This article is based on excerpts from an interview with Todd Lohenry, @e1evation, owner and CEO of E1evation, specializing in the practical, tactical aspects and application of social media for business and the usage of cool tools and techniques.
Part One: Starting an online business can be a daunting, overwhelming, and frustrating experience.
To take some of the 'daunting, overwhelming, and frustrating' elements away, Lohenry offers some food for thought.
"Establishing yourself as a thought leader is essential when using the internet as a marketing and branding tool for your product(s) or service(s).
Understanding the difference between a 'thinker' and a 'thought leader' is much more than semantics, it is key to your success.
Thinkers have a point of view and sometimes shares the point of view with others, in a limited way.
A thought leader becomes a leader because he/she thinks great thoughts AND documents them using tools that make that point of view searchable, findable, knowable, usable and sharable.
It is human nature to want to check someone out before doing business with them.
Thought leadership, or the act of 'putting your point of view out there', helps to facilitate some of the 'checking out' Sharing your point of view via blogging gives you world of mouth, rather than the more centrist word of mouth.
Blogging expands your reach and allows people to find you.
" There are two basic ways to provide content for your online/world of mouth site.
You can create your content, by writing original, accurate, valuable, relevant and timely articles or you can curate content.
Curating content on a blog is taking bookmarking to the next level and sharing with many more than your immediate circle of influence.
Lohenry's approach to thought leadership marketing is admittedly different than other approaches you may have considered or used.
About 18 months ago he began to make a distinction between his approach to thought leadership versus the approach used by others he holds in high regard.
In really simple terms his approach is the 'how' versus the others 'why'.
The question Lohenry answers is "how do I add social media marketing to the mix of my already overflowing plate and still get home in time for supper?", whereas the 'why' practitioners focus more on the logic of the marketing paradigm.
Whatever it is that you do, has to be easy, or what Lohenry calls "Practical and Tactical.
" An example is posting using Posterous + Shareaholic.
The only way to do social media effectively is to use tools that are so simple you can easily post or share rather than waiting because you don't have the time to sit down and figure out a bunch of complex steps.
"It's almost guaranteed you won't sit down and use tools that are not easy to use, therefore you won't be putting yourself in a thought leadership position.
" Here are the practical, tactical tools he recommends for a lean, effective, simple blog that are easily understood and used.
Google based email is tremendously flexible because of all the add-ons available.
You handle things once and decide how to process, you have a place to put it, and quickly distinguish which are the actionable items.
Lohenry believes he is one of the best in the world at processing email loosely based David Allen's book, 'Getting Things Done', which recommends getting the items out of your inbox and into the place they can be handled most efficiently and effectively.
You can't just react, you must be proactive and use a system.
This is where Google Reader is so important.
Making information (both just-in-time information and just-in-case information) come to you at the time you want it, identifying tasks, commitments, short bursts of communication, newsletters, can all be funneled into Google Reader and organized in the way that works best for you and your daily work flow.
Here are a few good ways to get things into Google Reader: subscribe to news/industry/blog sources, click on the RSS feed, create persistent searches using Google alerts which, in turn land in Google Reader, assign from Gmail to your Google Reader account.
Lohenry adds, "If there is any elegance in what I do with the information from Google Reader, is to take that information and create or curate content for my E1evation blog.
" He uses the blog as an outlet for sharing business content he gleans from Google Reader.
Everything he posts also "automagically" posts out to four main social media properties; Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and an electronic newsletter.
His thought leadership life cycle comes from these three activities: effectively consuming, creating and communicating content for his business blog and distributing it through social media networks.
The elegance and efficiency of the work flow stemmed from what, originally, was a limitation (slow internet speed) for him.
That limitation ended up being a bonus by making him ultra efficient with just a few extra clicks.
The next step, and one which benefits his clients, was making the system easily repeatable.
Thomas Jefferson said, "The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do".
Lohenry takes that and applies it to technology space and never uses two tools when one will do.
So, his recommendation would be for anyone aspiring to move from reacting to the flow of information to proactively managing what is important is to simplify tools and systems.
His top three tactics and tools for thought leaders are, Google Chrome, Shareaholic and Posterous.
These tools are readily available, cost effective (free!), and easily used.
For more in depth information on how to use these tactics and tools visit e1evation.
To Your Success! Donna Denil, Online Entrepreneur