Today’s guest is Mike Kleinemaß, Digital Marketing & Communications Expert at ThyssenKrupp, a company that deals with engineering and construction of plant technology. Mike discusses how he came to thought leadership while doing other research and how it fits into his role in digital marketing. Bill and Mike discuss the place of platforms like Linkedin in B2B sales and why building a following and creating truly useful content for your prospective clients is important. In addition, Mike talks about the importance of building a relationship in which you are open and available to answering questions, having conversations, and engaging with your followership instead of just pushing out a message. Mike helped create a task force at ThyssenKrupp and explains how that came to be, the purpose of it, and why those involved need to understand their value within the organization and the impact they have. As a digital marketing and growth expert Mike shares some incredible knowledge that can be applied to any company or organization seeking to understand how to be successful in the digital space.   Three Key Takeaways: ·         As more digital transformations happen thought leaders need to understand the new journey their customers will undertake. ·         Thought leaders can gain a great deal of insight from examining the analytics of their social media and website.  That information can be used to create targeted sales strategies. ·         Becoming a thought leader for your organization will mean understanding the purpose and goals of the company, then building a strategy to convey that to the right people.