5 Ways to Establish Thought Leadership Through Content

Producing freely accessible content is key to good content marketing. As backward as it may seem, a free sample of your insight and perspective will drive audience interaction with your brand, attract new users, and provide results.

Thought leadership content relies on sacrificing your “industry secrets” to share them with your audience. The result? Credibility, trust in your brand, and brand loyalty. Here are five ways you can establish a strong thought leadership brand through the content you share with the world.

Evergreen YouTube Videos

Thought leadership relies on your content being tied to you and your brand. Anything you publish should be recognizably yours. A video makes it impossible to separate you and your brand from the content. This makes video ideal content to publish and develop thought leadership. Evergreen YouTube videos will create a library for your community to browse through and establish your brand’s presence in the digital space.

Your audience will be free to access your content, learn from your experience, and develop a relationship with you as a leader. Video content also attracts visual learners who may find blog posts inaccessible. Other industry leaders may refer to your content and improve your network connections. As time goes on, your evergreen video content will continue to serve these purposes.

Since YouTube is a massively searched platform, the longer your video content is on YouTube, the more likely your content will be found by your ideal audience. This is a great position to be. Create video content once, upload it, and have your viewers access all your content on an ongoing basis.

Keyword Rich Blog Posts

Blogs are a great platform to position your thought leadership. Long-form content allows you to explore one topic at a time with empirical evidence and clarity. You’re able to display your knowledge through your writing and how you navigate a topic.

A blog post can also establish your brand in light of the larger community. An effective blog uses keywords to make sure users are able to find relevant content. Some blogs have a comment section below to nurture the conversation beyond the post itself. Additionally, there are two other factors that contribute to building a connection with the community: audience familiarity and keyword density.

Audience Familiarity

Understanding what your audience needs and who they are, will help to identify topics that drive their interest. At its core, thought leadership relies on providing content your audience can connect with directly from you, whether they can or can’t find it through someone else. This is why industry insights, unique feedback, and your interpretation of trends will help to carve out your voice in the community while giving the audience a chance to familiarize themselves with your brand position.

Keyword Density

It won’t matter how relevant your content is if no one is seeing it. While you want to set your content apart from the sea of search results, you need to play the search engine optimization game to your advantage. Content marketing uses keyword density to maximize content exposure. A growing audience will develop a network of people seeking to learn and return to for more in the future. This network will give you and your brand more authority and establish your thought leadership. The more you can display your command of the content through how your keyword usage is implemented, the better off you’ll be when solidifying your expertise.

Podcast Guesting Tour

Rather than create a new podcast that you will need to market and support, go on a guest tour of established podcasts. A podcast guesting tour lets you leverage your industry community so you can spread your expertise through podcasts and give others an opportunity to be introduced to you. As a podcast guest, you have the endorsement of the host, a platform for a conversation, and an opportunity to attract people who identify with your story.

Whether you discuss recent developments in your industry or give a sneak peak into your lifestyle, you’ll endear a new audience to yourself. A podcast is a unique form of content marketing. Unlike produced and edited blog posts or videos, you present yourself as someone able to have an off-the-cuff discussion. This contributes to your credibility and displays your ability to be authentic in your space.

Industry-Specific Guest Posts

On the flip side, instead of being a guest on podcasts, you can also be a guest blogger or invite other guest bloggers to post on your platform. From a marketing perspective, giving exposure to your competition feels counterintuitive. However, it is one of the best ways to establish an industry network. The industry professionals you work with, will add to your credibility, generate fresh content and bring their audience to your ecosystem.

Additionally, hosting guests will show your ability to identify and encourage other leaders whether they work for you or not. This attracts people who want to be as successful and well connected as you are. Guest content generates thought leadership by establishing you as a mentor and collaborator.

Speaking Gigs at Relevant Associations

Networking and promotions are not limited to only the digital platforms. When you inundate the market with your expertise, you will find it common that organizations and relevant associations reach out to you for speaking and training opportunities. Taking a speaking gig at an industry association event benefits you in many ways but two in particular can help accelerate thought leadership: endorsement and exposure.

Endorsements

‎A speaking gig essentially tells attendees that their association endorses you as a credible source. The audience enters your lecture or speech with the viewpoint that you are an authority and someone to learn from. By participating in your industry’s conversation you give your audience a chance to interact with your brand, relate to you as a person, and develop their knowledge. These outcomes directly contribute to the foundation of your thought leadership.

Exposure

An industry association event gives you exposure to established professionals. These are ideal members of your audience who will drive the conversation about your brand on and offline. They take your content and share it with their professional network, increasing your exposure and authority. When it comes to edging out your competition, a personal and warm recommended impression, can make all the difference.

Final Thoughts

Thought leadership is a fine balance between experience, knowledge, and action. To take a foothold in an industry, you’ll need to talk the talk and walk the walk. You should be leveraging your perspective to share knowledge and develop a community. Use the content you publish to establish thought leadership and drive your brand’s success. Not only will you share valuable insight with others but you will do so from a place of authority and authenticity. Are you ready to share your unique thought leadership?

Written by Rob Pene. Follow CEOWORLD magazine on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.