London, England and Austin, Texas – May 12th, 2009 - Llesiant, the technology leader in on-demand executive intelligence, and SITEFORUM, leaders in online social networking for business, today announced a new partnership to create Thought Leadership 2.0 microsite solutions.

The partnership creates a one-stop solution for digital thought leadership by combining SITEFORUM’s integrated social media, marketing and online business platform with Llesiant’s ability to filter and syndicate content from over 40,000 sources of business news and analysis. By joining forces, Llesiant and SITEFORUM will provide  firms with the tools to create interactive, content-rich services incorporating a full array of Web 2.0 capabilities, including:

• A fully tagged database of the host’s thought leadership content that enables executives to find exactly the analysis they need when they need it.
• Filtered news and analysis from global newspapers, magazines, wire services, thought leadership websites, academic journals and blogs.
• A custom publishing tool that delivers intelligence any executive format, including RSS feeds, Blackberry and iPhone applications, executive dashboards and email newsletters.
• Multimedia functions, such as podcasts, webinars, videos and web meetings.
• Social media capabilities, such as moderated Blogs, Wikis, podcasts and videos, interactive forums, user profiles and networking events.
• Original research, including interviews, white papers, articles, thought leadership websites and academic analysis.

With Web 2.0 becoming established inside organizations, thought leadership marketing is entering an exciting new digital era. In this stage, B2B companies are using the web to expand their executive reach, build executive communities and differentiate themselves from competitors. Savvy B2B firms see many advantages of using the web to deliver thought leadership: it is interactive, ongoing, cost-effective and measurable. 

“Thought leadership connotes innovative thinking,” says Lou Celi, President and Chief Operating Officer of Llesiant. “But that is the opposite message that they are giving to their clients when they use outdated print approaches.” Forward-looking B2B firms want to move from thought leadership 1.0 to thought leadership 2.0 to engage executives by harnessing the full power of the web and that is exactly what Llesiant can now do thanks to its partnership with SITEFORUM.”

According to Dirk Schlenzig, CEO of SITEFORUM, “The fundamental change in the way people are communicating is driving a new services ecosystem which will force significant and bold changes by existing providers who wish to survive. By teaming up with Llesiant, SITEFORUM is helping to provide a complete and dynamic service, which executives can use to their advantage.”