Are You a Thought Leader?

For the record, I’ve always disliked the phrase “thought leader,” mostly because about a year and a half ago, it was another business buzz phrase (ie. 24/7, gitter done, step it up, etc.) that was overused, abused and misused. That said, it always made me wonder, “what IS a ‘thought leader?’”

Clearly, I’ve revisited the idea of the “thought leader” since I’m blogging about it, but with social media slowly reaching plateau, it seems like a good time to breakdown the concept, not the phrase. For years, public relations has been about positioning your client as an industry expert, a resource for media and a quotable source of information that others consider to be valuable. It’s been about helping our clients become relevant to mass groups of people so they will connect with their brand, service, image etc. PR has also been about helping provide your clients some measure of “control” over their messages. In essence, many PR professionals have been trying to position their clients as “thought leaders,” as leaders of interesting, valuable thoughts, information, innovations, etc. In recent years, though, the game is changing.

The challenge today is that there’s so much “noise” in the information stratosphere and rising above it is extremely difficult. You may have more followers and friends than anyone else in your field, but does that mean you’re bigger, better, smarter or more of a “thought leader?” Probably not. Ultimately, what matters is that the thoughts that you have are meaningful to other people. Whether the Wall Street Journal or local paper finds your thoughts important or relevant is something over which you ultimately have little control. It’s also highly unlikely that the average guy with a blog is going to be covered by a national media outlet.

So, as new age communicators and marketers we need to make sure the information we’re pumping into the social media ether is solid. Make it useful, helpful, friendly and be sure there are “no strings attached.” If the content is germane to your products and services, better yet, but don’t sell. If you can accomplish those objectives, people will follow you, they may subscribe to your feed, comment on your content and pay money to see you speak, or interview you for an article because they value your insight and your opinion. When you’ve reached that point, then you’ve become a thought leader. Otherwise, you may just be someone with a lot of uninteresting, unimportant beliefs and I’m not sure that’s what “they” were thinking when “they” created the annoying label, “thought leader.”

Tags: Communications, Good Business, media, non profit, storyteller, Video Services, Wall Street Journal, YouTube videos

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