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1ZM60 - Summary of Mandatory Articles
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1ZM60 – Selling New ProductsSummary of Mandatory Articles
Written by:
R.F.J.F. Van Doorslaer, 1001804
June 23rd, 2023
, Article 1 – Online B2B
Title: Operationalizing thought leadership for online B2B marketing
Author(s): Barry & Gironda (2019)
Type: Exploratory & Literature Review
This study conceptualizes and tests a framework of thought leadership that drives a marketer's social capital.
There is an increasing importance of thought leadership in B2B marketing, as it helps to establish a company's
expertise and credibility in a particular field, leading to increased brand awareness, customer loyalty, and sales.
The authors apply a thematic analysis directed by a constructivist grounded theory approach in this research.
The authors selected bridging social capital, rather than bonding social capital (more emotional).
Bonding social capital develops from strongly tied and often emotionally close personal connections as
found among families, gangs or close friends. Bridging social capital applies to the weak ties found
between community followers from different backgrounds (e.g., a marketer's Twitter followers or blog
subscribers) whose connections are based primarily on sharing useful information and fresh perspectives.
Test candidates of the empirical study included 414 marketing consultants whose LinkedIn profiles were
qualified for their social media/digital content awareness and high bridging social capital. The authors asked
them to rate different types of thought leadership content based on their perceived expertise, visibility, and
influence. Eventually, this resulted in a sample of 171 leading B2B marketing consultants.
Summary
83% of business marketeers use social media tools to cultivate long-term relationships with their customers.
B2B buyers see potential in social media as it enables a more objective and trustworthy process for vetting
suppliers. B2B marketeers are interested in the impact that digital content marketing has on sustaining trusted
brand status and establishing thought leadership. Through social media, they want to position themselves as
thought leaders as most B2B buyers find this important in their decision-making process in determining
providers. B2B marketers have thus become publishers.
The term thought leader encompasses 2 constructs:
1) Trusted authority recognition (recognized as)
a. The degree of trust vested in, and authority assigned to an individual's or firm's voice on
matters capable of shaping their prospects and customers' points of view in favor of the
individual's or firm's proposed business solution.
b. 2 attributes: the authority assigned to an area of expertise and the trust placed in their advice.
2) Thought leadership competency (recognized for)
a. The intellectual firepower of a firm or individual capable of earning the attention and trust of
prospects and customers based on forward thinking insights, original ideas, novel perspectives
or helpful education that passionately drives conversations, champions new directions or
inspires actionable strategies.
b. 4 attributes: new ideas, an ability to advance ideas in provoking new mindsets, an ability to
lead, and the ingenuity to continuously enlighten their audiences.
Bridging social capital enables aspirant thought leaders to:
1) Facilitate their targeted buyer’s knowledge search sharing activities
2) Expose their thinking to communities that can amplify messages in support of their ideas or
perspectives
, Conceptual Framework
Results
- Test results confirmed a significant relationship between a B2B marketer's thought leadership
competency and their bridging social capital for content resonance when measured across all three
social metrics.
- Results further show the relationship between a B2B marketer's thought leadership competency and
bridging social capital for content resonance is partially mediated by their recognition as a trusted
authority.
- Trusted authority recognition had a significant relationship on the B2B marketer’s bridging social
capital for content resonance across all 3 influence scores and both authority scores.
- A marketer’s authority recognition as well as their social capital is based more on their ideas than on
their tactical guidance. However, the expertise displayed from a marketer’s operational helpfulness
contributes to a thought leader’s competencies.
- Market foresight, dialogic responsiveness and sharing generosity have a significant influence on
thought leadership competencies.
- The results moreover show operational helpfulness influences a supplier's bridging social capital
indirectly through thought leadership competency
Key Takeaways
- The use of SNS and digital content to influence purchase decisions requires more than simple
interactions.
o B2B marketers should focus on creating trails of trustworthy content that will earn them a
reputation for benevolence and problem solving.
o Marketers gain deeper insights of their buyer’s needs by validating their expertise in the
process. They can do so by continually engaging and generously sharing useful content with
their buyers.
o By staying on top of emerging market trends, B2B marketeers are better positioned to be
included in early (pre-RFP) brainstorming sessions. This market foresight further positions
them as thought leaders.
- Social capital relates to higher Klout, Kred and Klear scores. Social media analytics relates to the
routine creation of (1) timely, (2) relevant, (3) useful content
- Thought leadership has 2 dimensions:
o Outcome-oriented dimension (recognized for)
o Competency dimension (recognized as)
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