What if I told you that all it takes to be a thought leader is to take entrenched, habitual belief systems and completely tear them to pieces with your questioning? I may be wrong and I may be right but whether I am either does not matter. This is the basis of thought leadership but with one additional requirement: A thought leader must promote and incite positive, meaningful change.
This all sounds intense, as not everyone has that level of confidence or experience in life to be able to position his or herself as a thought leader. However, in the world of content production or even content marketing, clients believe in thought leadership as a style of writing. Often clients will ask for content that positions them as a thought leader. This means that we copywriters have to create copy that places the client or the concept in a way perceived as thought leadership. This is not easy.
Here are some pertinent questions to answer that will help you achieve a thought leadership tone and style whether you’re writing as yourself or for your client. Here shares her thoughts on the topic.
When you are writing as a thought leader, your purpose is to be disruptive, always and to put forward thought processes that can shift others’ perspectives. You need to create a platform that encourages broader thinking and explores possibilities that are unseen.
Before you sit down to write you must decide who your audience is. Once it has been identified, you are able to put forward realistic, common scenarios or concepts that you can challenge. In this way, you are assured that you are pushing them to consider your suggestion, no matter how out-of-the-box it may seem. The ultimate influence you want to have is to nurture curiosity in your reader. If your writing is hard hitting and hot enough then you will do so easily. You want your readers to take on your suggestion of having the courage to explore the less-than-popular thought processes and the difficult questions.
When you are writing as a thought leader you are accountable for every word you put down. Therefore, you must offer some personal experiences or opinions that support the article’s topic. Offering examples of how your theme has played out in realistic scenarios is very important. You do not want your article to read like ‘pie-in-the-sky’. You must substantiate your sentiments with real time examples if possible, as this will garner investment from the reader. Furthermore, suggest how your new perspective is going to play out in your life as you proceed forward. Have you changed your behaviour, attitude or routine based on this fresh perspective?
This part is difficult because you are not a thought leader simply by calling yourself one. Establishing an authoritative voice requires practice and time so that regular readers will recognise your articles. However, even from the very first article you must establish the reasoning for you essentially knowing what you are talking about. In addition, what your vision is regarding the topic and the future of this subject matter.
