A post I read in the Associations Now magazine web site, written by Allison Torres Burtka, is on “How Associations can be Thought Leaders.” Allow me to share this with you today.
A thought leader, according to Wiktionary, is a person, organization, or a publication regarded as an authoritative source of new ideas or intellectual trends.
“As an individual, a thought leader is a professional who is deeply embedded in his/her field and who regularly communicates his/her knowledge, intelligence, and insight out to the overall industry—and associations can be broader extensions of that,” said Jason Meyers, senior director of content strategy at SmithBucklin, a Chicago-based association management company.
Associations that are thought leaders are recognized as experts in their field and authoritative sources of knowledge. Many associations have this type of knowledge but share it only internally.
“There’s so much intelligence and insight about professions that exist within the membership of associations—it’s just a matter of figuring out the best way of capturing, conveying and communicating all of that out to other members, as well as to the industry overall,” Meyers added. He suggests the following for an association to boost its knowledge community and become a thought leader:
Establish some kind of “industry-facing platform” that gives your association an opportunity to showcase the thought leadership of members, such as through speaking opportunities at conferences, online content hubs, blogs and publications.
Make “members-only” publications into something that would be more broadly accessible to the industry and the profession that your association represent overall, for the purposes of both positioning yourself as a thought leader and educating the larger industry about what you offer.
Be more open about sharing knowledge and expertise beyond your members and shift toward a more online-focused publishing strategy. Many associations have seen that it’s more beneficial for their organization to “un-gate” their content and open up their thought leadership to a broader audience. This doesn’t mean, however, that everything needs to be shared, but opening up more of it can help educate the industry.
Create a committee of members who are very interested in the concept of content and thought leadership and understand the expertise that their peers have. These committees can help identify the best possible people to contribute an article or do an interview on certain subjects.
These actions can also attract new members who value your association’s thought leadership.
“If I’m a professional in a given industry or sector, I want to be recognized as an expert in my field, and one way to do that is to be affiliated with this association of experts,” Meyers said.
Finally, Meyers cited that in thought leadership, frequency is important. So the association should endeavor to publish articles or to have staff and members speak at conferences on a regular basis. While not everyone has the time or inclination to write a long article, a mix of formats can work well, such as videos, podcasts, interviews, case studies that staff can prepare and articles that members might write. There are lots of different ways to draw intelligence out of members and get it published and disseminated out there.
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The contributor, Octavio ‘Bobby ’ Peralta, is concurrently the secretary-general of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP), founder and CEO of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives (PCAAE) and president of the Asia-Pacific Federation of Association Organizations (APFAO). PCAAE is holding a conference on branding, marketing, PR and communications on March 21, 2019 at the Philippine International Convention Center. PCAAE enjoys the support of ADFIAP, the Tourism Promotions Board and the PICC.
Email: obp@adfiap.org