How To Become An Industry Thought Leader

Are you looking for industry success and a way to get your brand on the map? Thought leaders tend to be the most successful and well-trusted authority figures in their respective fields. If you are someone who has expertise in a specific industry and are able to offer guidance, inspire innovation and influence others, you are already well on your way to becoming an industry thought leader.

However, gaining thought leadership is not something that happens overnight. It takes dedication, patience and education, and includes tactics such as building a blog, social network and credibility.

What Is A Thought Leader?

According to Forbes, a thought leader is considered to be an individual or firm that prospects, clients, referral sources, intermediaries and even competitors recognize as one of the foremost authorities in selected areas of specialization, making them the go-to individual or organization for their area of expertise.

Being considered a thought leader can help boost your industry presence and build your brand. With the right tactics you will be able to successfully influence others in your field, becoming a reliable source of insight and information.

According to a study done by Edelman and LinkedIn, 55% of their 1,200 respondents use thought leaderships to vet organizations that they may hire. An additional 60% of decision-makers admit that thought leadership convinced them to buy a product or service they have not considered previously, proving that thought leadership content affects purchasing decisions.

Create Valuable Content

To become a thought leader, a good place to start is creating and promoting educational content others find helpful and becoming active in the industry community on social media sites. By creating content that provides value to your target audience, you will stand out as an expert in your industry. It’s important to create content consistently; studies have shown that the more a brand posts blogs per month, the more website traffic the company sees.

Creating thought leadership content doesn’t mean posting exclusively to your own site. Although having your own blog is great, be sure to have a combination of owned and earned content. Having your content published in industry publications is a great way to boost your credibility.

Your content can help create awareness of your brand and your expertise. This will help generate more leads, improve social presence and overall, boost engagement with you and your company online. Create valuable content that speaks intelligently on issues in the industry. In order to create this type of valuable content, consider hiring a team of public relations professionals to help you tell your story.

Take A Look At Your Overall PR Strategy

If your goal is to become an industry thought leader, working with a team of public relations professionals will help you with your strategy and attain the status you are looking for. Industry knowledge alone will not be enough to generate a thought leader reputation and authority in the eyes of your audience and peers.

Working with a public relations agency will help you nurture key press relationships that will boost your credibility. They will help you engage effectively with the media and help define the right networks that will help you connect with your target audience.

Flackable is an award-winning public relations agency representing financial and professional services brands nationwide. To learn more about Flackable, please visit flackable.com.