Are You Blogging as a SME or a Thought Leader?

When it comes to blogging for business, positioning ourselves (or our business owner/professional practitioner clients) as  Subject Matter Experts is obviously a worthy goal.

We might be able to go one better, though, according to strategist Neen James. Writing in Speaker Magazine, James describes a 90-day action plan for going from expert to thought leader. Is that mere semantics? Not at all; as a leadership expert, James’ focus is on helping her meeting planner, speaker, and coach clients be more influential while getting more done.

A Subject Matter Expert or SME (pronounced “smee”) knows something, explains James. A thought leader, by contrast, is known for something. “The thought leaders know how to package ideas in a way that appeals to a marketplace craving direction or solutions to a problem. Those ideas often shift conventional wisdom,” she goes on to explain.

Now, Neen James is not addressing blog content writers per se, but she could have been. “Audiences are educated and sophisticated, and they are overwhelmed, overstressed, and overtired,” she tells speakers. (She might as well be describing online readers.) In fact, as a corporate blogging trainer, I find every one of the steps James describes relevant for creating good content.

Step #1: Clarify your message: What do you know? What is your message to share with the world?
Step #2: Define your market.  Who values your expertise? Who are the clients you could work with all day?
Step #3: Select your method for delivering your expertise. Will you be a trainer, helping people learn a new skill? Will you be a facilitator, drawing out others’ ideas and opinions? Or will you share your method directly for greater influence and engagement?

As someone involved full time with online content writing, I realized I was being reminded of a really important point as I read James’ article Whether it’s business-to-business blog writing or business to consumer blog writing, the blog content itself needs to contain opinion and insight, not only information and products. There’s a saying that comes to mind:  “There’s a big difference between having to say something and having something to say.”

Our readers need even more from us than expertise, I’m convinced. Yes, we’re giving them subject matter, but they need help processing that subject matter. They need thought leadership!