Written by: Vickie Sullivan | March 31, 2016
Two Things that Create a Compelling Platform
Like most big buzzy words, platform is bandied about by many people in the thought leadership space. Publishers only want authors who have a “platform.” Web designers wax eloquently about creating the best platform for their clients.
For influencers both in the B2B space and in mass markets, here’s my definition of a platform: it’s a container. It’s a place that holds all of your advertising campaigns, speech topics, content marketing, and so on. And that container is created by combining these two things:
- Your perspective. Smart people have a ton of ideas. Brilliant people can distill those thoughts into one breakthrough concept. Ask yourself: What point of view do I personify? What do I stand for? The best thought leaders see the forest for the trees. An oldie-but-goodie example: best-selling author Dan Ariely redefined how we make decisions. Everything he spoke about could be traced back to those Jedi mind tricks.
Related: How Platforms Are Born
- Your approach. We’re not talking methodology here (a rookie mistake made by many). In general, how did you get to your message? What’s the focal point? For example, best-selling authors Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner launched their Freakonomics platform based on the study of incentives. Notice that we’re talking three words here: study, of, and incentives. The approach creates credibility for the perspective. It tells the marketplace, “Hey, I’m not just making stuff up.”
The common denominator for the above: underlying theme. A great platform distills all your brilliance into one central idea backed up by one central approach, not two or three. It’s one simple thing that changes everything.
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