The power of social media in the promotion of marketing messages is just as evident today, as it was five years ago. Self-authored thought leadership pieces; whether in long form content such as blogs and articles, videos, images or simple tweets can help business owners, and employees, spread subliminal marketing messages by utilising the distribution of ideas and topical news to the masses. Below Candy PR has highlighted some of the key considerations that should be taken into account if you are looking to become a thought leader with social media in your business area.

Utilise your professional profile

Take advantage of your own reach by using a professional social media profile to share your business’ promotional and marketing messages. Utilising a professional profile to share engaging and topical thought leadership pieces relevant to your industry, can also bring credibility to your brand, help reach and increase brand awareness. 

You should also ensure that your professional profile (and other employees) follow the branding guidelines of the business; cover images should be consistent and in the branding of the business, company bios should be consistent across staff profiles, and in keeping with the company’s social media page. Professional looking headshots also make a huge difference in increasing business credibility. 

Demonstrate your area of expertise

Take advantage of your industry expertise to post valuable and informative content relevant to your sector and business. This should be informative, relevant (think of upcoming trends), inspirational and guiding. Demonstrating that you know your stuff to your audience will build trust – and followers. 

Build your network

Interesting and shareable content will attract people to your profile and engage with said content. You’ll likely start off slowly in building up your network, but being consistent and regular with posts will make a difference in the long run.

Following other industry and thought leaders, and engaging with their content – whether that be providing additional information in a post comment, sharing their posts or private messaging the individual, should encourage some reciprocation, while demonstrating your knowledge and commitment to the subject matter.

Inviting fellow thought leaders from within your industry to contribute to your thought leadership content (this could be anything from a podcast, a guest blog to a Q&A video session) will also help you to position yourself as ‘relevant’ within an expert crowd.

Mix up your content

It’s important to ensure you diversify your content across social media, so you can tap into as many audiences as possible and gain new followers. The written word is still as important and powerful as it ever was, but there are now so many other forms of mediums to spread your message.

Consideration of each audience is the first priority; some audiences will be more receptive to visuals, such as photos, graphic design/infographics or short video clips. Others, meanwhile, might prefer to read long-form content such as an article.

Final thought

Engagement is critical as a thought leader. Opening up a dialogue – whether that be a simple ‘like’, comment or re-share will all help towards increasing your visibility – amongst other thought leaders and potential followers. 

The process of becoming a thought leader will take time, but with posting consistency and regular engagement with followers and others in your space, becoming a respected leader in your industry is possible.