How to be a thought leader?

1. Thought
Leadership

2. A thought leader is an individual or firm who is
recognized as an authority in a specialized field and
whose expertise is sought and often rewarded. Thought
leaders are commonly asked to speak at public events,
conferences or webinars to share their insight with a
relevant audience.
The concept of thought leadership is nothing new.
However, the place where a thought leader’s
audience digest and engage with content has
evolved. More and more people are turning to social
media to follow and interact with leaders in their
respective fields.
In the short paper we share some insights on
how you can achieve thought leadership on
social media and how you can integrate it with
traditional forms of thought leadership such as
events.
Introduction

3. What are components
that make up Thought
Leadership?
THOUGHT
LEADERSHIP
MEASUREMENT
MEDIA
RELATIONS
DEMAND
GENERATION
CONTENT
SYNDICATION
CONTENT
DEVELOPMENT
DESIGN
STRATEGY
MESSAGING

4. It sounds pretty basic, but it’s surprising how many people still have
incomplete social media profiles. For example, on LinkedIn many people
don’t have their bios correctly written and more often than not their
profiles read like a CV rather than talking to their audiences’ pain points.
You can tell if your profile is complete when you achieved the All Star
badge.
In order to proactively position yourself as a thought leader you also need
to identify your audience. You can do this through tools such as LinkedIn
Sales Navigator or Lists on Twitter. Through this you can proactively grow
your network with the right audience.
Looks like there
is room for
improvement,
right?
Actually, this is
the highest level
strength you
can attain on
your LinkedIn
profile.
Optimise your social media
handles and identify your
target audience
Profile Strength
All-Star

5. It’s no surprise, but you need to be posting regular quality content. You
need to be producing videos, social posts and both short and long form
content.
However, this alone
is not enough.
You need to
collaborate with
other influencers
in your field. Invite
them or be invited
to talk on podcasts,
cocreate papers or
bring each other
into your content
through mentions.
When you do
this, you combine
networks and give
yourself a broader
reach.

6. A good social media presence alone won’t guarantee thought leadership.
You must realise that what you do offline is just as important.
You need to
secure public
speaking events,
TV appearances,
radio slots
and have an
audio strategy
for creating or
being invited to
podcasts. You can
use social media
to proactively
reach out to event
organisers and
podcasts hosts to
achieve this.
The content you produce from these activities should then feed into your
social media strategy.

7. Once you have an outstanding profile across social platforms and are
producing regular quality content and integrating both your offline and
online strategy,
you will have the
basis of thought
leadership
campaign.
If you do this
correctly, you
will receive leads
direct to your
inbox.

8. A thought leadership campaign takes considerable time to implement,
and many leaders will outsource this activity.
Here at Social Tree Global, we are experts when it comes to creating
thought leadership campaigns and cover all the elements we have
discussed as a service.
If you would like to
discuss your thought
leadership campaign,
please email one of our
founders Max Hannah at
mh@socialtreeglobal.com
or call directly on
020 3633 0724