
How to Get Your Company Execs Quoted as Thought Leaders - ohjeez
https://shift.newco.co/how-to-get-your-company-execs-quoted-as-thought-leaders-1015dffc25ea#.3358pvajt
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vonnik
As a former journalist and PR guy, and now a thought leader offering
differentiated insights ;), the best advice I can give, which is not mentioned
in this piece, is to cut the crap.

Speak in plain language. Speak in a way an intelligent outsider would
understand. Constantly find ways to express or explain jargon in short,
everyday words. Thought exercise: Pretend you are writing a page for Thing
Explainer.

When you speak in plain language, you have a better chance of avoiding
pretension. You yourself will come across as more authentic to readers,
because your words are closer to their experience. And that will make you
stand out, because most people in tech and business, even very smart people,
have trouble expressing themselves clearly to strangers and outsiders.

In every industry, some things don't work. Be the first to admit it. In every
industry, there is hype and bullshit. Own it, debunk it, and then talk about
the way things really are.

And then explain why that matters. Readers and journalists always want to hear
about the "so what?" They don't want to decipher arcane statements. Walk them
to the finish line.

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tomc1985
The entire concept of "thought leadership" as something that one can strive
for is bunk. You're a thought leader because you are really. fucking. good. at
something and you're sharing it with the world. (As in, your ideas spread so
you don't need advocates to spread them for you...) People who are not at that
status and want to "thought leadership" need to step back and review their
goals...

The world needs no more lipsticked pigs. Thought leadership on anything but
its own merits, where people come to you, is invalid.

~~~
eschuman
Allow me to try and phrase this in a positive and hopefully realistic way.
Don't focus on any one exec as much as all of your people. Many startups that
I've covered (not all, but many) have several people who are truly insightful.
THOSE are your thought-leaders. It might be the CEO but is more likely to be
someone deep in the trenches. The problem is when companies want to position
one specific exec as a thought-leader and he/she simply isn't one. Either that
or they want to keep the interesting insights to themselves. That's when you
get trouble.

~~~
tomc1985
Fair enough; as long as everyone is included in the set of potential thought
leaders then the process can be properly meritocratic.

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inthewoods
Interesting but I don't think that's why most people can't get quoted - the
real problem as I see it is that the exec's expertise has to line up perfectly
with what the journalist is writing, and the journalist, who is most often a
generalist and has no specific industry training, must somehow be aware of the
exec as an expert. That's the toughest to make work because those forces don't
often align.

The other way to get coverage is to pitch a story to a writer which requires
some unique insight or data. Once you've done enough of those, then you might
get noticed as an expert and therefore called upon to respond to a reporter
with a question.

The final piece is the randomness of the news cycle and "hotness" of different
areas. If you're in a sleepy space, you'll have to work a lot harder to get
any coverage just because no one is writing about it.

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whitepoplar
Thought leader ( _noun_ ) - BS Vendor. ( _synonym_ ) Charlatan.

~~~
ohjeez
We used to use the word, "expert." But way too many marketing people use the
buzzword.

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webmaven
As with all things, it also helps to be responsive and reliable. Journalists
are usually on a deadline, and need a quote NOW. The first person to respond
with something usable is what they'll go with.

Of course if you aren't at all selective about the topics you are willing to
discuss you will become the lazy journalists' best friend.

There are certain people who, if quoted in an article, will immediately cause
me to stop reading, as their presence is a strong negative signal. You
probably don't want to be included in such august company, so be at least a
little selective.

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andrewfromx
really good advise to wanna-be execs that don't _really_ have anything new to
say on a subject, but want to be considered an expert. And then at the end, it
kind sounds like the author is saying you MUST divulge at least 1 secret, 1
thing that supposed to be internal only but you will leak.

~~~
ohjeez
The point is to please say something _interesting_. Or unique. Or at least
non-obvious.

You've no idea how many execs say things that essentially come down to, "Our
product is really cool" or "Security is important." And they (or their PR
people) sincerely are astonished when they are not quoted.

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tombone12
If you, like mr Schuman here, are a journalist I don't think it's your place
to be providing media training, at least if you strive for a higher moral
standing than the IRS officer working for PWC on the side coming up with tax
evasion vehicles.

~~~
eschuman
This wasn't media training. It was merely a way to point out to people how to
think to get better coverage. As a journalist, the more people who understand
this, the easier it is for me to do my job.

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codeulike
Tldr: teach your execs to speak clickbait

~~~
ohjeez
Actually no, just the opposite.

Is the idea so difficult? Tell the execs to say something interesting and
informative and unexpected. Instead of the blahblah that they think is
expected of them.

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gragas
The pretense of this article and this thread is astounding.

~~~
ohjeez
In what way? ::quizzical::

