Earlier this spring I covered the annual conference and trade show for one of our large tech clients. And when I say “cover,” I mean good, old-fashioned news reporting. I served as the writer for our client’s blog, which supported the event. I spent hours each day running up and down the trade show halls, interviewing employees, crisscrossing the show floor, and sitting in on keynote speeches. It made me a bit nostalgic for my old newspaper days.

In an age when the average smartphone user reportedly has an attention span less than that of a goldfish, you might think that the shorter a piece of content is, the more likely it is to engage its intended audience. While there is definitely a case to be made for brevity, long-form content also deserves a place in your content mix. 

My colleague, Andrea, won Super Bowl tickets by participating in a contest on Twitter sponsored by the Bay Area Super Bowl host committee. I know, incredible luck, right? This got me thinking about how companies encourage user input to increase engagement.

The most important goal of a B2B blog post is to resonate and satisfy the informational needs of your audience. But for a post to resonate, it has to be seen. The sheer volume of information available to your audience, though, makes getting seen incredibly difficult. It boils down to attention economics—a numbers game. In today’s age of blog overload, how do you get yours to stand out?

It used to be that only “influencers” could blog on LinkedIn. But that changed in 2014 when LinkedIn made this capability available to all its members. Now with just a click of the pencil icon under your profile image, you can compose and publish your insights via the LinkedIn Publisher tool.

Thought leadership content is not just about sharing ideas. It’s about offering a credible, well-reasoned, and occasionally provocative point of view on topics your audiences care—or should care—about. Not for the purpose of making the quick sale, but to start conversations, impart a vision, and engage others. You can use it to position your company as a potential valued partner or your executives as influential authorities in their fields, but in the end, it’s about building trust and relationships. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.