Despite being one of the largest industries in the world, telecoms often go under the radar. The market is slow-moving, dominated by few players, and particularly lacking thought leaders.
However, while telecoms leaders may stay out of the spotlight due to the industry's highly regulated nature and concerns over potential missteps, those who do so risk placing themselves at a significant disadvantage.
In this article, we explore how executives can boost their visibility and success through telecoms thought leadership. Read on to discover more.
Essentially, telecoms thought leadership involves an executive unveiling the corporate curtain to expose the inner workings of their company and industry.
They might provide insight into the challenges they are currently facing, their predictions for the future, or the revolutionary technologies they have discovered.
When they do this, executives educate audiences, establish better relationships, and become experts on the topics they speak about.
Because the executive has shown a willingness to be transparent, their audiences begin to reciprocate with trust too, which prompts continued re-engagement.
Over time, the executive's insights grow in popularity, influencing industry change and unlocking more opportunities for their business thanks to their enhanced credibility.
Just like any other industry, telecoms thought leadership improves how stakeholders perceive you.
You secure more customers.
You unlock more investment.
You attract more talent.
You reinvigorate your current workforce.
Besides many other benefits.
The most popular telecoms thought leadership channel is social media, which includes Twitter and, more predominantly, LinkedIn if you’re a B2B business.
This is because social media allows for 24/7 engagement, provokes debates, and can easily be shared among a wide range of various audiences in a way that is personal and not traditionally corporate or salesy.
Because of this, audiences can resonate with executives and their companies on a deeper level.
Another important channel is media coverage, which, through top publications, broadcast networks, podcasts, and radio stations, offers the greatest visibility and credibility.
By convincing journalists to cover your ideas alongside other established experts, you'll enhance your credibility in ways other channels cannot.
You also shouldn't undervalue blogs. They can be a great avenue to promote your media coverage, share regular industry reports, and direct your social media audiences to improve your website traffic.
Unlike the past, multimedia is now essential to stand out with audiences retaining 95% of information over video compared to just 10% over text.
It can be the difference between a journalist working with you or someone sharing your social media post.
Moreover, with telecoms being a highly technical industry, videos can be a great way to improve general industry understanding and eradicate any barriers to engagement.
Both contacting and receiving a positive reply from a journalist is achieved through a media pitch.
What is a media pitch? Essentially, it’s an email you’d send to a reporter, producer, or guest booker specifying who you are, what you have to say, and why your ideas are relevant.
You will include a media hook to ensure your thought leadership is timely since journalists won’t cover a trend that was popular several months ago.
You will use supporting statistics and case studies to both back up your statements and ground them within the real world.
You will leverage photos of yourself or a relevant project to provide better context and help your pitch stand out among others.
You will include a proposal, such as to write a guest article or be interviewed as a sign of intent.
The process can be quick or long depending on when the journalist reads your email, how strong your pitch and subject line is, and whether you send the pitch to the right people.
This is why the most important aspect of a pitch is always the amount of time you commit to it.
The difference between a well-researched pitch and one that has been written within minutes is painstakingly obvious.
You want to lay the foundations for a lasting relationship. Journalists will appreciate your efforts and may come back to you later on if they can't work with you in the first instance.
When 5G was first introduced, social media conversation was dominated by conspiracy theorists questioning the technologies potential to cause harm.
5G towers were vandalised at great expense for many telecoms, which has prompted concerns that the same could happen with 6G and other new technologies on the horizon.
This is why telecoms leaders must use thought leadership to educate audiences thoroughly about how technologies work.
By proactively providing accurate information, telecoms can counter misinformation, protect their reputation, and prevent harmful misunderstandings.
By leading conversation across social media and in the media, executives can improve how quickly they can react in the face of a crisis.
The threat of cyberattacks is universal to many industries, as businesses upgrade with new, yet vulnerable systems and technologies. The telecoms industry is no different.
Given that telecoms are a vital part of a nation’s infrastructure, storing a wealth of sensitive data, such as customer credit card details, they are a huge target.
It’s up to telecoms leaders to confront these problems, raise awareness, and find solutions to protect the industry.
Leaders should consider advocacy for industry-wide cybersecurity standards, collaboration with governments and regulatory bodies, and reiterate how cybersecurity is integrated into every level of their business.
This is the only way for executives to truly settle anxieties and uphold their customer's trust.
As the telecoms industry embraces technologies like AI, regulatory hurdles are increasingly becoming more profound, particularly as the industry faces rising identity fraud and business impersonation risks.
To address these challenges, thought leaders must advocate for clearer, forward-thinking regulatory frameworks that balance innovation with security.
By confronting regulatory issues and being fully transparent, leaders can mitigate potential backlashes and collaborate with regulators to shape policies that ensure compliance without stifling growth.
Alongside its other challenges, the telecoms industry faces the compounding issue of a workforce shortage, with young workers lacking and females opting for other career paths.
Moreover, in a recent survey, a third of current telecoms employees said that they would consider leaving their company within the next year.
If executives don’t promote more pathways for growth within the sector by investing in talent development programmes and fostering diversity and inclusion, they face the brink of a monumental crisis.
However, by committing more time to thought leadership, executives can show that they are aware of these issues while outlining every action their company will take to capitalise where the rest of the industry falters.
Telecoms thought leadership allows start-ups to highlight their ability to innovate much faster than larger competitors, typically constrained by bureaucratic processes.
These start-ups can respond quickly to market demands, adopt new technologies, and experiment with creative solutions that appeal to the audiences they want to target.
Start-ups can also commit more time to focus on specific challenges, such as improving networking efficiency in rural or underserved areas or developing IoT integration to position themselves as experts within these niche areas.
Ultimately, over time, start-us can raise their profile, creating opportunities for investment, collaboration, and future partnerships.
For more tech thought leadership, read our article on the top five trends we predict for the coming year.