Beth Newton Of alpha | BRAVO: 5 Things You Should Do To Become a Thought Leader In Your Industry

An Interview With Abe Alon

Build your network. To tag someone in your post, you’ll need to be connected to them. This is a great reason to send a connection request! Always send your request with a note letting them know you want to share their post or amplify their content. Don’t ask to connect because you are in the same industry or because you have a connection in common. And definitely not because you want to sell them something! Look for ways you can help, and you’ll be much more likely to get a positive response.

As a part of our series about how to become known as a thought leader in your industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Beth Newton.

Beth is the CEO of alpha | BRAVO, an award-winning social media marketing agency that works primarily with service-based B2B brands. She is a member of Forbes Agency Council and the Entrepreneur Leadership Network, where she writes articles on marketing strategy and leadership. She is also a member of Chief, a private network for executive women.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you briefly share with our readers why you are an authority about the topic of thought leadership?

Sure! I began writing thought leadership content for brands in 2014. That success led me to a Content Marketing Director position where I built thought leadership strategies for clients and led a team of content writers. Over the past 10 years, I have developed B2B thought leadership content and strategies for Fortune 500 brands including Microsoft, LinkedIn, BDO, Post Foods, Cisco, ProSource, and many others.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

On August 1, 2013, I started freelancing full time. It was a terrifying move for a single mom with three kids! But it 100% changed the trajectory of not only my career, but my life. Two weeks later, at a networking happy hour, I introduced myself to someone as a freelancer writer. That person said, “Oh you should meet, Aaron! He’s a designer.” We shook hands and exchanged business cards. A week later Aaron and I met for coffee to discuss potential projects. We launched alpha | BRAVO in 2016 and got married in 2017.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I was first writing content and submitting it to magazines, I wrote this how-to piece on planning your own vacation (this was back when travel agents were still used almost exclusively). The tips were all written around my own story of planning a trip to Maui in 2000 and all the fails along the way, from our rusted-out Jeep rental to emergency wisdom teeth surgery on the island. It was a gem! I sent query letters off to about a dozen magazines and got a decidedly curt reply from AAA magazine (nearly all their advertisers were travel agents and travel companies!). Lesson: Know Your Audience!

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our interview. In a nutshell, how would you define what a ‘Thought Leader’ is? How is a thought leader different from a typical leader? How is a thought leader different from an influencer?

A leader is someone who guides others, whether that’s employees of a company or a team. Leaders are looked up to and followed for their expertise, their charisma, or their ideas. Influencers, on the other hand, are largely based on popularity. An influencer is someone people follow because they are well-known. A Thought Leader, on the other hand, is a professional who offers a unique perspective. While they don’t have to be “famous,” they are respected and trusted for their ideas and insights, usually in a specific category or industry.

Can you talk to our readers a bit about the benefits of becoming a thought leader? Why do you think it is worthwhile to invest resources and energy into this?

It’s not just worthwhile, it’s critical! Here’s why. Only 5% of your target audience is “in market” and ready to purchase at any given time (according to LinkedIn research). That leaves 95% of your audience that is out of market — meaning they are not ready to buy (yet). They require constant nurturing. Thought leadership nurtures them, builds trust and increases brand recall with your target audience so that when they are ready to buy, your name/brand is the one they remember. This is key, because especially in B2B marketing, purchases are not spur of the moment. They require research, thought, and agreement among a buying committee and can take months. The average sales cycle is at least 4 months long. Thought leadership gives them the information they need to make an informed buying decision.

Let’s talk about business opportunities specifically. Can you share a few examples of how thought leadership can help a business grow or create lucrative opportunities?

Here’s a real-life example of my own. I publish regularly on LinkedIn about thought leadership, B2B content marketing, and social media strategy. One of my LinkedIn connections switched jobs earlier this year, moving from consumer to B2B marketing. She saw my posts but until her new position, didn’t have a reason to reach out. In fact, she rarely engaged with any of my posts, so I had no idea she was paying attention. While her new company is the largest in its industry and gets plenty of leads, their biggest competitor has a much higher share of voice in the market. She knew her company needed to up its thought leadership game and create B2B content for LinkedIn to gain some of that Share of Voice. My name was the first that came to mind as someone who understands B2B thought leadership. She sent me a note via LinkedIn, and we set up a meeting. Her company is now a retainer client. This has happened many times.

Ok. Now that we have that behind us, we’d love to hear your thoughts about how to eventually become a thought leader. Can you share 5 strategies that a person should implement to become known as a thought leader in their industry?

1) Build Your Feed! So many professionals I speak with tell me that all they see on LinkedIn is people trying to sell them something. If that’s true for you, you’re not following the right people — but it IS something you can fix. I recommend starting by following:

• 10 companies you admire,
• 2 employees at each of those 10 companies
• 10 professionals in your industry
• 10 professionals in your department/role

Now, you have 50 new profiles to help shape your LinkedIn feed!

2) Spend 15–20 minutes every day reading the posts in your feed and engaging with them. Don’t just “react” with a “like,” but take the time to leave a thoughtful comment. When you share someone else’s post to your network, always add a few sentences about why you’re sharing it, and most importantly, tag the original author in your post. I worked with an executive to help her do this more consistently and frequently, and she more than doubled her followers in less than 4 months.

3) Build your network. To tag someone in your post, you’ll need to be connected to them. This is a great reason to send a connection request! Always send your request with a note letting them know you want to share their post or amplify their content. Don’t ask to connect because you are in the same industry or because you have a connection in common. And definitely not because you want to sell them something! Look for ways you can help, and you’ll be much more likely to get a positive response.

4) Blurring the Lines between your personal and professional life can provide you with unique perspectives on common topics. For example, I was a single parent for 10 years, and one of my hobbies is watching F1. I wrote an article for Entrepreneur titled 4 F1 Racing Lessons That Can Accelerate Your Career, and one for Forbes titled Single Parent Lessons for your career. Those have been my most read articles of the past 12 months because people can relate.

5) And finally, the most important rule for writing thought leadership: Lead to your brand, not with it! You can’t do both, so choose wisely! If you start by talking about your brand/company, or selling your products/services, you won’t lead customers to your brand. So, flip the script! Lead with a challenge, a story, a stat or a quote and leave your brand out of it!

In your opinion, who is an example of someone who has done a fantastic job as a thought leader? Which specific things have impressed you about that person? What lessons can we learn from this person’s approach?

Jason Feifer is the Editor-in-Chief at Entrepreneur. He’s created a name for himself through his One Thing Better newsletter and community that is not tied to the Entrepreneur brand at all but has a “halo effect” of supporting the brand, and vice versa. His voice is casual, friendly, and helpful. He brings zero ego to his storytelling and offers a ton of value in the content he shares.

I have seen some discussion that the term “thought leader” is trite, overused, and should be avoided. What is your feeling about this?

I don’t disagree that the term is overused. But that’s mostly by people who refer to themselves as thought leaders, which is the exact opposite of what it’s intended to be! Thought leadership is something you can achieve over time by sharing helpful, timely, relevant information with the right audience. It’s not a title to give yourself.

What advice would you give to other leaders to thrive and avoid burnout?

The best content I’ve written has come from ideas and concepts that I had outside of my office, away from my desk, and work. My partner and I take a 3–4 mile walk every day at lunch. It’s a chance to stretch our legs and our creative muscles. I’m also active in networking groups and other activities outside of work that fuel me. The best way to avoid burnout and give yourself plenty of ideas to write about is to step away from the computer!

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

When I was starting out in my career, I didn’t have a mentor. My industry was super competitive, especially for women. Now, with nearly 30 years in the industry, I look for ways to help my peers and the next generation of professional women. I want to be the person I needed way back when — and through every career obstacle and change since. There’s more than enough room for all of us to speak each other’s names, lift each other up, and open doors of opportunity.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” ― Henry David Thoreau

We are blessed that very prominent leaders in business and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you would like to have lunch or breakfast? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

Tina Fey! She does it all and I’d love to have a one-on-one with her about creativity, writing, humor, Improv, and on and on!

How can our readers further follow your work online?

On LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/bethmnewton!

Thank you so much for your insights. This was very insightful and meaningful.