The dummies’ social media guide to thought leadership portals

The Dummies’ Social
Media Guide to Thought
Leadership Portals
By Clive Roach
March 2014
www.Socialmediajedi.info

23 March 2014 2www.socialmediajedi.info

Thought leadership, what is it?
Thought leadership, what is it? Wikipedia defines a thought
leader as “an individual or firm that is recognized as an
authority in a specialized field and whose expertise is sought
and often rewarded.” If we take this definition, a company that
creates a thought leadership portal seeks to be recognized as
an authority in a specialized field.
Let’s explore the social media aspects of thought leadership
portals from six major companies –
- What was the social media impact?
- What lessons can we learn?
- How can thought leadership portals
be created that drive business results?

Adidas Go All In

Adidas Go All In
Social sharing is included courtesy of Gigya. This produced a more
elegant share experience very much aligned with the style of the
Adidas “Go All In” site.
Users are given the opportunity to comment on each article, so
Adidas is the only thought leadership platform I have reviewed that
supports this functionality. However, the vast majority of articles do
not have any comments, which I find odd. I only found four articles
that had comments. The only issues I found on the Adidas site were
that the terms of service and privacy policy links were faulty.
http://discover.adidas.com/com/goallin

Coca Cola Journey

Coca Cola Journey
Social The Coca Cola journey is available for eight countries plus
global. There are also polls.
I love the tone of voice on
this portal. Examples of fun
“must visit” sections on the
Front page are “just poured”,
“Staff pics” and the “stay and sip” section. So much content, every
section brimming with images, things to do and read. This portal
also includes quick links to the company’s branded social media
accounts.
http://www.coca-colacompany.com/

Pepsi Pulse

There is a huge choice of languages. The interface is filled
with articles ranging from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, audio
(via SoundCloud) and video. Each article can be shared to
Google+, Twitter, Facebook etc. The “What’s now” section has
the Pepsi content and the “Your voice” section is where you
will find the user generated content.
In summary, a fully immersive experience, with a nice mix of
cool Pepsi content and user generated content delivered in a
highly visual interface, with a huge selection of languages and
lots of social sharing opportunities.
http://www.pepsi.com/
Pepsi Pulse

Intel IQ

Intel IQ
IQ by Intel explores technology culture, news, trends,
innovations, and the people behind them.
The site mainly has the articles presented in a grid design.
The IQ Intel portal only has Twitter, Facebook and email share
buttons.
There is no user generated content or collaboration
opportunities.
http://iq.intel.com/

Ford Social

Ford Social
Ford Social; "fresh way of thinking, interacting and creating
that puts you in the driver’s seat. Ford friends, fans and
aficionados—this is for you. A place to share your stories,
pics, ideas and more. So press play to see what Ford Social
has to offer. And then come on in and be a part of the action".
Ford Social allows user generated content to be posted.
Users can also read about first-hand experiences from other
members and submit their own.
In addition they can post ideas and submit pictures. You can
also grab a badge that shows your love for Ford. A very nice
easy to use portal.
http://social.ford.com/

GE Reports

GE Reports
GE Reports has been around for many years. Interesting to
see that it is located on Tumblr. "GE Reports is a daily, award-
winning online magazine published by GE. The website and
its companion Twitter handle feature stories about innovation,
science and technology, as well as viewpoints on important
issues regarding GE and the world". This portal makes use of
the standard share bar in Tumblr, so that Tumblr users can
like and re-blog articles and follow GE Reports in Tumblr. In
addition, GE has added social share options for Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn and Reddit for each article. There is no user
generated content or collaboration opportunities.
http://www.gereports.com/

SAP Business Innovation

SAP Business Innovation
Each article has an AddThis share button bar as the main way
to share.
SAP allows non SAP people to become contributors on
request by email. There is more than enough content to keep
you interested; a proof point for opening up the portal to
external authors. We shall see if the huge amount of user
generated content would add anything to the social media
impact of the SAP Business Innovation portal, and I repeat,
the user generated content is huge here!
http://blogs.sap.com/innovation/

The Social Media Impact of
Thought Leadership Portals
If your company created a thought leadership portal, you
would expect that it would (or should) give your company
some rewards, some business advantage. What are the
benefits of having a thought leadership position?
I quote Michael Brenner -
"The benefits of Thought leadership start with brand affinity.
By communicating thought leadership you become part of the
conversation, early in the buying journey. You allow your
audience to get to know you."

Social Media buzz

Social Media buzz
To be a part of the conversation, you must be found, be heard.
I conducted a simple exercise to see how many social media
mentions had occurred within the last 30 days directly linked
or referring to an of the above six thought leadership portals.
There was not much between them, with the exception of
SAP. It had almost 3x the figure of the smallest result. The
SAP social media buzz was mainly powered by Twitter, but
was the only one with a global spread. All the other five had
their social buzz centered around the United States for the
URLs listed in this post. All of the company results were
strongest in Twitter with the exception of Pepsi, which had the
majority of buzz generated via Facebook.

How To Create Thought Leadership
That Drives Results? -
I will conclude with 5 steps suggested by Michael Brenner
(SAP), in a post published by Forbes.
- Identify the questions your customers are asking.
- Answer those questions.
- “Give to Get”.
- Make it interesting.
- Invite customers to participate.
These steps drive social media results. Business results are
measured by a different bean counting device. Thought
leadership platforms should be carefully plotted to track how
they contribute.

They might ideally be best deployed at the top wide end of the
traditional sales funnel. They can contribute throughout the
funnel, but this must be carefully plotted and measured.
The sections and content direction of thought leadership
platforms must have their roots embedded within the key
themes or segments of the business from the very start.
Coca Cola once said that the “s” in social media did not stand
for sales, and this blog post details the story behind that quite
well. However, did Coca cola really understand what their
platform should contribute and where and how?
How To Create Thought Leadership
That Drives Results? -

Thought leadership platforms that just broadcast will not get
the job done. Aim to create awareness, engagement
opportunities and then conversion. Understand where the
thought leadership portal “adds value” along this path and plot
your digital Eco-system including all your relevant digital touch
points, above the line, below the line, and hand shakes
between them, and measure, and adjust for success!
Read the blog post for this SlideShare
In summary

I am a social media strategist, blogger and speaker about social media
marketing. Subscribe and learn about how to use and adopt Social media
for Marketing, and keep up with the latest news. Currently I am the Head of
Social Media for Philips Lighting. I am active with strategy development,
activation, governance, projects and educational training activities for all
aspects of social media within Philips Lighting. I have been working in the
digital marketing area since 1997, and previously held roles in engineering,
design and sales. In addition to this blog, I tweet daily on two Twitter
accounts, have two Facebook pages, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram,
and participate in many other social networks.
Connect with me via:
Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn | Facebook fan page | SlideShare

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