How To Build Thought Leadership with Social Media Marketing Automation
The concepts of “thought leadership” is important for any person and brand that are wanting to establish themselves as a leader in a particular industry, niche, specific topic, trade or practice. Although depending on who you talk to, it could either be an objective to achieve or a reputation to aspire or a career-defining condition.
Let’s put it in another way, social media has become the medium marketers to build thought leadership. The reason why it works so well is that social media platforms are based on the premises of sharing, connecting, and interacting which are all essential components of successful thought leadership.
Building Thought Leadership
In order to build a thought leadership, you have to develop a solid plan for implementing it and watching it flourish in your organization. Have a look at these keys to success to build a great thought leadership.
Consistently Publish Quality Content
The first and the biggest step is to make sure to keep coming with a steady stream of high-quality content. This will help you improve your discoverability on the internet and will also help you to build your credibility.
When you think about content marketing the first thing that comes the mind is the blog post content. While as a good person, regular blogging has always shown up some positive benefit on your digital presence. That positively benefit could be in terms of overall traffic, search engine rankings, and growing your audience.
Further, you can also do guest blogging for other websites with whom you share the same audience demographics. However, you should never feel limited to any single content format. In order to produce branded content that fits your vision perfectly, you can also work with creative professionals.
Gather and Create Original
The term original research means informative pieces which include specific, quantifiable data. Some examples of this are case studies, special reports, surveys, and questionnaires.
You can even quote authoritative sources and share their insights with your audience that are related to their industry. Also, you need to make sure to add your own take of the issue, though. While if there is one thing that a thought leader should always have, it’s perspective with an opinion to share.
The reason why this works so well is that you will make your audience feel more intelligent after reading your content. When you are a thought reader, people will look forward to being able to teach them new things which they can apply in their life, career, or business.
With thought leadership, you can create experiences that facilitate learning while cementing your reputation as someone who uses credible sources and verifies information before sharing it.
Have It Professionally Written
All you need to is simply put, your online presence should look great. There should be no exceptions if you want to be perceived as a thought leader. While for that, you should absolutely need to have a strong social media presence, just because you need to have a platform upon which you can see and heard.
As noted earlier, though leadership doesn’t happen at the drop of a hat, that’s why it’s important for you to not only be on social media but also to ensure that your initiatives on each platform are contributing for your goal.
This simply means that being active on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and any other social media sites where you can find your target audience. Apart from that it also means a well-planned calendar of activities, instead of relying on one magical video or post to get shared and re-shared.
Though building leadership, it becomes more feasible through bombardment than virality. You could also present your thought leadership through campaigns that embrace and reflect your personal brand.
Moreover, you also need a good, search engine optimized website to call your digital home. While having a professional website increases your credibility, enabling your audience to see you as a figure they can trust and rely on for information.
Be Ubiquitous
Another great key component of thought leadership which was stated earlier is visibility. However, only visibility won’t help you much if you are not doing anything about it.
As a thought leader, you need to be committed with your beliefs, consistent in your messaging, and diligent in creating and sharing your content. Furthermore, you need to be at the forefront of pushing concepts and ideas to your audience.
Whether offline or online, there are a number of ways in which you can make your presence felt. You can also organize events in your community, share your knowledge through talks and other public speaking engagements for your content strategy.
Also remember that even though you should avoid promising things you can’t deliver, or promoting what isn’t there. For example, drumming up interest for a webinar that actually isn’t live yet will likely backfire on you. It will also cause your credibility to decline and will make the road towards becoming a respected thought leader even more difficult to traverse.
However, you are trying to be thought leader, not a hero. so, it doesn’t mean that you need to do too much for yourself. In the end, let your audience decide how they perceive you by providing content which shows them how much they need you.
Engage on Social Media to Build a Community
As mentioned earlier that developing your social media presence is an important step towards thought leadership. However, creating your profile is only half the battle. Helping people understand what makes you tick and you will definitely start being perceived as someone they can talk to someone they can click with.
The only way to do this by sharing content that might be interesting for your target audience. Also, keep yourself known and also keep yourself abreast of the latest in the industry.
In order to be a thought leadership, hard-selling yourself is not the way to do that. You need to learn humility and let your products and services become your proof. Always remember that the most important prerequisite on your journey of becoming thought leadership is trust. If you are not perceived by your target audience as a figure or personality worthy of their trust then you will not be considered an authority on your subject of expertise.
However, it is one thing to proclaim yourself to become important in your industry. While thought leadership does not only comes with improved credibility but it also comes with an increased likelihood that people would want to listen to what you have to say or teach to them.
Although money shouldn’t be your primary motivation. If you really want to establish yourself firmly in your industry and able to sustain yourself while sharing your knowledge then thought leadership is an absolute must.
With that being said, you can start your journey towards becoming a thought leader today and enjoy the benefits of a loyal fanbase and improved sales with these easy marketing automation tools.