Bospar: Most U.S. business leaders believe thought leadership provides a medium-to-high ROI

New research from public relations firm Bospar and market research firm Reputation Leaders shows that decision makers consider social media to be an important tool for thought leadership creation and consumption. The survey, which collected opinions from more than 100 senior US business leaders in March 2023, found that the vast majority (97%) believe that thought leadership provides a medium (5% to 15%) to high (over 15%) return on investment (ROI), which is higher than the average return of the US stock market (12.4%).

Board members, CEOs, presidents, principals and partners are more than twice as likely to believe that thought leadership delivers a high ROI (54%) as department heads (23%).

Leaders use social media to promote thought leadership

Social media is increasingly becoming a venue for leaders to promote their thought leadership, supported by in-person events. Half of leaders (51%) say in-person events are their preferred method of promoting thought leadership.

73% of people think Facebook is the most strategically aligned with business, followed by LinkedIn (68%) and Twitter (66%). However, while businesses plan to increase their investment in these three social media platforms, they are reducing their spending on TikTok (possibly due to TikTok's uncertain political status in Western countries).

While CEOs promote their companies through Twitter, LinkedIn and speaking at conferences, the survey shows that newsletters and SEO are underrated and overlooked tools when it comes to promoting thought leadership.

Instead, leaders place too much emphasis on sharing thought leadership through company website posts, external interviews, and unsolicited emails. Few leaders get their thought leadership content through these channels.

Organizational leaders create thought leadership to guide industry conversations, build their reputation, network with industry experts, and gain benefits such as increased prestige and influence, building brand awareness, driving insights, and generating new business leads. Surveys show that decision makers crave high-quality content.

Decision makers use thought leadership to learn

Improving problem-solving skills is the top reason 87% of decision makers use thought leadership. They seek out new, informative, well-researched content that challenges their thinking and teaches them different ways to solve problems or innovate. ABC News, Bloomberg, CNBC and CNN are the most followed media, followed by Forbes, The Economist and BusinessWeek.

Survey participants reported that when thought leadership does fail, it’s due to poor methodology (44%) and lack of stakeholder buy-in (34%).

One surprising finding is that leaders prefer to receive thought leadership from large technology companies such as Salesforce and IBM over the Big Four consulting firms by a 5:1 ratio.