Are your company executives well-respected within your industry?
Or are they relatively unknown outside of the corporate headquarters’ walls?
Traditionally, most PR programs have included some sort of thought leadership component, typically focused on the CEO and one or two other key executives.
This narrow approach is typically a result of budget and time constraints, and can put your business in an awkward position when you lose the equity you’ve built with the media when one of those few anointed thought leaders leave your organization.
Here are three ways you can build the thought leadership of your executive team.
Expand Your Media Training
In many organizations, the CEO is the only executive who gets hands-on media training.
Or media training is thrown together as a response to securing a broadcast interview.
This is better than not doing any media training, but it’s not enough.
To effectively expand your company’s thought leadership, it’s vital they receive media training before you turn them loose.
Your executives may be experts, but that doesn’t mean they should speak on behalf of the company without going through media training.
Even if they won’t appear on broadcast television, this training is essential.
Media training ensures they are able to articulate and represent the brand’s messaging.
They’ll be able to respond to criticism or tough questions without tarnishing the brand.
And they’ll be able to build relationships with the reporters you want to eventually cover them.
Broaden Your Corporate Blogger Pool
Your company blog is the perfect place to lay the foundation for your executive team members’ thought leadership platforms.
Unlike an interview, you are able to craft the exact message you want and publish it under your executive’s byline.
This is important because many journalists begin their research with a quick web search.
If your blog is regularly publishing thoughtful, targeted content, it can put your internal experts in front of journalists who cover your industry.
Craft your PR content strategy to include a regular cadence of executive-authored content both on your blog and contributed to relevant media sites.
Encourage Your Execs to Use Social
Although there are conflicting reports on how many executives use social media, more than 75 percent of business-to-business buyers and 84 percent of other executives surveyed by IDC use social media to make purchasing decisions.
Given that word-of-mouth is perhaps your most powerful marketing channel, it’s in your best interest to have more of your executives actively engaged in social media.
This allows them to become part of the conversations others are having around your industry.
By being actively engaged on at least one social media platform, your executives have the opportunity to share their expertise and build relationships.
Being accessible in this way greatly increases the likelihood of your organization being top-of-mind when a journalist is looking for a source.
Pulling Thought Leadership Together
Media training prepares your team to join the public conversation.
Blogging gives them the opportunity to lay the foundation for showing their industry expertise.
Engaging on social media allows them to inject their point-of-view into the conversations your industry is having, and begin to build relationships.
The combination of these three elements provides a strong public identity that your PR team can point back to when they’re pitching the media to cover your company.
With journalists increasingly being measured and compensated on the performance of their content, when given the choice, they’d prefer to interview someone who is a known commodity.
Building a strong public presence for your entire executive team increases the opportunities of your company gaining their attention—and earning that coverage.