Professional Services
Thought Leadership
Consulting Firms Prioritize Thought Leadership vs. Thought Leaders in their Social Media Strategy
The Social Media Landscape for Consulting Firms: Findings from the BlissPR Study
Thought leadership is developed by thought leaders. But in our recent study, we found that most management consulting firms make it challenging for clients and prospects to find and directly engage with their thought leaders via social media.
Our study benchmarked how 46 different management consulting firms are approaching social media engagement. We found almost all firms—across sectors and sizes—already have “content rich” Web sites. This makes sense, given that consultants are intuitively skilled at developing and articulating trends and insights for their clients.
However, while most firms organized their thoughts in a logical manner—82% of Web sites are informative and easy to navigate—we were surprised that consulting firms didn’t do more to identify and champion their thought leaders. In fact, nearly 30% of Web sites failed to clearly identify any thought leaders at all.
For the few firms where thought leaders were easily accessible on the Web site, oftentimes the individual’s biography was the only source of information readers could tap to understand their level of knowledge and experience in a given field. In fact, only 19% of firms organized their Web site in a way that directly linked the thought-leader to their body of work for the firm—such as bylined articles, presentations at conferences and media quotes. CRA International is a notable exception in this area.
The primary tools used to demonstrate industry and functional expertise were in traditional, print-format: research reports, proprietary publications, positive mentions in high-profile national, business and trade media and—to a lesser extent—case studies.
Blog Abandonment Syndrome
Not surprisingly, communication tools that require a regular “face of the firm” were unusual. Of the seven firms (15%) that had one or more blogs, only three firms had blogs with “active” communities or more than two comments on average per post. Simply put, most firms are not encouraging reciprocal communication with their stakeholders. Monitor’s Now, New and Next blog is an exception as it inspires healthy commentary and debate from subscribers.
In addition, only 41% used multimedia tools such as podcasts and vodcasts to reinforce thought leadership and they were over represented in large IT and Strategy consulting firms.
Experience with social media “Outposts”
To date, consulting firms have very limited experience with social media applications such as Twitter (26%), YouTube (35%) and Slideshare (13%). Of the 46 firms, 30 have group(s) on Facebook, but 15 of the firms have “closed” groups. In addition, while the largest strategy firms are acquainted with the aforementioned social media applications, they tend to use it primarily for “blasting” company information. Virtually every firm except McKinsey fell short on the most important aspect of developing an effective social media outpost strategy: conversational engagement.
To develop a robust social media strategy, consulting firms need to better leverage their proprietary content through credible and recognizable thought-leaders who can start a conversation, not just deliver a message.
Since billable time is at premium in any consulting firm, this is easier said than done. Firms may need to consider spotlighting younger consultants who have more available time or make a deliberate long term commitment of senior resources.
Research Methodology
In June 2009, BlissPR, a business-to-business strategic public relations firm, conducted research to benchmark how consulting firms were approaching the social media landscape. The goals of the research study were to:
- Create a snapshot of how consulting firms and their thought leaders currently use social media to disseminate intellectual capital and engage with customers, partners and key influencers.
- Develop a set of ‘best practices’ for consulting firms to leverage their thought leadership in social media.
We evaluated the social media landscape for 46 consulting firms across a variety of sizes and sectors, Strategy, Human Resources, Healthcare, Operations and Information Technology. To determine firms’ state of readiness to engage with stakeholders through social media—as well as the extent to which firms have integrated social media strategy into operations to date—we performed a corporate Web site audit. Specifically, we looked at (1) how each firm currently ‘packages’ their intellectual capital and (2) their propensity to identify and champion thought-leaders by functional or industry expertise. We also evaluated firms’ participation in online communities such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, SlideShare and YouTube, as well as recent media mentions to determine how firms leverage their intellectual capital beyond a corporate Web site.
If you have any questions, please contact Elizabeth Sosnow, Managing Director at BlissPR or Lisa Karel, Senior Account Executive:
Phone 212.840.1661
Twitter: @elizabethsosnow / @lisakarel
LinkedIn: Elizabeth Sosnow / Lisa Karel
Email: elizabeth@blisspr.com / lisa@blisspr.com
