BTL 10: Moving from good to great

You have had a few weeks to work on your thought leadership now, and hopefully you are getting into the rhythm of it. Hopefully, you are now comfortable sharing your own content, and curating content from others, and you are building up a following.

You will, however, probably have realised that the thought leadership space is becoming increasingly crowded. Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, and it’s hard to make sure that your content stands out. So what you can do to move from ‘good’ to ‘great’ in thought leadership terms? Studies show that the best thought leaders share a number of characteristics, including:

• They are engaging in high quality conversations, through the use of  very good content backed by their own research and a clear strategy for thought leadership. They also see thought leadership as a way to build relationships, and not as a way to sell.
• They persist in their thought leadership efforts, and are always looking to improve what they do, and provide more value for customers. They look to provide consistency of messaging, and understand that content marketing and thought leadership are not ‘quick wins’.
• They publish content that fills gaps. They know what they have created, and what other content is out there, and they work closely with their audience to provide new content that addresses needs.

You can read more about the behaviours of effective thought leaders here, and then you too can start to move from good to great.