Best Practices for Thought Leaders on Featured

How do I get my quote selected for publication? What kind of responses are the publication sources looking for? What qualifies as a good vs bad answer? Let’s dive in. 

Table of Contents:

• Anatomy of a Great Answer
• Anatomy of an Unpublishable Answer
• Common Answer Issues

Anatomy of a Great Answer

Question: Can you share one business strategy that has increased your company’s revenue this year? How can others apply this?

Answer: My business had been struggling for a while until this year, but that changed when we sponsored a local community event here near Phoenix, AZ. The festival needed a donation of our expertise, and we ended up having a blast even during working hours.

While we didn’t see a boom right when we closed our booth out; since that event, our website traffic has been significantly stronger (23%), and our revenue climbed out of danger levels—soaring high enough to give our team a $1,000 bonus.

My advice is to reach out to local vendors near you, and see how you can help out within your local community. Ask, because someone will be happy your company is there to provide support. Remember to find something unique that your business can provide so that future customers know what to look for.

 

Answer Feature	How?
Provides Value	This answer clearly states advice that other business leaders can adopt. Readers can leave the article feeling wiser.
Anecdotal	We can see the experience behind the evidence. It is told like a story.
Specific	The user addressed the revenue query with a direct response—the strategy and “how” were both answered.
Unique	This one can be tricky. Aim for “daring” answers.  We opted for this strategy because the example does not hit the usual “productivity” or “sales” keywords from other articles

 

Anatomy of an Unpublishable Answer

Question: Can you share one business strategy that has increased your company’s revenue this year? How can others apply this?

Answer: As CEO of XYZ Enterprises, I am uniquely suited to answer this question. One business strategy that has increased our company’s revenue this year is by partnering with other businesses. By working together, larger audiences can be reached, and this means customers can be offered more value.

Other businesses can apply this strategy by reaching out to other businesses. They can also attend industry events and network with other businesses. By partnering with other businesses, businesses can grow their customer base, reach new markets, and offer their customers more value.

 

Answer Feature	How?
Provides Value	This answer does offer advice, but it is repetitious, hard to understand, and not easily applicable.
Anecdotal	Experience doesn’t have to include “I” or “we” indicators, but responses should be evident to the reader that this insight comes from experience.
Specific	While it does technically answer the question, without experiential wisdom or more support, it falls flat.  Answers like this lean towards “fluff.” Readers and publishers prefer specific advice.
Unique	This one can be tricky. Aim for “daring” answers.  The answer is not unique or daring. Business partnerships are nothing new. The only way to improve would be for a unique take on “business partnerships” with evidence of how it increased their revenue.

 

Common Answer Issues

Issue	Description
Using AI	Publishers are interested in your unique personal and professional experiences. AI does not have this experience.
Plagiarized	We cross-check plagiarism globally. Just don’t do it.
Misaligned Expertise	Featured uses profile information, like your job title and company industry, to determine your relevancy to the query. If your expertise, as indicated in your Featured profile, doesn’t align with the query, there’s a reduced likelihood of the quote being selected.
Quote Re-usage	It’s a common practice for PR folks to reword or re-use some quotes for different requests but in this case, they will be flagged! We do not accept any re-used quotes even if they are originally from you!
Overly Promotional	Some questions may involve you sharing personal or company information in your answer. However, answers that are overly promotional often get rejected by publishers. Aim for your writing ‌to enrich the audience by learning more about you or your company—not just sold to.
Quote Submissions on Behalf of Others	Learn how to properly submit quotes on behalf of your clients here – Team Accounts For Agencies & Small Businesses
Adding “Fluff” Text	Aim for snappy, helpful text to put into the submission box. If the content inside doesn’t support your answer, or help the reader, opt to leave it out. Ex., Avoid re-stating your job title and company name within your response (Readers will find this info in your quote attribution line.) Ex., Try to trim out filler words that say nothing.
Misinformation: false claims, misleading text, etc.	Our readers need expert advice—anything offered should be with this intent. Making false claims or purposefully misleading with information that is unhelpful will be flagged immediately.  Ex., claiming to be an expert in a field when you are not, offering false or unfounded statistics, or including generic information that waters down the insight

 

What if I’m Still Not Selected?

Checked off all the boxes above, and still no luck? There are some underlying reasons why you may not see your answers published yet, and they have nothing to do with your answer quality. 

 

Reason	Solution
Competition	Especially on a popular publication, there will be a lot of folks answering the query for only a few open spots to be featured. It’s incredibly important to come up with a super unique response that only you would be able to offer.
Expertise & Current Role Relevance	Users who have job titles and work in industries that match the query are more likely to be chosen. If your expertise, as indicated in your Featured profile, doesn’t align with the query, there’s a reduced likelihood of your quote being selected. Example: For a question about email marketing, a content writer will have a better chance of being selected compared to a FinTech CEO.
Digital Presence	Check that you have no broken links in your Featured profile and practice good LinkedIn hygiene.  Sometimes, a strong digital presence can make a difference, as it fully supports your expertise.
Luck and Chances	Ultimately, this is not a solid solution—but please be patient.  We aim to give everyone a chance. If you use these best practices, odds are we will select you when your answer aligns with a publisher’s needs. Consider upgrading to a Pro account for unlimited answer credits and more chances to be selected.

 

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