Hey! They know who you are already

I love reading content and what other people intelligently write.  By intelligently, I mean people that have some kind of story or expert opinion.  I believe they call it: Thought leadership.  Different brands have various methods to gaining viewership and listeners.  You can learn a lot from others on how they connect their brand to their target.

Let me tell you, I absolutely dislike name dropping in the beginning of a content post.  There was an article I read that was well written and very relevant to today and it gave me a sour taste in my mouth.  It began as:

"As the CEO of _____,  I attend seminars and collect business cards from leadership of all industries.."

To some, this won't bother them. To me, I became disengaged.  I understand the importance of having people know who you are and what your company does.  This is an information age where you can find where people live, work, and what they do for fun.  The issue is the lack of authenticity in helping customers with what they want or need.

If you are going to commit to a thought leadership piece, name dropping who you are is very much a sales message that can be ignored by prospects.  Your target can find out who you are after deciding if they want to even work with you.

Scratch that..your target knows who you are because they see your name and title in every content piece that's attached to your collateral.