Who’s a thought leader you love?
When you hear that phrase “thought leader,” you may think of someone huge, someone who has a top TED talk or who’s led a nation – a Simon Sinek or a Barack Obama.
That’s not always the case, though.
Thought leaders are often humble but knowledgeable people who want to share deep and meaningful insights in their field of expertise. Becoming a thought leader can elevate your voice, while enlightening others.
When you’re considered an expert in your field, you stay top of mind with potential clients. Positioning yourself as a thought leader yields decreased marketing costs, better leads, increased demand for your services, and the ability to command expert-level pricing.
Do you have the skills to be a thought leader? Probably.
How do you utilize them well and make yourself heard? In order to get there, it’s important to understand your area of expertise, and position yourself so your content appeals to your audience.
Do you want to join the ranks of other thought leaders and use your knowledge to grow your audience and boost your business? Consider taking these four actions weekly to get there.
1. Create Engaging Content.
Others want to hear about topics that matter to them. Consider your audience, and what is important in their world. If you are a nutritionist, for example, curate your content around what you know.
For an audience of young parents, you can share recipes for quick and easy toddler snacks. For teens, a photo-heavy Instagram story about delicious alternatives to pizza is compelling. For busy executives on the go, a data-driven post about making healthy food choices while traveling would resonate. It should all tie back to your area of expertise. Thought leaders know their audience.
Thought leaders create engaging content often. Did you know that it takes three to 30 tweets per day to resonate with your audience on Twitter? For Facebook, the number is somewhere between seven and 14 posts per week to make an impact.
We recommend creating at least three posts on Instagram weekly to gain traction and pinning between five and 20 times per day on Pinterest.
Engaging content often references recent trends or industry news. By shining a spotlight on current events, you can attract attention, capitalize on potential hot topics or hashtags in search and position yourself a savvy and relevant thought leader.
It pays to be cautious in your approach, though. Using a riot or protest as a marketing tool is not going to be a good choice unless you work or advocate in a directly related field (social justice, etc.)
Instead, a thought leader might find ways to tie their experience in to Taylor Swift’s new album release or to the pandemic’s impact on your industry.
Remember to avoid being explicitly promotional. Avoid the “me monster” and posting exclusively about yourself and your accomplishments.
Being a leader in any form means looking out for those around you and making them better. Thought leaders connect with those around them, and always provide value.
2. Optimize Your Content and Its Visibility.
Optimizing your thought leadership content means making the most of your time, and making the most of your content.
Technology can help when it comes to content. Tools like CoSchedule, the social media platform we use for our business, allow us to post in the right place at the right time for maximum efficiency and engagement.
We schedule our clients (as well as our own) content via an online marketing calendar. CoSchedule keeps us and our clients organized so we can maximize the use and visibility of multiple pieces of content.
In addition to distributing your content to different locations, re-share it at a different time. You spent time creating great content; now, maximize your efforts!
Especially as your network grows, there will be people in your network who missed your message the first time (hence why good Twitter use involves posting dozens of times per day). CoSchedule has a ReQueue feature to intelligently share your content on a different day of the week, or time of day, when your audience is likely to be tuned in.
Absolutely share your content in multiple places. Publish it on your website, blog, social media channels, email newsletter, and with your community. Repurpose a YouTube video by dropping a small audio segment into a podcast, break it into a few Instagram stories, recycle it into LinkedIn stories and include a link to the entire video on your website.
Notify your audience of the new video via your newsletter then post a sneak peek on Facebook. Looking for more ideas on how to get the most value from the content you’re creating? Check out 18 Secrets to Creating More Content with Less Writing.
Tweak your message for the platform and audience you’re sharing with, to avoid the pitfall of copy and paste and becoming wallpaper to your audience.
There are easy ways to adjust your content to engage your audience differently. Replace the image, tweak your text, lead with a question, or make a video to pair with your original content. Thought leaders are smart and optimize their time by making the most of their content.
3. Start Promoting It.
Now that you have created and optimized your content, it’s time to expand your reach. Look for new places to share your thought leadership content with other groups.
Post your thought leader content in Facebook groups, submit your content to HARO (Help A Reporter Out), or syndicate your piece via LinkedIn Publishing or Medium.
You don’t have to promote alone: partner with others to cross-promote to a different audience. Podcasts are an excellent way to speak on topics you know well and share your message to a new group.
Podcasters want guests who supply an area of expertise that resonates with their audience. As an expert in your field, you can grow your following by speaking to the podcaster’s audience. With exposure to this new circle, guests learn from your expertise and are made aware of your presence. Thought leaders go beyond their circle to share.
4. Interact with Others’ Content.
Being a leader means both listening and speaking. Social media is a conversation. On Twitter, think of tweets as an opening line and re-tweets as a whisper passing along your message to someone else in the room.
By commenting on someone else’s tweet, you vocalize your response and create an opportunity for ongoing conversation. As entrepreneur and social media mogul Gary Vaynerchuk says, “The way to win on social media is to actually be social.”
His “$1.80 strategy” includes identifying the top 10 hashtags on Instagram related to your business with high performing posts, then leaving a thoughtful comment on the top nine posts. By engaging with your specific community, you gain additional visibility to your own accounts.
It is important to engage with others to be recognized as a listener-not just a speaker. Others want to know that they are being heard too.
Interaction shows that you are willing to give to the community instead of just expecting others to read your own messages. Send a congratulatory response to a colleague after seeing their promotion via LinkedIn; post a question after reading a worthwhile work-life balance article on Facebook; or echo a positive review for your favorite local bakery on Yelp. Your community will notice your interaction and it will lend authenticity to your overall communication.
Be genuine and thoughtful with your comments and shares when responding to others’ content. Inauthenticity is easy to spot. A quick “like” is easy, but a thoughtfully composed message displays your intention to build relationships as a true thought leader.
Being a thought leader means that you know your topic and can captivate an audience, but it also means you’re the kind of leader and professional who inspires, and to whom people would come for advice and guidance.
You’ll be a better thought leader if you do your best to honestly help people through your content. Think about what your community would want to know, then address it through relevant, valuable content.
Make the most of your time and your content by leveraging tools that save you time and maximize your efforts. Go beyond your circle to expand your influence. Interact and engage with others to truly build a community. You are likely to find that you’re reaching newer and more captivated audiences as a thought leader, and connecting with the right people to see your business grow.
