A growing plethora of businesses, from nearly every type of professional services firm to luxury marketers to technology companies, are striving to become thought leaders in their respective fields. The reasoning for this is very simple. Well-established thought leaders, with fantastic consistency, become the brands that garner the greatest share of the revenues.
There are several different views about thought leadership. From our perspective, thought leadership is a business development strategy based on high ingenuity and cleverness combined with a clear path to monetization. Not only does being a thought leader effectively differentiate you and your firm from the multitude of competitors, but it also translates into significantly greater than normative financial returns for the effort.
At the same time, thought leadership transforms how firms build loyal followers on social media platforms. These devoted followers are not just sharing your firm’s content with others. They are using your firm’s services or products.
Several criteria need to be considered to make your firm’s thought leadership content resonate on social media platforms. The following three criteria rank high on the list:
Criteria #1: Develop thought leadership content that is tightly targeted. While there’s a certain appeal to having content that reaches hundreds of thousands of people, unless your firm has a service or product that all these people can purchase, the thought leadership content is off the mark. You want to reach a responsive audience (i.e., prospective clients), not necessarily a large audience.
Criteria #2: Develop thought leadership content with considerable value for your target audience. Your firm’s thought leadership content must be able to make a meaningful difference to a select audience. Optimally, it should enable your audience to generate significant results as expeditiously as possible. If your firm’s thought leadership content has considerable value, it will be shared with potential clients for your firm’s services or products on social media platforms.
Criteria #3: Keep developing thought leadership content. It’s very easy for thought leadership content to become stale. Moreover, it’s very easy for thought leaders to give up the mantel and “vanish.” This is very likely to happen if your firm fails to continue to take the actions required to become a thought leader. Moreover, while it’s a relatively hard uphill road to becoming a thought leader, it is a quick ride down.
Social media platforms are increasingly democratizing the ability of businesses to distribute content. However, this democratization results in an abundance of firms vying for attention. Success, which we define as new business, is increasingly a function of the quality of the content. A steady stream of highly targeted, high-value content is the answer.
Russ Alan Prince is the executive director of Private Wealth magazine and chief content officer for High-Net-Worth Genius. He consults with family offices, the wealthy, fast-tracking entrepreneurs and select professionals.
