We’re all guilty of it. When a new topic is trending, everyone rushes to post their take on the subject, often without really adding anything unique to the conversation. With generative AI, this has never been easier. But you should ask yourself—is this really worth your time?

Jumping on the bandwagon doesn’t make you a leader 

Whenever something starts trending, we start seeing an explosion of content surrounding it. While everyone is excited to jump on the bandwagon, they often forget a few important things.

First, they add nothing of value to the conversation. Yes, you want your organization to be seen talking about this topic. I mean, everyone has that standard “establish ourselves as an industry leader” goal. But, if you are just repeating the same thing as everyone else, that isn’t thought leadership—it’s thought regurgitation.

The second and more important thing is that these reactive pieces often do not fit into your overall content strategy. Does this thought leadership content support your existing marketing narratives and goals? Is this something your customers or prospects really need to know about? Will this content help you achieve your demand gen or customer marketing goals, or do anything at all?

Before you run off and spend time on this new content, you should take some time to do some internal research. You can find a lot of these answers by reviewing your existing content library and your existing analytics.

The numbers don’t lie

By looking at your past program performance and engagements with target accounts, you can understand if your previous thought leadership material had any impact. If this content is not being consumed by your customers, or they aren’t engaging with it, your time might be better spent elsewhere.

When you are reviewing these analytics, you should remember that vanity metrics, like overall pageviews, are not the best way to measure success. Your blog post may have had a lot of views, but if they are not your target audience, it ultimately isn’t helpful for you.

Another way you can use your analytics to see if this hot topic could be of interest to your audience is by reviewing intent data. By using a tool like Bombora, you can figure out how well your content topics align with the interests of your visitors.
 

If you are going to do it, have a unique point

If you are determined to create a new thought leadership piece, you need to have a distinctive point of view or add a unique insight that no one else can provide. As we mentioned above, be a thought leader—not a thought regurgitator.

Here’s an example. Maybe you want to jump on the hot topic of GenAI and marketing, but so does everyone else. Instead of writing about “how GenAI is going to change marketing,” consider what special lens you can approach it from. 

In our case at Uberflip, we might decide to write about how GenAI blogs aren’t performing as well as other blogs based on our internal analytics since this is something we have that’s proprietary to our business. 

Taking the time to slow down with your content can actually accelerate your results. You have to find out why you’re posting on a given topic and whether it will achieve your desired outcome. Avoid jumping on the bandwagon just to be like everyone else, and ultimately use trusted analytics as your guide to the content types and topics that actually move the needle for your company. Only then will your thought leadership efforts matter—and move your business forward.