyard Kipling after the system of writing, frees up your company’s experts to focus on sharing insights while writers focus on wordsmithing.

The writing app works by dividing the labor of writing an article into six steps:

  1. Ask3
  2. Answer3
  3. Draft
  4. Edit
  5. Publish
  6. Share

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I’m on a content marketing roll

I’ve been on a content marketing kick lately. It all started when I was scratching my head about how to spice up our “Call Your Concierge ASAP” campaign and an AdAge email for the Going Native: Content Marketing Strategies report came across my desk. Needless to say, I bought it.

Page 14 mentions a Nielsen study, commissioned by Virgin Mobile in 2012, that showed 150% brand lift in consumers who had seen content sponsored by Virgin Mobile. I thought, “that’s exactly what we need.”

And so my fellow concierges and I have begun writing content that answers doctors’ most basic questions. Questions like, “How do I remove a bad review?” When doctors type these questions into Google, we want to provide the answers.

I’d appreciate any comments or insights you might have about content marketing.