Weekly Business Insights from Top Ten Business Magazines | Week 315 | Leading & Managing Section | 2

Extractive summaries and key takeaways from the articles curated from TOP TEN BUSINESS MAGAZINES to promote informed business decision-making | Since September 2017 | Week 315 | September 22-28, 2023

5 Ways To Establish Yourself As An Industry Thought Leader

By Rachel Wells | Forbes Magazine | September 27, 2023

Extractive Summary of the Article | Listen

When you think of marketing, who is the first person that comes to mind? Or if you needed professional advice on how to improve your sales skills, or how to develop your leadership capabilities, whose wisdom would you automatically revert to? Here’s what all answers to the above have in common: thought leaders.  These respected experts rose to prominence in their industries over time, with many years of providing quality content and value, helping to solve the world’s largest questions and problems.  Becoming a thought leader will bring many tangible benefits to your career, including increased reach to your target audience, and stronger respect and trust in your work and philosophy, which in turn leads to more clients and stakeholders seeking to work with you.  Here are five ways to establish yourself as a respected expert in your industry:

1. Find your niche and sub-niche.  To become an industry thought leader entails you having a unique specialism and command of your subject matter. Therefore, it is essential to pin-point, from the beginning, what you wish to be an expert in. It is not possible to be the jack-of-all-trades. Narrowing down your specialism as a thought leader will help you deliver more value to your audience and increase your earning potential.  To do this effectively, you need to be clear on your target audience and what questions you will solve for them.
2. Add value to existing conversations with a unique perspective.  Thought leaders are so named because they are brave enough to think outside of the box.  The next time you see a post on social media related to your industry or target audience, ask yourself, What original value can I bring to the conversation? How can I challenge this person’s thinking? How can I inspire others to break out of the status quo through introducing a fresh idea, or an innovative point of view?
3. Publish long-form content.  Thought leaders become reputable experts because they have conducted extensive research, study, and practice into their respective niches, and share their findings with their audience in the form of quality content. Long-form content, i.e. writing blogs on your own website, guest-blogging, or writing articles on LinkedIn’s Pulse, are great ways to effectively demonstrate your in-depth expertise. 
4. Establish a strong LinkedIn presence.  LinkedIn has 930 million members worldwide in over 200 countries and territories. These members are professionals using the platform to scour for talent and/or networking opportunities. This makes it an essential step to establish a strong LinkedIn profile to boost your thought leadership and personal brand image. 
5. Educate in multiple media forms.  Your goal as a thought leader is to educate and inspire. Everyone digests information differently, therefore to reach the broadest possible audience within your niche and sub-niche, seek to reproduce your content across multiple forms of media.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. When you think of marketing, who is the first person that comes to mind? Or if you needed professional advice on how to improve your sales skills, or how to develop your leadership capabilities, whose wisdom would you automatically revert to? Thought leaders.  These respected experts rose to prominence in their industries over time, with many years of providing quality content and value, helping to solve the world’s largest questions and problems.  
2. Becoming a thought leader will bring many tangible benefits to your career, including increased reach to your target audience, and stronger respect and trust in your work and philosophy, which in turn leads to more clients and stakeholders seeking to work with you.  
3. Five ways to establish yourself as a respected expert in your industry:  defining your unique angle, adding original value to your industry conversations, producing long-form content, establishing a strong LinkedIn presence, and seeking to educate through various channels.

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Topics:  Leadership, Thought Leader, Marketing