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The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
August 2006, Volume 5, Issue 9

search engine marketing

Building Thought Leadership Online: The Power of Recognition

by Kavitha Mantha, Search Marketing Specialist, iProspect

Each August, “Restaurant Week” in Boston offers an opportunity to dine at the best restaurants, at a fraction of their standard prices. Consequently, September usually signifies the start of my diet.

Since a lot of dieting resources offer conflicting advice, during my online search for healthy recipes and exercise tips, I was happy to find a listing for www.mypyramid.gov when querying “healthy diet” on Google. Created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the website offers authoritative knowledge on healthy eating habits and the option to customize a diet to varying lifestyles. The site also features a handy dietary and physical activity assessment tool, sample recipes and in-depth educational research, posters and worksheets.

The information I found convinced me that the USDA gives considerable thought to their audience and the way healthy diets can work for different people. And, while .gov and .edu sites typically rank higher due to the credibility attached to them, I was able to quickly complete my search for diet information when Google returned this thought leader prominently within its results.

What is a Thought Leader?

A thought leader is defined as a person or an organization that is recognized by the general population for having authoritative knowledge on a specific subject matter. They fully understand their business, their industry, and their customers and are often the first to say or try something new within their marketplace. On the Internet, a thought leader is a website or a blog that external relevant sites link to and define as a trusted, authoritative source. A thought leader can also be a MySpace profile, with thousands of “friends.” The key element that makes thought leadership relevant to both branding and search engine optimization (SEO) is the fact that a website cannot declare itself a thought leader—thought leadership can only be bestowed upon a site by others.

Relevance to Search

The more recognition a thought leader receives, the more powerful they become. On the Internet, this translates into several sites identifying the content and comments of thought leaders by mentioning them and/or linking to them. Because search engine algorithms place a lot of importance on external links pointing to a site, treating it as a proxy for popularity, thought leadership becomes an essential ingredient for any SEO campaign. Small and large companies can set themselves apart from the pack by the insights they provide and gain the same, if not more, credibility on the Internet as a .gov or .edu site, thereby positively affecting their rankings.

Where Do You Start?

Thought leadership requires a company or person to be generous with their knowledge and their time. Being a thought leader requires hard work and commitment. You have to continuously share what you have and what you know, and envision what the future holds. Here are some tips on how to build and improve your thought leadership. To establish yourself or your company as a thought leader, it is crucial that you are knowledgeable, forward-thinking, generous, and accessible to both your audience and the media. Getting recognized as a thought leader is difficult and time consuming, but if done effectively, can be highly rewarding, from branding, SEO and business development perspectives.

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