… by Jay Baer and Joe Pulizzi

Does giving away what you know on your blog and in ebooks, white papers, and presentations cannibalize your ability to monetize what you know? That’s the question we’ll answer in our scintillating session at Blogworld Expo Los Angeles (Thursday, November 3 at 1:30pm)

Plus, in the interest of authenticity, both of us will be wearing kimonos (optional for session attendees), and everyone in the crowd gets a free laser pointer to participate in our exciting laser-polling. Semi-nudity! Great content! Dangerous lasers! It’s a good way to spend an hour.

Is Thought Leadership Worth It?

This kimono question is important because we in the content marketing business often take it as gospel that more equals more. That more content equals more leads. That more transparency equals more customers. But does it? And is the trade-off in time and resources worth it?

And if you’re creating content that tells your prospects (and competitors) everything you know, could that actually have a negative impact on your business?

The 6 Stages of Kimono Opening

To examine these questions, we identified six stages of kimono opening:

• Closed Kimono
• What Happens in Vegas
• Quid Pro Quo
• Give Me Your Number
• Peek-a-Boo!
• The Full Monty

At each stage, companies give away more and more of their content (sometimes without compensation or requiring prospects to fill out a lead form). In some cases – Eloqua, for example – the kimono is so far open that they are occasionally making content that isn’t even really about their line of business, per se.

For each of the six stages, we profile a company that epitomizes that philosophy. We interviewed marketing directors, presidents, and company owners to get the inside scoop on why they are comfortable with their particular style of content marketing, and they gave us insights into the real, tangible business results they are seeing.

Attendees will have a chance to vote (with lasers!) on how much kimono opening is too much, and we’ll close the session with a section on the four ways to measure your content marketing efforts.

None of this material has ever been presented before, anywhere. We’re excited to share it with BlogWorld Los Angeles, and we’re hoping our presentation room is neither chilly nor breezy.

See you there!

– Jay and Joe

Hear what else Jay has to say:

Jay Baer is a social media and content strategist and speaker, and President of Convince & Convert. His blog is ranked as the #3 social media blog and #1 content marketing blog in the world. He’s co-author of The NOW Revolution. He’s @jaybaer.

Joe Pulizzi is a content evangelist and speaker. He’s the Executive Director of the Content Marketing Institute, publisher of Chief Content Officer magazine, founder of client-vendor matching site Junta 42, and co-author of Get Content Get Customers. He’s @JuntaJoe.