Thought Leadership 2.0

Tom Parish, one of my first social media mentors, sends me link after link during the week on interesting articles, blogs, etc. in this space.  Last week, he sent me to look at the Conversation Agent.  In that post, Valeria Maltoni asks the question, "Are Blogs the New Thought Leadership?"

I wanted to immediately say, "Heck, yeah!".  But, I stopped.  It really depends on where you are in your social media maturity and whether or not you think like a purist or a traditionalist.

In my mind, a traditionalist approach would be more Web 1.0 style.  Do not have open conversations.  If you do, tightly control the messaging.  The brand voice and brand style must be adhered to at all costs.

Blogging has definitely changed that game, as well as other social media tools like wikis, forums, online user groups, podcasts, etc.  There are more voices out there now having conversations on behalf of your company or about your company, without the traditional marketing marketing messages and devoid of brand voice.

The purist approach is like this -- a Web 2.0 style.  It's about engaging others in conversation and opening up those conversations to the world.  The purist approach is about letting anyone and everyone have their say.

My experience has led me to appreciate a balanced approach.  I have a responsibility to our brand and to the relevancy and incisiveness of the content on behalf of the user community.  I always have to ask myself, what do they expect when they click through to a conversation topic?  Certainly it isn't curse words or spam.  The purist approach  doesn't allow moderation.  In business, the reality is that there must be some facilitation and moderation of the conversation, or the end result is a bad user experience.

But, let me get back to Valeria's question.  Are blogs the new thought leadership?  Well, not quite. 

Conversation is the new thought leadership.