thought leadership Archives

The Complete Guide to Thought Leadership: Elevating Your Voice with Strategic Insight

August 27, 2024

In today’s world, standing out as a credible and influential voice is more important than ever. Whether you’re a brand, organization or nonprofit, establishing yourself as a thought leader can significantly enhance your reputation, deepen your impact and drive meaningful engagement with your target audience.

But how do you begin this journey? Where does one start to build thought leadership? And what does it truly mean to be a thought leader?

What Is Thought Leadership?

Thought leadership is a strategic approach where individuals or organizations establish themselves as authorities in their field, offering unique insights, expertise, and perspectives on relevant topics. A thought leader is not just knowledgeable but is recognized for their ability to shape opinions, influence decisions, and drive conversations within their industry.

Thought leadership goes beyond simple content creation; it’s about consistently providing valuable, forward-thinking insights that resonate with your audience, positioning you as a trusted source of knowledge. Whether through thought leadership content like blogs, white papers, podcasts or public speaking engagements, the goal is to build credibility and foster trust.

Case Study: Greta Thunberg

Consider Greta Thunberg, who began her climate activism at just 15 years old by protesting at her school. Over time, Greta evolved into a global thought leader in the climate change movement. Her fearless approach and ability to hold powerful institutions and world leaders accountable for their environmental actions have solidified her position as a pivotal figure in the fight against climate change.

Greta’s rise as a thought leader within the environmental sector is a testament to her ability to craft a resonant, authentic voice that speaks directly to the concerns of younger generations. Her activism has mobilized millions of people worldwide, pushing climate change to the forefront of global discussions and influencing international policy decisions.

Through her strategic communication, Greta has not only become a leader within the environmental field but has also inspired a new wave of activism and awareness across the globe.

Thought Leadership Is More Than Just Expertise

In essence, thought leadership is about more than just sharing information; it’s about leading the conversation, setting the agenda and inspiring change. By consistently providing valuable insights and being a voice of authority, thought leaders can drive significant impact and help shape the future of their industries.

Why Is Thought Leadership Important for Brands, Organizations, and Nonprofits?

For brands, organizations and especially nonprofits, public relations is crucial in expanding your impact. A thought leadership platform, one key element in any communications strategy, is especially useful for several reasons:

Enhanced Brand Reputation: Establishing yourself as a thought leader helps build a positive reputation. When your audience sees you as an expert, they’re more likely to trust your brand and engage with your content.
Increased Visibility: Thought leadership content is often shared widely, increasing your visibility and extending your reach within your industry.
Strengthened Authority: Being a thought leader solidifies your position as an industry authority. This can lead to more speaking engagements, media opportunities and partnerships.
Support for Mission-Driven Causes: For nonprofits, thought leadership is particularly valuable in advancing your mission. It allows you to highlight important issues, advocate for change and mobilize support from the public and stakeholders.
Crisis Management: Thought leadership can be an essential component of crisis management. By proactively addressing challenges and providing expert insights, especially in an era of cancel culture, you can control the narrative and maintain trust during difficult times.

External Benefits of Thought Leadership

The benefits of thought leadership extend across multiple areas, including:

Building Trust and Credibility: Consistent thought leadership demonstrates expertise and reliability, helping to build long-term trust with your audience.
Driving Engagement and Advocacy: Thought leaders attract passionate followers who engage with their content and advocate on their behalf.
Influencing Industry Trends: As a thought leader, you have the power to shape industry trends and influence public opinion, driving the conversation in your favor.
Attracting Media Attention: Thought leadership positions you as a go-to source for media, leading to increased opportunities for coverage and exposure.
Supporting Fundraising Efforts: For nonprofits, thought leadership can be a powerful tool in fundraising, helping to build relationships with donors and secure funding for your cause.

Building a Thought Leadership Strategy Step-by-Step

Creating a successful thought leadership strategy involves several key steps:

Identify Your Niche: Start by identifying the areas where you can offer unique insights. Focus on topics that align with your expertise, audience interests and organizational goals.
Develop a Content Plan: Outline the types of thought leadership content you’ll create, such as articles, white papers, webinars or podcasts. Ensure your content is valuable, informative and aligns with your strategic goals. Conduct a thorough media training before engaging with your audience to practice effective communications strategies.
Engage with Your Audience: Thought leadership is not a one-way street. Engage with your audience by responding to comments, participating in discussions and soliciting feedback.
Leverage Media Relations: Partner with media outlets to publish your thought leadership content. This could involve pitching op-eds, securing interviews or collaborating on features.
Utilize Social Media: Amplify your thought leadership content on social media platforms to reach a broader audience and foster community engagement.
Monitor and Adjust: Continuously monitor the performance of your thought leadership strategy and make adjustments as needed to stay relevant and effective.

What to Avoid

While building your thought leadership strategy, avoid these common pitfalls:

Lack of Authenticity: Thought leadership must be genuine. Avoid jumping on trends just to stay relevant; instead, focus on offering meaningful insights.
Inconsistency: Regularly publishing content is crucial. Inconsistency can cause your audience to lose interest and erode your credibility.
Ignoring Feedback: Thought leadership is a dialogue, not a monologue. Ignoring audience feedback can lead to missed opportunities and alienate your followers.
Overemphasis on Self-Promotion: While it’s important to promote your brand, excessive self-promotion can undermine your thought leadership. Focus on providing value first.

How Can You Measure Success?

Success in thought leadership can be measured through various metrics, including:

Engagement Rates: Track likes, shares, comments and other forms of engagement on your content.
Media Mentions: Monitor how often your thought leadership is cited or mentioned in media outlets.
Audience Growth: Measure the growth of your audience over time, including followers on social media, subscribers to your newsletter and attendees at your events.
Inbound Opportunities: Track the number of speaking engagements, interview requests and partnership opportunities that arise from your thought leadership efforts.

The Benefits of Working with a PR Firm to Develop Thought Leadership

Partnering with a public relations firm can significantly enhance your thought leadership strategy. A PR firm brings expertise in media relations, content creation and strategic communications, helping you to:

Craft a Targeted Strategy: A PR firm can help you identify your niche, develop a content plan and create a tailored thought leadership strategy that aligns with your goals.
Amplify Your Message: With established media connections, a PR firm can help you secure placements in high-profile publications, ensuring your message reaches the right audience.
Manage Your Reputation: In times of crisis, a PR firm can provide crisis public relations strategies that protect your reputation and maintain trust.
Measure and Optimize: PR firms offer tools and expertise to measure the success of your thought leadership efforts and make data-driven adjustments for continuous improvement.

Need Support in Elevating Your Voice? Let Us Help

Thought leadership is a powerful tool that can elevate your brand, drive engagement, and make a lasting impact. At TASC, we specialize in helping mission-driven organizations harness the power of thought leadership to achieve their goals. If you’re ready to take your thought leadership to the next level, we’d love to work with you.

About TASC

At The TASC Group, we specialize in strategic public relations and communications services for nonprofits. Whether you’re a nonprofit, a brand, or an organization dedicated to social justice, we’re here to help you navigate the complex media landscape and achieve your goals through thoughtful, strategic communication. Check out our previous successful thought leadership campaigns and see how we can take your platform to the next level.

Elevate Your Business with Effective Public Relations Strategies

March 6, 2024

While a solid marketing strategy can deliver short-term gains, long-term brand growth often hinges on a well-executed public relations (PR) approach. PR has the power to shape your brand’s image and foster sustained recognition in the eyes of your audience. In this article, we’ll explore the fundamentals of PR and how it can benefit your business.

The Foundations of a PR Strategy

1. Crafting Compelling Stories

The basis of any good public relations campaign is a clear, strong message, and at the core of every such message is a compelling story. Your brand possesses a unique story and passion that sets it apart. Effectively describing your mission and why it matters is crucial to resonating with the public. According to Forbes, being backed by trustworthy news sources can also help your business growth by boosting its brand awareness.

2. Boosting Visibility

Visibility is a cornerstone of connecting with consumers and building brand awareness. To begin, conduct thorough research to pinpoint your target audience. Understand their behavior, interests, and preferences. This data serves as the foundation for tailoring your PR strategy.

3. Engaging Your Audience

Once your target audience is identified, develop a PR plan that generates content to engage them effectively. Determine their preferred sources of information, whether it’s newspapers, magazines, blogs, or social media. Knowing where your audience gets their news requires an effective media list and informs the content you create to align with their interests. This is key to capturing and retaining their attention.

4. Diverse Goals

While increasing visibility and engaging your target audience are primary PR goals, public relations can help achieve a variety of other goals. Whether you aim to boost product sales, attract event attendees, shift public perceptions, or raise funds for a cause, a well-crafted PR campaign can be tailored to address these diverse goals. Examples of campaign objectives include:

reaching a new audience
ensuring a business becomes known for a particular product, service, program, mission, etc.
increasing sales of or engagement with a particular product, service, event, etc.
improving the image of a company with the general public
counteracting negative press about a company

When to Seek Professional Help

Creating and executing an effective PR campaign can be challenging, especially for those without prior experience. If you’re unsure where to begin or lack the expertise, hiring a PR professional is a wise choice. These experts understand the intricacies of building successful campaigns and conveying your message to the right audience.

Benefits of a PR Strategy

When executed adeptly, PR can yield numerous benefits. It can elevate conversion rates with customers, establish your brand as an authoritative figure in your niche, influence public opinion and policymakers, secure vital funding, and attract new followers and program participants.

A well-crafted PR strategy is a valuable asset for your business, enabling long-term growth and recognition. By incorporating effective PR into your marketing efforts, you can shape your brand’s image, engage your audience, and achieve a range of strategic goals.

How The TASC Group Can Help

If you’re considering professional assistance for your PR needs, reach out to The TASC Group today. Our team has provided counsel to the nation’s most effective nonprofits, social changemakers and cause-driven organizations. We can help you create a PR strategy that amplifies your message to community members, captures your team’s unique voice and reaches millions with your impactful work.

Daily Harvest’s Failed Response And What Crisis Professionals Can Learn From It

September 27, 2022

Just as social media built the company’s reputation, it also destroyed it. Daily Harvest knew how to use social media and influencers to market its products, but failed to use the outlets for crisis management.

Daily Harvest is a meal delivery service that specializes in healthy plant-based food. The company focuses on convenience. Made for the busy person, Daily Harvest meals are either ready to eat or require minimal preparation. Grain bowls, soups and smoothies aim to make clean eating more accessible.

TikTok influencer Abby Silverman received a PR package from Daily Harvest in May that contained French lentil and leek crumbles. After consuming them, she reported severe stomach pain, leading to two visits to the ER. She posted a two minute Tik Tok video about her experience that went viral with more than 1 million views and almost 4,000 comments. This post was a catalyst of conversation which forced Daily Harvest to take action.

In June of 2022, Daily Harvest voluntarily recalled their French lentil and leek crumbles. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the meals caused sickness in 500 people and sent 113 people to the hospital. Those who consumed the crumbles claimed to experience symptoms such as stomach pain, liver problems, jaundice, dark urine, fatigue, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, back pain and shoulder pain. A lawyer representing a number of victims reported that over 25 of his clients had to get their gallbladders removed.

Daily Harvest claims they took immediate and proper action in a statement published on their website. The company explained that as soon as they received reports of the contaminated French lentil and leek crumbles they motioned a recall. Customers who received the product were notified and an investigation was launched with the FDA.

Considering that Daily Harvest acquired most of their business on social media, they should have also used it as a platform to spread information on the French lentil and leek crumbles recall. Daily Harvest failed when it came to keeping their customers informed and victims found themselves looking to Reddit forums for answers and guidance.

Their first Instagram post on the issue aimed to advertise a different product while leading people to a link in their bio for concerns on the French lentil and leek crumbles recall. Burying information while customers’ health was at risk was unprofessional and inappropriate. Daily Harvest had an obligation to keep their customers informed and failed to take the situation seriously enough.

From a PR standpoint, there are numerous ways this crisis could have been handled better. Daily Harvest was slow to report to their customers on the facts they needed. They neglected to post on social media, portraying a lack of accountability. Customers lost trust in the company based on their response to the issue. A crisis on any scale can sometimes be unavoidable, yet what the company can control is an appropriate PR response that can mend the relationship between consumer and business.

Six of the Top 2022 Trends We Might See This Year

January 26, 2022

In our media-saturated culture, trends can sometimes be seen as fleeting and therefore not worthy of investment. But as public relations professionals, it is crucial that we stay on top of trends and integrate them into our work to keep our strategies, media relation efforts and storytelling relevant and effective.

We’ve taken the time to compile a list of the top six trends that we think you should use to your advantage this year.

6. Climate

Climate concern will continue into 2022 with a strong generational skew. Gen Z and Millennials will rightfully prioritize climate over traditional worries Gen X and Baby Boomers faced. Prioritization will lead to faster, bigger emission cuts to help reduce carbon pollution. This year’s sustainability and climate efforts will be led by the younger generations through influencing and social media. Young consumers’ climate concerns will encourage sustainable activities like thrifting and the repurposing of clothing in an effort to limit textile waste. Climate content and environmental activism will continue to flood social platforms.

5. New Communications Platforms

Our current social media platforms are oversaturated with content and users. In the new year, new social platforms are going to emerge that encourage creativity and wellbeing, rather than pressuring users to find that perfect highlight-reel content and chase after likes. Think movements like #MakeInstagramCasualAgain. By leaving behind aesthetically-pleasing perfect feeds, content creators are going to lean towards authentic posting. These new platforms are going to introduce content through media outside of photos and videos and try to recreate the IRL (in real life) experiences we truly crave.

4. Inclusive Marketing

Companies are going to move towards incorporating authentically inclusive marketing. Consumer bases are increasingly diverse and expect more from their brands’ messaging. Younger consumers are holding brands accountable and questioning their focus on supporting diversity and inclusion. Companies will establish key performance metrics for DEI objectives to demonstrate that they are promoting equitable outcomes in all areas of their influence. By participating in the space of their followers in combination with analyzing their metrics to understand what is working for them, companies’ communication will not be one-directional. Instead, it will encourage the breaking of barriers between corporate and human content to help companies follow through on these promises.

3. Shifting the Monetization in Sports

Last year, we saw the creation of NFTs (non-fungible tokens). It took many of us nearly all of 2021 to figure out what an NFT was. NFT sports collectibles are predicted to grow massively, making a considerable mark in revenue perspective and potentially inspiring major sports leagues to dip their toe into the crypto market. In 2022, Deloitte predicts that NFTs will be generating more than $2BN in transactions for sports media, doubling that of 2021.

2. Health in the Age of COVID

Telemedicine will expand to include increased use of remote patient monitoring, digital therapeutics and wearable health tech. The pressure the pandemic put on medical professionals by limiting office visits helped show they can use data responsibly to improve health experiences without compromising the patient’s privacy. In order to harness the full potential of virtual health, the focus will center around achieving quality and value with the integration of in-office visits. Investing more time and resources into virtual health will also improve accessibility to quality health care by streamlining access to doctors and eliminating wait times in the office. Patients expect personalized communication and connectivity, and in 2022 virtual health will improve.

1. Rethinking the Workplace

According to a Toluna consumer trends survey, 88% of US consumers say they believe they should have the right to work remotely if technology and the nature of their work permit it. Despite the stress and uncertainty the pandemic has caused, many have realized the efficiency of working remotely. The disruption of the traditional workplace created a need in people’s lives for privacy and space. The current business landscape will adapt to making flexible work a requisite. Senior staff will encourage unnecessary meetings to be covered over email. Virtual breaks will help combat Zoom fatigue and burnout. In the same vein, business leaders will prioritize emotional wellbeing and recognize mental health by establishing wellness benefits or services.

Despite how difficult it seems to keep up with trends, they are immediately recognizable and have an incredible influence online. While our predictions are certainly not the only trends 2022 is bound to see, this list is a great start to begin thinking about how you can use trends to boost your PR, communications and company strategies to a new level.