Power up your business with thought leadership 💡
Power up your business with thought leadership 💡
Plus: AI is still a child — here's why that's important to remember
It’s hard to know which trends will stick around from year to year, but thought leadership is one in particular that continues to grow.
Here’s how you can leverage this strategy to stand out from the competition.
Today’s agenda:
🧑💼 Why all leaders should be thought leaders
✍️ Are blogs still relevant in 2024?
🤖 AI is a “toddler” — treat it as such
💼 Briefly — our quick news roundup
⏱️ Up & coming
🤔 Does ‘thought leadership’ just come with the territory?
Ideas and wisdom are the “new currencies,” says author and consultant Ron Carucci for Forbes.
🏃 Why you should strive for thought leadership
Sharing your knowledge and insights is a competitive advantage and boosts performance
Builds trust and credibility
Solidifies your business’s reputation by backing up the claims you have on your website and within your content
Helps you not only to attract new customers/clients, but to attract top talent into your business
📜 Tips for executing a thought leadership strategy
Find your inner teacher so you understand how to share your ideas and when the time is right, says author Noel Tichy
Share insights via company meetings or newsletters
Get in front of the public by publishing articles, appearing on podcasts, speaking at industry conferences, hosting webinars, etc.
Collaborate with other thought leaders
Are you planning to give thought leadership more attention in 2024? What steps can you take to start strengthening your inner teacher?
🎉 Blogging into the New Year
With the rise of video, many believed that blogging would take a dive.
But a Content Marketing Institute survey found that 78% of enterprises used blogs last year.
According to Search Engine Journal, blogging enforces the following:
Brand awareness and visibility
Use of multiple formats
Leads/conversions
Engagement
💪 What your blogs need in 2024
Multiple formats: Video, images, audio, reviews, CTAs within your blog content
Focus on high-quality, informative content that answers the audience’s questions and matches their search intent
Leverages AI’s strengths (data, insights, brainstorming) and combines them with the “human touch” for authenticity and creativity
📚 Blog content allows you to share your story and your expertise while helping your audience find solutions to their challenges.
👶 How to use AI responsibly
Yan Zhang, COO of PolyAI, says much like a toddler, AI should not be left unattended.
👉 AI pulls from a language model (which may be limited/biased) and responds with “astounding confidence” — even if it doesn’t have the right answer
👉 AI doesn’t know how to say “I don’t know”
🍼 The ‘right way’ to use AI in its youth
Invest in tools that keep the data AI is pulling from as accurate and updated as possible
Train your AI with your customer data to create more personalized experiences
Understand AI’s limitations and take advantage of its strengths
Without federal regulations for AI, businesses are left responsible for using this technology safely and ethically.
Zhang says “forward-thinking” organizations will implement their own policies to stay ahead of the curve.
Briefly
🔬 Check out this list of social media competitor analysis tools you can leverage to analyze your strategy vs. others — and stay ahead of the competition
📱 Twitter/X competitor Bluesky reaches 2 million users, with plans to add a public web interface that users can access without needing an account
✉️ The power of direct mail: New report finds that 63% of people say they give a piece of traditional mail their undivided attention when looking at it
⏱️ 4-day workweek vs. 32-hour workweek: Early UAW demand offers some food for thought
🤖 OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was fired and rehired last week within days: Here’s what happened
Up & Coming
Have you ever experienced “Zoom fatigue”?
A new study found evidence that videoconferencing takes a physical toll on people — and suggests that it should be more of a complement to in-person interactions instead of a substitute.