The Top 5 Questions About Thought Leadership
We hear a lot of questions about thought leadership, but there are five that continuously come up. This isn’t a bad thing. There are many misconceptions about thought leadership, which means questions are inevitable. However, to ensure the most common ones are answered, here’s my take on the questions below.
1. WHY DO I NEED TO BECOME A THOUGHT LEADER?
You can experience various benefits from being a thought leader. For example, a study conducted by Edelman and LinkedIn found that 55% of executives give their contact information to an organization after reading their thought leadership content.
Today, you have to give your audience a reason to work with you. How should you do it? Showcase your unique insights, knowledge, and perspectives on industry topics so that you can build trust.
If you own a B2B business, think about the agency, vendor, or company you partner with. Before you established a working relationship, did you vet that company? Did you look at the company’s content? Did you review their case studies? Did you ask questions to gauge whether or not the founder is credible, authoritative, and knowledgeable? Most likely, the answer is yes.
But maybe you own a B2C business. If that’s the case, think about your own purchasing behavior as a consumer. If you’re making a big purchase and considering a few different options with a similar price tag, what convinces you to move forward with a certain brand? Is it their educational blog? How-to video content? Testimonials? Guest-contributed articles in industry outlets? Most likely, some form of educational content will increase your trust in one brand and influence you to buy from it.
Seventy-three percent of consumers consider transparency more important than price, so today, it’s imperative to become a thought leader. You must give your consumers a reason to trust and work with you.
2. WHAT RESULTS WILL I SEE FROM BECOMING A THOUGHT LEADER?
This is a very common question, and it’s totally understandable. There’s little research on the benefits of thought leadership. However, that doesn’t mean results are impossible to experience. Business owners who’ve become thought leaders have generated web traffic, leads, email subscribers, customers, credibility, and trust.
It is possible to see results — but you genuinely have to be an insightful, educational, and credible thought leader. If you can only speak about your industry and business at a high level, it will be difficult to establish yourself as a thought leader.
3. WHEN WILL I SEE RESULTS?
Results follow consistency. Like anything else in life, you have to put in work over a long period of time to generate results. It’s just like working out. You don’t see results until you implement a healthy diet and workout 3-5 times a week for 60 - 90 days. You also don’t see results by doing the exact same workout every single time.
The same can be said for thought leadership. You need to create content on a consistent basis. It’s a long-term game because there are always new companies and business owners that are trying to own the story in your industry. You also need to create different types of content. While it’s great to blog, you must expand your expertise into industry outlets, podcasts, guides, and case studies. You can’t grow if you only use one thought leadership tactic. However, with consistency and the right mix of content, you can expect results in 3-6 months.
4.I’M ALREADY A THOUGHT LEADER IF I’VE GARNERED MEDIA COVERAGE, RIGHT?
Nope. Media coverage is wonderful and it’s something you need. However, media coverage does not equal thought leadership. It’s a piece of the pie, but it’s not the whole thing. There are a lot of companies that have garnered media attention, but there aren’t a lot of business owners who’ve secured an Inc column or article in Harvard Business Review.
Thought leadership content isn’t a media story that’s promoting your company. It’s an educational piece of collateral (authored by you) that showcases your expertise, knowledge, insight, and perspective so that your audience trusts you. To become a thought leader you have to create and distribute helpful content, not promotional material.
5. HOW DO I BECOME A THOUGHT LEADER?
Create! Create! Create! Then, publish and share. Becoming a thought leader is about getting your expertise out in the open. You have to constantly brainstorm, develop, and share your unique insights — and as a business owner, this shouldn’t be hard to do. You’re filled with the knowledge and ideas. You just have to put in the effort to showcase them on a consistent basis.