Give it away for free

Every time anyone asks me how to prove thought leadership online I always say the same thing:

"Create interesting, valuable, share-able, entertaining content that can truly teach someone something, and do it all for free.
...and then do it again and again."

Maybe in years past its been enough to run all your advertising in such a way that gave the perception that your company was the "thought leader" in a given field but those days are long gone.  When a perspective customer is out there searching for a solution they may find your company but your web presence can either make or break your claims.

For example, if you are out there saying you are the #1 company in the field of solutions for office furniture you better back that up with some free tools that can help me out right now, for free. Give me some ideas right off your homepage that I can implement without much hassle.  When I follow your Twitter account I want links to helpful content, not only to things that your company created, but anything I may find useful.

It's really easy for a company to show they are clueless in today's marketplace with barren websites devoid of any useful information or no social media accounts that let me interact with you and ask questions.

Spend some time in content development and you will get more customers and not just the "tire-kickers" to your site.