Thought leadership is a buzzword that constantly gets thrown around in business circles. What exactly does it mean to be a thought leader? In short, it means you present innovative ideas and are valued source of information to your audience. The content you create offers answers to common questions, expertise on industry topics and insights from your own past experiences.

Positioning your brand as a thought leader establishes authenticity and trust with your audience. Cutting through all the clutter online can be difficult, though, because every brand wants to be seen as a trusted expert. Our outlined steps will help you develop content your audience will find valuable and forward thinking, over time earning you the reputation as a thought leader.

Have Something Valuable to Say

The first step to becoming a thought leader is having something valuable to talk about. Not sure where to start? Think back on your past business experiences, things you have learned and common problems or questions you come across. You can provide advice, inspiration or educate readers on topics related to your industry.

You may also need to do some research to find out what the hot button topics in your industry are right now. Pick topics you know a lot about and can provide intelligent insights on. We’ve all heard the old adage “write what you know.” Thought leadership is all about instilling trust with your audience, and they’ll be able to tell whether or not you know what you’re talking about.

Add Your Special Twist

As a trusted industry expert, you need to do more than re-package the same thoughts and ideas as everyone else. To differentiate yourself from the thousands of other brands out there, your content needs some kind of added value or twist that no one else is talking about.  What can you add to your chosen topic that is new and unique? You might provide a different angle to a common problem or make a bold prediction. However you choose to set your brand apart, make sure you are adding value to your industry’s overall discourse and pushing the conversation forward.

Feature Outside Contributors

In addition to creating your own special content, you can earn the reputation of a thought leader by partnering with outside experts. Other thought leaders will offer unique input and new perspectives on issues related to your brand. While you provide them with a new platform to share their thoughts, you also show your audience that your brand has credibility with other experts.

Provide Value

If you want to be considered a thought leader, your content is not the place to do a hard product push. Today, many people feel over-saturated with salesy messages and now prefer to learn about a product or service via organic content. Part of the opportunity to be a thought leader is to be real with your audience and share information your competition doesn’t want to give away for free. When you are transparent and provide that value to your readers, it sets you apart.

If the reader makes it to the end of your article and decides you were helpful, they may then decide to contact you or make a purchase. If nothing else, you’ve planted your name your audience’s mind, and hopefully they return to your brand in the future.

Think Beyond the Blog

While website articles are a great way to start, your brand’s positioning as a thought leader can expand beyond a company blog. With platforms like Twitter and podcasts, you can product other kinds of content in addition to your written articles. Take your blog topic and transform it into a video or podcast, pull out noteworthy quotes or use statistics to create an infographic. Share these smaller chunks of information on your social channels to showcase your expertise and ultimately drive people back to that original long-form thought leadership content.

Be Consistent

You just posted a great forward-thinking article on an industry hot topic. Way to go! Now what? It’s time to think of the next topic. Part of positioning your brand as a thought leader is publishing content consistently. If you only write a piece when you happen to remember, you risk your audience forgetting about you. Running out of good article topics? Check out our piece on how to develop content ideas for your company.