Designing a Business-Forward SME Program: Identify Your Thought Leaders

With today’s competitive business landscape, organizations feel the pressure to cultivate thought leaders, also known as subject matter experts (SMEs), inside their own doors. Without thought-leadership content and strategy, companies lose out on new business opportunities, and your experts can go unnoticed in industry-focused conversations.

The reality is that thought-leadership content is valuable to your business growth. According to the 2024 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, over half of decision-makers and C-suite executives say that an organization with high-quality thought-leadership content prompts them to research the organization’s capabilities and offerings. And 75% claim that thought leadership leads them to research a product or service they did not previously consider.

By committing to a SME program as part of your overall communications strategy, you are placing your business and talent at the forefront of industry conversations. Plus, your company’s SMEs build a stronger, more niche network to fuel their own professional goals. This magic pairing can lead to real business impact, like generating new leads, entering unexplored markets and driving novel industry discussions—not to mention strategic growth for your business.

 

The Foundation of a Quality SME Program

The success of a SME thought-leadership program is truly dependent on one asset: your people. Picking the right experts from your team is critical in becoming a notorious thought industry leader and securing a good online reputation. To confidently choose the right SMEs, you should lean on qualities that are likely to generate more value for their audience —and in turn, your business.

These five characteristics of effective leaders—experience, ambition, trust, community-driven, and innovative—will help you identify the right SMEs for your program. By finding experts who show strength in these five areas, you are more likely to have consistent, steady online engagement that will contribute to the success of your long-term business goals.

This isn’t perfect science, but rather, these qualities fall on a scale. Some of your experts have lots of experience but might not be as innovative, while others who have less experience bring more innovative thinking. Review these qualities and determine the scale and balance of each that matches with your business core values and ensure there are a mix of SMEs on your roster.

 

Five Characteristics of Effective Thought Leaders

1. Experience:  An ideal SME candidate balances both company and industry experience. This likely means the candidate has a few years of company knowledge, and several years of industry experience. This background allows them to provide valuable insights and perspectives.

2. Ambition: Some of the best SME candidates are ambitious and driven— natural hand-raisers. SME leaders should be looking at this program as an opportunity to make great strides in their career and learn about topics they may not otherwise be exposed to. Their enthusiasm and drive bring fresh energy and innovative ideas to the company.

3. Trust: SMEs should be trusted to be a spokesperson for the company. These candidates have shown a commitment to producing high-quality content within their company and are expected to continue to do so long-term. They have demonstrated their ability to represent the company effectively and are known for their professionalism and clear communication.

4. Community-driven: A strong SME candidate is able and willing to engage with the community, even if they haven’t yet actively done so online. This experience as an expert will assist in the development of unique viewpoints. Experts’ evolving expertise will help them to eventually stand out on social platforms and attract a new audience.

5. Innovative: Effective SMEs bring a fresh perspective to their field. They add value to their colleagues and community with well-supported viewpoints that are also innovative and can inspire others to engage in meaningful conversations.

 

Launching your SME program

Identifying the voices from your team is only the first step. Now, it’s time to build a program around your short list of SMEs that balance the criteria of characteristics above. Businesses are responsible for supporting SMEs and designing a program to cultivate the most success for organizational goals and individual professional development.

Consider these tips as you design your SME program:

• Set a strong foundation by establishing consistent communication and meeting cadences with your SME group. This will allow you to design a program that hits your business goals while keeping a pulse on how their personal networks are responding to their unique POV.
• Be a coach to your SMEs because they will need guidance, encouragement, and support to kickstart and maintain their roles as designated experts for your organization. Offer them social content ideas, designate time to talk about their online experiences and feedback and identify areas where they could use more support to engage their audience and communities.
• Find opportunities to plug your SMEs into larger marketing and communications social media streams and promotions. Your SMEs are gaining more attention with each post. Use the momentum to find cross-promotional opportunities that are equally beneficial to your experts as well as your internal teams.
• Get online to show your SMEs direct support by interacting with their posts, leaving comments when appropriate, and encouraging others to follow them to boost your SMEs’ online engagement and their confidence.

 

Launching for Influence

If you are wondering where to start your SME program, which experts at your company to choose, or how to execute your ideas, a program partner can help you think through the right strategies to ensure your online impact translates to real business dollars.

If you are looking to enhance your SME program, we’d love to talk. Contact us at inquiries@standingpartnership.com.