
Are you an industry pioneer who intrepidly ventures into uncharted territory to stake your claim on great results and innovative ideas? If so, you likely have the makings of a thought leader. But becoming a thought leader requires more than an industrious spirit and a desire to redefine boundaries. Luckily, in your quest to leave a lasting legacy as an industry trailblazer, we can help you forge your path to becoming a thought leader. But before you learn how to become a thought leader, you must know what this means. Because great influence comes with a lot of responsibility.
What is Thought Leadership?
Thought leadership occurs when an organization or individual is regarded as an authority within an industry or specific field. Through thought leadership, you become the go-to expert for all aspects of that area with industry-wide, or sometimes worldwide, influence.
Thought leadership is a way to provide insight and direction to others in your field. But it’s also a strategy to bolster your brand’s reputation, build stronger relationships and trust among your customers, drive leads, and create sustainable growth.
What is a Thought Leader?
While a thought leader can be either an organization or an individual, what truly makes a thought leader is that their industry recognizes them for pioneering innovative ideas.
Moreover, thought leaders aren’t just leaders in the traditional hierarchical sense. Thought leaders can be anyone as long as you inspire innovation, establish credibility, and successfully influence others. But being a thought leader goes far beyond writing and publishing ideas.
As a thought leader, you should have a distinct and focused message you want to share to change and shape your industry and, ultimately, your world positively. For some, this may take fine-tuning their brand messaging.
If this resonates with you, it would be worth it to continue reading to learn how to establish yourself as a thought leader.
What Does it Mean to Be a Thought Leader?
As a thought leader, you create a significant difference in people’s lives by offering actionable insights that shape the future. You are not only providing crucial information; you are helping people succeed, which has an incalculable ripple effect across their business and personal lives.
Whether delivering a TED Talk, hosting a webinar, holding a workshop, speaking at a conference, writing thought leadership content, or engaging with other thought leaders, becoming a thought leader means connecting people with information and ideas that matter and make an impact.
Still, this also means having a high standard to create and share high-quality content that distinguishes you. Your expertise and ideas must also resonate. This responsibility is essential when considering how to become a thought leader in your field.
Why is Thought Leadership Important?
There are several reasons why thought leadership is important:
- Thought leadership can help with publicity for your brand or business.
- Thought leadership can cement credibility among your peers, customers, and employees.
- Thought leadership can boost brand awareness, driving leads and sales.
- Thought leadership can open the door to new opportunities to grow your brand.
It will also help you grow into a better and more confident leader. By becoming a thought leader, you will simultaneously have your finger on the pulse of the present and future. Customers will look at you as more than just a vendor or service provider; they will turn to you for guidance and opinions.
This will also give you the power of foresight to help you better prepare for foreseeable trends, overcome hurdles, and capitalize on new opportunities. Now, let’s dive into how to become a thought leader in your niche.
How to Become a Thought Leader
Becoming a thought leader is not something that happens overnight. It requires more than sheer ambition. Establishing yourself as a thought leader requires some soul-searching, time, and effort, but it is endlessly fulfilling. Here’s how to establish thought leadership in 8 steps:
- Determine Your Area of Expertise
- Regularly Produce Original, High-Quality Content
- Avoid Self-Promotion
- Stay Consistent
- Cultivate a Strong Online Presence
- Establish Yourself as an Educational Resource
- Incorporate Videos
- Stay Connected
1. Determine Your Area of Expertise
The first thing you will likely learn as you explore how to become a thought leader is that you need to determine your area of expertise. Remember, thought leaders are authorities. They’re experts in a specific area, and this specialized knowledge is what makes a thought leader.
What’s your industry or area of specialization? You want to ensure you choose an area of expertise you are also passionate about. Make sure that the topic is one that you genuinely care about.
Before you think that maybe you aren’t an expert, remember that you don’t have to have all the answers. You just need the baseline and framework of who you will be as a thought leader.
“Evolving into a thought leader means shedding your ego and learning from others. Developing thought leadership requires accepting that you don’t know everything and continuously improving. Push yourself to push the envelope.”
– Jeff Soto, VP of Strategy & Client Relations at KWSM
2. Regularly Produce Original, High-Quality Content
Having the expertise is only one part of what it takes to become a thought leader. Remember, as a thought leader, you are trying to influence your industry. You also need great-quality content. What you produce should make a tangible impact on the lives of your audience.
You should produce thought leadership content, such as thought leadership blogs or reels on Instagram, with your unique personal voice and POV. Modern Internet users are savvy – they can spot an imposter right away.
Because of this, your content needs to be authentic. You should add and contribute original ideas and research that expand on popular and trending topics. You need to stay current on important issues and news in the industry and provide foresight into where it’s going.
Make sure you also focus on projecting your personality; your personality is what distinguishes you from other people in your industry. By creating engaging, high-quality content, you will win over the trust of your entire industry and establish yourself as a leader.
This type of content will also humanize your brand while establishing yourself as an expert and authority and guiding customers to greater success. Because of this, they will view you as a more significant part of their success, creating loyalty to your brand.
Related Article: Content Creation Guide: A Guide for Engaging Your Audience
3. Avoid Self-Promotion
If you want to find out how to become a thought leader, stop with self-promotion. This can feel counterintuitive to some, but just because you are posting something under a brand doesn’t mean you have to promote that brand in these pieces.
People will be skeptical of your intentions if you are self-promotional in your thought leadership. You want to appear as objective as possible. Promoting yourself or your business too much could seem self-serving, negatively impacting your reputation and how industry peers receive your content.
Yes, thought leadership can build your brand and benefit your bottom line, but that’s not what your focus should be. Your primary goal when creating content as a thought leader is to provide value, contribute to the industry, and offer your insights.
4. Stay Consistent
Creating content can be exhausting. Between the research, writing, editing, posting, and all the management and maintenance that comes with it, it will require a substantial investment of time. But consistency is crucial because you’re building an audience and trying to create avid followers.
If you’re going to become a thought leader, people have to remember you. Very few people will remember you based on just one or two articles. Even if you provide a few strong articles, it won’t be enough to establish you as a thought leader. Commit to posting consistently.
Posting consistently will also make you seem more reliable. People in your industry will begin to feel like they can count on you to offer valuable, timely insights. If content creation is intimidating, creating a content calendar could help to schedule when you will create and publish content.
Just as importantly, you want your work to be consistently high-caliber. The quality of your content must be consistent, too, which takes considerable attention to detail.
Related Article: Content Marketing Strategy Agency: Helping Businesses Meet Clients
5. Cultivate a Strong Online Presence
Creating an online presence is one of the most crucial steps you must take in your quest to learn how to become a thought leader and advance your career. One reason is having a strong online presence increases the likelihood of industry peers finding your work and contacting you.
You should have a well-designed and attractive website that establishes you as an authority with all your published content and contact information, but that’s just the start. Social media platforms, such as LinkedIn or even Instagram, are also crucial to cultivate a following.
One tactic is also finding publications your audience is reading and what sites are popular within your industry and submitting content for publishing there. Don’t forget to use a variety of content types! Mixing up articles, videos, podcasts, and infographics will help cement your online presence.
Customers don’t just read blogs and articles. They want to receive updates in their inboxes, see the latest news on their social channels, and watch engaging videos. This builds trust and increases your marketing share.
Related Article: 4 Ways to Establish Thought Leadership on Social Media
6. Establish Yourself as an Educational Resource
Another part of becoming a thought leader is to establish yourself as more than just an industry pioneer or expert. Your audience should view you as a valuable educational resource for help. Let others know that you are available to answer questions.
The more people see you as a resource, the more likely you will be considered a leader in your specific area of expertise. Distributing webinars, podcasts, online classes, and event-gated materials could help create a buzz in your industry.
7. Incorporate Video
Understanding how video can be used is important. It’s no secret many people prefer to watch content to digest information, with YouTube being the second-most-visited search engine behind Google. And that’s not even accounting for people who consume content on Social Media!
We are already witnessing popular platforms shifting toward becoming more video-friendly. If you want to become a thought leader, you must embrace this change. After all, it embodies the spirit that thought leaders should have. Still, when creating videos, keep them short and sweet.
8. Stay Connected
The final step in how to develop thought leadership is staying connected with your industry, which encompasses more than just adding people on LinkedIn.
You want to ensure you stay connected to industry trends and build strong relationships with peers. Hone your interpersonal and communication skills, and focus on the human aspect. To connect with your industry, ensure your audience feels understood, supported, and valued.
Streamline How to Become a Thought Leader with Thought Leadership Marketing
Ultimately, there’s no simple answer when figuring out how to be a thought leader. Everyone has different passions and strengths, so their path to becoming this beacon of knowledge and trust within their industry will look different.
While it can be a daunting undertaking, having the right team by your side will help. At KWSM, we can guide you to becoming a thought leader so you can lead your industry into new territory, from crafting compelling content to building your online presence.
Visit our Thought Leadership Marketing Services page to learn how we can help.