Mr. Thought Leader
Last week I found a blog post that combined two themes near and dear to my heart. It poked fun at “thought leaders” with no thoughts and did so in a very creative and humorous way, using a text to video service called xtranormal.
Some clients think I’m trying to be humorous when I say it, but thought leaders need to have thoughts. Thought leadership done right is very powerful, but it can also be a counterproductive cliche in the wrong hands.
Kudos to Chris Eng of Veracode, who did this video featuring an Information Security exec looking to become famous in his niche. He wants to become a thought leader by spamming his contacts via social media channels and spewing acronyms. Security is the specific vertical being lampooned here, but it rings true for a lot of other technology fields as well.
Humor is a great way to cut through the noise and get your message across. It’s very easy to get started with xtranormal. All you need to do is select a setting, select your characters and start typing. The software does the rest of the work for you.
I’m working with some clients now to incorporate this fun (and did I mention free?) tool into their communications.
That video sucks – I can’t read the names of the packages in the vending machine!