Establishing Thought Leadership Through Content Marketing

Question: What do you want to be in the future?

There is no wrong answer, but there is a right one.

A thought leader. Becoming a thought leader in any industry should be the ultimate goal for every expert, because it means you have reached a high level of expertise, trust and connection with your audience.

Thought Leadership is really the heart and soul of content marketing. In other words, content marketing draws a step-by-step map for you to achieve this position to become not only an influential figure in your industry, but also to lead the way into the future.

How to become a thought leader?

Establish your niche
Publish your ideas
Go social
Write a book
Speak at events
Be patient and Keep learning

Establish your niche

Here is where the who in content marketing kicks in. Choosing your niche is about choosing your audience. A very specific type of audience. The deeper you can dig into your audience niche the better position you will establish for yourself.

Ask yourself, who are your audience? what do they need to know about in a specific area? how can your knowledge help them get where they want to be?

Publish your ideas

Now that you have established your niche, it is time to start sharing your thoughts and ideas. Choose the channel, where you could reach a wider audience. It could be a blog, a Youtube channel, a Podcast. It is important as well for you to feel comfortable with the channel you use, acting awkward in front of a camera, can really beat the purpose, and you might sound unprofessional if you weren’t a skilled writer.

Don’t hesitate to have bold out-of-the-box ideas, no one wants a thought leader that is going to approve on all the ideas floating around.

Go Social

Social media will help you amplify your message and reach your audience. Your content strategy will tell you thee social media channels that are most relevant to your audience.

While many thoughts leaders choose to be only on social media, it is important that you have your audience on your own channel, like a blog or an Email marketing list.

Write a book

Authors make great thought leaders. For one thing, you can practically say, ‘I wrote the book on this topic’.

Writing a book means you have done your research, interviewed market professional and came-up with your own idea and thesis on the subject, and therefore establishing your authority to express valid ideas about the topic.

Speak at events

participate at events relevant to your area of expertise, where you can express your ideas in-front of your target audience.

Speaking at events is a great opportunity to introduce yourself as an advocate and a thought leader in your field.

Be patient and Keep Learning

Finally, it is important to remember that becoming a thought leader takes time and practice, and it will not happen over night. Take your time, to research your topics and respond to your audience. Keep learning to stay relevant and watch the magic as it unfolds.