Thought Leadership From a Reader’s Perspective

We’re wrapping up our month-long look at thought leadership with more insights from the recent Edelman/LinkedIn study on the key attributes of thought leadership as seen by the consumers of this content. Use their candid takeaways to shape your own thought leadership campaigns.

The top characteristics of high-value thought leadership content, according to decision makers:

• Explores potential challenges or new opportunities that were previously not considered
• Points out things that were overlooked in thinking or strategizing
• Includes guidance on how to respond to the issues raised

The top characteristics of low-value thought leadership content:

• Merely repeats what everyone else is saying
• Insights are too elementary and superficial
• Emphasizes selling something instead of imparting valuable insights

Thought leadership must be effectively distributed to have an impact:

• Discovered delivery: 47% of decision makers were researching a specific topic or came across it in their day-to-day consumption of content
• Pushed delivery: 32% of decision makers received the thought leadership directly from someone else
• Amplified delivery: 19% of decision makers saw the thought leadership material promoted on paid or earned channels