As content continues to rule as the king, many savvy leaders build professional brands and thought leadership strategies to position their companies as valuable resources to audiences. Establishing yourself as a thought leader can help boost your career, add value to your company, and attract new opportunities. Here are ways you can build a strategy:
- Define your audience and message
The more specific you identify your audience, the better your chances of reaching and engaging them with your thought leadership strategy. You need to develop a strategic, authentic message for a targeted audience that truly serves them meaningfully. Focus on a topic in an area in which you are most credentialed, or consider the different segments within your industry that could benefit the most from your ideas and insights.
- Add value with exclusive offers
Create useful tools your audience can download after clicking on calls to action. Provide a special offer for your website visitors to subscribe to it for updates. Partner with relevant brands to create unique offerings for your audience and gain new followers.
- Optimise your social media presence
To learn more about your audience’s preferred networks and select the most beneficial one to leverage, research social media demographics. See how many new followers or connections you can make monthly by posting engaging and valuable information, being more active in conversations, and reaching out to others. This process leads to proper customer segmentation for your brand.
- Fill your calendar with fresh content
To serve and maintain this audience, you must regularly create valuable content. Great thought leaders have full editorial calendars with strategies and topic ideas organised for a month. Scheduling blog posts and social media updates according to this calendar can help you maintain consistency. The more content you create on thought leadership, the more it makes sense to start sharing it through different avenues.
- Consider writing and publishing a book
Nothing establishes you as a leader like writing a book on your topic of interest. As an author, you have big ideas to share. Books are among the best ways to create differentiation and visibility for you and your brand. If you are unsure about where to start, create a good outline. It takes time to write a book and conduct thorough thought leadership research.
While writing, engage your audience through blogging, social media, and other platforms. They will be aware and waiting for your book to launch.
Conclusion
Being recognised and respected as a leader does not happen overnight. It takes time, commitment, and dedication. Every person must begin somewhere. Using these steps, you can become a resourceful and insightful thought leader.