Month: August 2015

Thought Leadership

Posted on by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

In today’s rapidly moving day and age, business arenas change and evolve all the time. And with all of those transformations and progressions come the want and need for the exchange of ideas, concepts and solutions. The oil and gas industry is no exception. That’s why many companies are incorporating, thought leadership into their business practices. They engage a targeted executive audience with compelling findings dispensed through articles, newsletters, publications and digital media.

Thought leadership revolves around establishing and maintaining a commanding voice about topics of relevance and concern to your target audience. It’s about providing answers to their biggest questions; it’s about addressing the newest hot topics in and offering reliable information—and, perhaps, your own perspective—about those issues. The ultimate goal of employing thought leadership is to establish your company as a leading authority in the world. It’s also a useful way to jump-start relationships where none existed, while enhancing relationships that already exist.

“Our hope is that whoever comes across one of our articles or blog posts will find some value in it,” explains Amal Abdallah, a social media and marketing coordinator for Clover Global Solutions, a Houston-based staffing agency for the industry. “We offer people a new perspective on something, especially if they’re not very familiar with that topic; the written piece sparks interest in the subject and lets people learn more about it.”

Clover’s questions at the end of its blog posts engage readers and spur thought leadership. A recent piece about competence assurance evoked quite a few responses. “It’s a way educate, inform, promote discussion and encourage people to think outside the box,” says Abdallah. “And we’ve been getting some really good responses from people who agree that it’s very important. They then offer their opinions on different types of disciplines within the industry.”

Practicing and disseminating thought leadership has numerous benefits. Besides educating readers about O&G, companies also use it to start new relationships, strengthen existing affiliations, build brand familiarity and form brand loyalty. Thought leadership content also gives companies exposure in their lines of work; it places them in the forefront of—and in a position of authority about—the current conversations and issues in their businesses.

Thought leadership can come from any source: executives, customers, product managers, designers, customer service reps and sales people. Each employee has a unique point of view, as well as valuable knowledge and experience.

AECOM recently tackled the issue of how people with creative minds and spirits can positively influence sustainable communities associated with extraction projects around the world. Paul Fennelly, senior vice president of business development for AECOM Environment business line, was invited by New York’s Storefront for Art and Architecture to participate in a panel discussion called Environments of Extraction. Fennelly developed a theme around the concept that most oil & gas exploration and production projects have a finite lifetime of 25 years, and one can think of them as having a discrete beginning, middle and end. Fennelly’s contributions to the panel resulted in some lively discussion about the future of fossil fuels and how the audience can learn more about sustainability issues surrounding large scale extraction.

Cardno, which has been providing services to clients ranging from global corporations to local specialized companies for more than 30 years, recently answered some of these questions regarding Australia: What’s the economic outlook for the industry in Australia, and what opportunities are there for growth?; Do you foresee continued growing demand for across international markets?; and, What are the top environmental concerns relating to the industry, and how can they be addressed?

Cardno experts Paul Webber (sector leader – Energy, Australia and New Zealand) and Anthony Lane (senior principal – Cardno Lane Piper) provided some valuable insights into this escalating sector.

And BP has addressed the topics of personal health and safety, readiness in case of an oil spill, sharing and embedding lessons learned from major accidents and managing the impact on protected wildlife

“Our thought leadership topics go with what the trends of the industry are,” says Clover Global Solutions’ Abdallah. “For example, if somebody is looking for a position in oil and gas, we address the best city to live if you want to work in that field and where the hot spots for oil in America are. In another example, we had a blog post that talked about some of the steps you can take if your company is being acquired by another and you might be losing your job.”

Clover believes that people seek out thought leadership because O&G is an incredibly dynamic industry that requires you to stay not only with game but also ahead of the game.

Abdallah sums up the role that thought leadership plays in her company’s 2014 plans: “We want our end result to be to find somebody who may be interested in working for Clover or who is interested in acquiring Clover as a client. Ultimately, though, we want to be sure that we can always offer intuitive and informative and educational blog articles as thought leadership so that we keep that level of integrity and professionalism.”

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A PRIMER

Thought Leadership 101

Writing a compelling thought leadership piece begins with the development of a topic. But if that first step seems like a big leap, take heart: Here’s some advice to clear the way and help you create a topic that will resonate with your readers.

  • Thought leadership is an entry point to a relationship. A successful thought leadership article will intrigue, challenge, and inspire even people who are familiar with a company. It will help start a relationship where none exists and enhance existing relationships.
  • Being an expert on something doesn’t automatically make you a thought leader. Thought leaders have a knack for sharing knowledge.
  • Thought leadership requires an immediate information outlet, such as a blog, that allows you to comment quickly on news and changing circumstances in your field.
  • Your thought leadership article should deliver answers to the biggest questions on the minds of your audience. Remember: The audience determines what the questions are. Keep the “I” out of your article as much as possible and focus on “You.”
  • How do you know what’s on your audience’s mind? Ask! If possible, query your readers directly. But if that’s not possible, you can follow the example of an international oilfield services company that is embarking on a thought leadership campaign. They surveyed key managers who are close to customers to get a sense of what the customers are thinking.
  • Some of the questions the company asked its managers were:
    • What are the most pressing concerns of the oil and gas operators you talk to? What do they want to do better/smarter/more profitably?
    • What have they been surprised to find out? What areas do they wish they knew more about or felt more competent about?
    • What are the questions they ask you?
    • What have you been asked to consult with operators about?
  • Before you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, ask yourself if the topic you’re considering:
    • addresses a timely issue
    • offers new insight
    • identifies an issue that readers might not even know about
    • is interesting, provocative, or even counter intuitive
  • Your thought leadership article should be educational, but it’s OK to also be entertaining. In fact, nothing turns most readers off faster than a dry, rote lecture. Include stories and examples that bring the topic to life.
  • Include facts from credible, unbiased sources.
  • Tell readers what to do. Seriously. Provide a practical, achievable call to action.

Everything About Wikipedia, Part 2: Notability

Posted on by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

In our previous post, we talked about Wikipedia in general – we explained a bit about what Wiki is (a reference) and isn’t (a blog, a soapbox, or a vehicle for free advertising), and we promised that we’d get more into specifics about what makes a topic Wiki-eligible.

As we mentioned last time, determining whether a topic is eligible for Wikipedia really boils down to two (very) important questions:

Question 1: Is your topic notable?

Question 2: Has your topic received significant coverage by neutral, reputable third-party sources?

In this post, we’re going to focus on the first question.

Before we go on, it’s important to be clear about we mean by “notable.” For our (and more importantly, Wikipedia’s) purposes, a notable topic is:

  • Of interest to the general public, not just you or a few people in your industry.
  • Something you might read about in a newspaper or magazine.
  • A topic that has been written about by journalists, rather than PR or advertising copywriters.
  • Culturally, historically, or socially relevant in some way.
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Notability: A Few Examples
Let’s take a look at a sample Wikipedia page of a notable person, British novelist Terry Pratchett.

The red boxes indicate details that make Pratchett notable: He’s written a 40-novel series; he is a best-selling author in the U.K. and in the U.S — heck, the guy’s even been knighted for his “services to literature”!

And if you scroll down to the “References” section, you can see a list of the more than 100 newspaper and magazine articles; websites; television and radio interviews that were used in the creation of Pratchett’s article:

Here’s an example of a Wiki page for a notable company:

Wiki Subway

Again, the things that make Subway notable are outlined in red: it’s one of the fastest-growing franchises in the world; it’s the largest single-brand restaurant chain globally and the second largest restaurant operator globally; it’s got over 37,000 locations in 100 countries, and so on.

Also, notice that this page isn’t written like an advertisement. It gives you the facts: What Subway is, where it does business, notable rankings and statistics. But it doesn’t read like something that came from the company’s PR department, and there’s even a section called “Controversy” that talks about a few not-so-positive details, such as lawsuits and instances of negative publicity associated with the chain.

If you look at the page’s “References” section, you can see that Subway has indeed received significant media coverage:

Subway references

A Few More Examples

Of course, you don’t have to be a knighted, best-selling author or one of the world’s most popular fast-food chains to be notable enough for a Wikipedia page. There are tons of pages about people and companies that are somewhat less famous – but still notable and Wiki-appropriate:

Checklist: Determining Notability

Not sure if your topic is notable? Here are a few questions to use as a starting point:

Wiki eligible table

 

If you can answer “yes” to at least four of these questions, you might have a Wiki-eligible topic on your hands.

Of course, notice that we said “might.”

The next step in determining Wikipedia eligibility? A review of your available sources.

Tune in next week for an in-depth look at neutral, third-party sources and “significant coverage”.

Everything You Wanted To Know About Wikipedia, Part 1

Posted on by The Writers For Hire, Inc.

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Wikipedia (…and probably some stuff you never thought to ask), Part 1

Wikipedia has become a standard, go-to resource for all kinds of facts: Want to know everything there is to know about the giant squid? Need a list of every Nobel Prize winner, organized by country? Interested in the history of Microsoft? Ever wondered about the difference between East Coast and West Coast hip-hop?

Wiki HipHop

Wikipedia is a great example of the awesome things that can happen when people get together and pool their knowledge and expertise. Anyone with a laptop and an Internet connection can contribute to Wikipedia.

But this doesn’t mean Wikipedia is a free-for-all. Yes, anyone can contribute a new article or edit an existing one — but if you want your contribution to “stick,” you’ve got to follow a ton of rules regarding content, sources, neutrality, and notability.

So, what makes a “good” Wikipedia article? Does your product, service, or company belong on Wikipedia? What happens if your article gets flagged? And what does “flagged” mean, anyway?

Wiki can be complicated (and even a little intimidating) to the uninitiated. That’s why we’ve decided to do a series of blog posts exploring the ins and outs — and rules — of Wikipedia.

This week, we’re kicking off the series with a few of the basics.

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First things First: What is Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia – but what does that mean? Here’s a good definition, from Wikipedia itself:

Basically, everything you need to know about Wikipedia is in the above sentence:

  • Wikipedia is “neutral.” In other words, it doesn’t represent one single viewpoint on any subject.
  • Wikipedia contains “verifiable, established facts.” As in, facts that have been published by an uninterested and reliable third party. Facts that you can verify by checking a couple of sources, such as (reputable) newspaper or magazine articles.

We’ll take a more in-depth look at both neutrality and sources in future posts. But right now, let’s just focus on the big picture.

So, now that we know what Wikipedia is, let’s take a second to discuss what Wikipedia isn’t. And there are a whole lot of things that Wikipedia isn’t. In fact there’s a whole page on Wikipedia dedicated to this topic, and it’s pretty long.

Essentially, though, it boils down to this:

  • Wikipedia is not a blog/fansite/personal website. So you can’t write in first-person, and you can’t write whatever you want. It’s not a place for ranting about politics or enthusing about your favorite movie or TV show. That’s not to say that your favorite TV show doesn’t deserve a Wikipedia page. It probably does. But it still has to conform to Wikipedia’s standards.

In other words, like this:

 

Not this:

 

 

  • Wikipedia is not a place to publish your original research/inventions/discoveries. Let’s say you just discovered a new planet or invented a super-cool new iPhone app. This is fantastic – but it’s not Wiki-appropriate. Because Wikipedia is a place for “established” facts, it’s not a place for your original work or research . . . yet. (We say “yet” because if an established, third-party publication like Newsweek or the Wall Street Journal writes an article about you and your new planet/iPhone app, you might actually be Wiki-eligible. But more on that later.)
  • Wikipedia is not a place for advertisements/self-promotion. Again, we’ll get much more in-depth with this later, but when writing about a company, product, or service you have to be extra-careful not to sound biased. Wiki pages that sound like they were written by a company’s PR department quickly get flagged for neutrality/conflict-of-interest issues, which looks like this:

 

 

That doesn’t mean that your product, service, or company doesn’t belong on Wikipedia. It just means that, if you want your Wiki page to “stick,” you have to follow the rules.

Wikipedia, The Writers For Hire, and You (or Your Company/Product/Service)

We’ve created dozens of Wikipedia articles for clients on a wide range of topics. And we’ve got an excellent track record.

And that’s because we turn down more Wiki projects than we accept. It’s not that we don’t want your business. We do. But we don’t want to take your money if we know that your page won’t stick. Before we accept any Wikipedia project, we make sure your topic is eligible for a Wiki page.

To be eligible, a topic must meet two major criteria: It needs to be notable, and it needs to have received significant coverage by neutral, reputable third-party sources.

We’ll get more into both of these as we continue our Wikipedia series. Stay tuned!

Coming up next: Notability.

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