If you’ve sat through a marketing pitch recently, or discussed a social media strategy with your team, you’ve likely heard the phrase “thought leadership.”

We need thought leadership! Let’s produce thought leadership! Good thought leadership will help our positioning!

But what even is thought leadership?

The phrase is ubiquitous, but I have a sneaking suspicion most people are just nodding along when it comes up. Let’s break it down and explore how true thought leadership can help your brand.

Defining Thought Leadership

This two-word phrase is pretty simple on the surface. A thought is an idea, a concept, an insight. And leadership means showing the qualities of a leader, someone who can command a room, gather support, and, you know, lead.

Put those two words together and we’re looking for ideas that move people or an industry forward. Not just any old idea, but an idea that makes people go — in the words of the C+C Music Factory — “Hmmmm…”

Sounds simple, right? What I’ve found in working with clients is that thought leadership content can be surprisingly difficult to create. After all, it requires a genuine thought worth sharing. And those don’t appear on demand nearly as often as people think.

“But Christina, I have thoughts all day every day!” Sure, of course you do. But are your thoughts interesting? Are they new? Probably not.

True thought leadership doesn’t always require charting new territory. More often, it requires a fresh perspective, a useful framework, or a new way of connecting existing ideas. That’s what makes it interesting and can draw an audience online.

Rather than staying theoretical, let’s look at three people who have built audiences through thought leadership and examine what makes their content work.

Examples of Thought Leadership

Seth Godin

Seth is probably one of the OGs when it comes to marketing thought leaders. In fact, he was probably a thought leader before that was even a thing. He’s been in the game for a long time and has savvily shifted his strategy over time to stay relevant. From books, to tweets to YouTube, Godin’s adapted his content as tech has evolved, but has stayed true to his core audience.

Why his thought leadership content works:

  •       Conversational tone.
  •       Avoids jargon.
  •       Uses relatable metaphors to capture the audience. In other words, he brings examples from the real world outside the C-Suite to make his point.
  •       Short and digestible.
  •       Provides a spark for new ideas.

Emily Oster

Emily Oster became the it girl of Instagram thought leadership during the pandemic, translating scientific data on Covid-19 for parents. She maintains her presence post-pandemic by digging deep into the parenting data rabbit hole.

Why her thought leadership content works:

  •       Very relatable for her audience.
  •       Avoids jargon.
  •       Breaks down complicated topics into smaller parts.
  •       Tackles hot topics in her area of expertise.
  •       Understands data and how to interpret for a non-academic audience.

Simon Sinek

Any time a leadership team gets together to talk about strategy, someone is bound to bring up Simon Sinek. His influential concept “Start With Why” became a business mantra because it encourages organizations to lead with purpose before tactics.

Why his thought leadership content works:

  •       Again, he avoids jargon and speaks plainly.
  •       Simplifies complex ideas.
  •       Focuses on universal challenges.
  •       Tells compelling stories.
  •       Creates highly shareable concepts.

What Do These Thought Leaders Have in Common?

As you probably concluded from the above analysis, one big thing all three of these thought leaders have in common is avoiding jargon.

Using big words doesn’t make you a good communicator. In fact, it accomplishes the opposite. If you want to connect with your audience, you need to talk to them like they are sitting across from you at the dinner table. You don’t lecture your family members (at least I hope you don’t!), so don’t lecture to your online audience.

Godin, Oster and Sinek are also excellent storytellers, whether they are sharing video-based content or static images. They are taking their audience on a journey. Why do stories work? It’s how we learn. Think back to kindergarten. How do we teach children how to navigate the world? Through stories. Little Red Riding Hood. Jack and Jill. The Boy Who Cried Wolf. It’s not effective to just tell people something. If you want them to remember it and really internalize it, you need to tell a good story with a beginning, a middle and an end. Think about the lessons you still remember decades later. Chances are they came wrapped in a story, not in a PowerPoint deck of bullet points.

Finally, I think these thought leaders also do a stellar job with topic selection. They are no doubt reading, watching and consuming a ton of media both inside and outside their areas of expertise. They also likely employ a team of people who are scouring the internet for relevant information and feeding it back to the boss. By keeping a pulse on what the world is talking about, they can produce content that resonates and draws connections from disparate corners of globe.

How to Brainstorm Good Thought Leadership Content

Now that we’ve defined it, we need to create it. You’ve got a blank screen in front of you. You need a blog post, or a social media carousel or a vertical video. What are you going to share?

First, you need to take control of your algorithms. If you want to be a thought leader, you need to know what others in your space are talking about online. Go through your follower list with a fine-toothed comb and find brands and accounts that are relevant and inspiring. Don’t forget about traditional media outlets and journalists. They are a strong barometer for what topics are hot in any given topic area.

Once you’ve got your feed on point, it’s time to start brainstorming. I often start with the prompt, “What are my customers asking me?” In other words, what are the problems your customers are struggling with? What do they come to you for? Those questions and gnarly problems are often fertile ground for new ideas and insights.

Another good prompt is to think of the things that people do in your industry that are just plain dumb. Often the herd mentality produces pretty mediocre results. This type of prompt can often produce the “hot take,” otherwise known as “rage bait.” This content can quickly get views. Just be prepared for similar hot-takes in your comments.

A final brainstorming prompt is to think about hard lessons you’ve learned in your career. What was a true disaster that you survived and lived to tell the tale? Tell that tale! It will be relatable and help people avoid the same mistake.

Using these prompts, you should have a nice list of ideas together. Next step is to figure out how you want to share your ideas. You can write a blog, create an infographic or produce a vertical video speaking to the camera. What’s the best mode of delivery for thought leadership? The one that you can produce consistently. And when I say consistently, you don’t have to do it alone! You can work with your marketing team to produce the content. You can enlist a team throughout your organization to share the load. You can even work with an ad agency like CashmanKatz to help (shameless plug, I know).

Why Thought Leadership Can Help Your Brand

Now that we’ve defined it and figured out how to come up with ideas and produce it, we should probably understand why we’re doing it in the first place. Good thought leadership establishes you and/or your business as a credible voice in your industry. Instead of simply telling people what you do, you’re demonstrating how you think, what you know, and the unique perspective you bring to the table.

It also gets you out of sales mode, which can be a turnoff for many audiences. Rather than constantly promoting products or services, you’re providing insights, ideas, and expertise that help people solve problems or better understand important issues. Over time, this builds trust, strengthens your reputation, and keeps your brand top of mind when someone is ready to make a purchase or seek professional guidance. In many cases, people choose to work with organizations not because they’re the loudest marketers, but because they’ve consistently proven themselves to be knowledgeable, helpful, and forward-thinking.

Thought leadership also gives your marketing team something far more valuable than promotional content: original content. It creates material that can be repurposed into blogs, social posts, videos, podcasts, email newsletters, speaking engagements, and media opportunities.