Thought Leadership Is a Synonym for Attention
Personally, I’ve never liked the term “thought leadership.” It signifies some exalted guru status , and my 20+ years of online content marketing suggest something much less exclusive. Anyone can achieve business authority with content, if they truly want to. I’ve done it in several industries, starting as a complete unknown in each. People “who had business ideas that merited attention” Turns out, the term “thought leadership” was coined back in 1994 by Joel Kurtzman, editor-in-chief of the Booz Allen Hamilton magazine Strategy & Business (a content marketing publication itself). Kurtzman used the term to refer to people “who had business ideas that merited attention.” Attention. That’s the heart of the matter, isn’t it? If you publish valuable business information that matters to prospective customers and clients, you can gain initial attention. If you focus on providing that information continuously (just like a magazine), you can gain permission-based continual...