What is Thought Leadership?

Like many things, thought leadership is an old idea wrapped in a new bow.

What's relatively new are a few factors that have helped thought leadership become more visible:

• The term "thought leadership" becoming mainstream business language.

  
  

• Platforms like LinkedIn making it easy for individuals to publish directly to an audience.

  
  

• The expectation that professionals build a personal brand alongside their company's brand.

Not a new idea, but one that has grown in popularity as today’s platforms make it easier to scale.

Still, new terms coined to describe old ideas can be confusing to some who “missed the memo.” So I’m breaking down what it is and how it’s applied today.

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Defined: thought leadership

Thought leadership is the practice of sharing expertise and unique perspective to demonstrate knowledge, build credibility, and contribute to conversations within a field.

The concept falls under the broader category of content marketing: the practice of creating and distributing content to build awareness, visibility, and trust around a business, brand, service, or individual.

Here's what it looks like in practice –

Content marketing

Content marketing is often focused on information.

For example, if the tax code changes, an estate planning firm may publish content explaining:

• What changed

• When the change takes effect

• Who may be impacted

• What readers should know

Thought leadership

Thought leadership adds individual perspective to information.

Using the same example, an estate planning attorney may publish content explaining:

• What concerns them most about the change

• Common misconceptions they expect to see

• How they believe individuals should respond

• Long-term implications others may be overlooking

Thought leadership introduces interpretation, experience, and point of view.

Content marketing = information

Thought leadership = information + perspective

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Why thought leadership has become so popular

These days, I receive a lot of requests to write thought leadership content.

Here’s why –

Social media has made it easier than ever, especially LinkedIn, for professionals to share their insights, ultimately helping build personal brand awareness, credibility within their field, and future career opportunities – for free.

But here’s the catch:

Just because the platform is allowing people to market this information for free doesn’t mean it’s easy to do.

To truly be viewed as a thought leader, you still have to deploy basic content marketing strategies.

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Why most professionals struggle to achieve “thought leadership status”

Many professionals can do it, but not everyone can keep up with the demand.

In my experience, successful thought leadership consistently comes back to four core areas.

1. Strategic writing skills – 

a blend of creative and user experience knowledge

2. Social media knowledge – 

knowing which audience is on which platform, and separately how to design content to meet a specific platform’s design standards

3. Content strategy – 

what, when, and where content gets distributed

4. Consistency - 

one comment/post/article every few months does not make one a thought leader – rather, they’re just a person with a career who wrote something

Even with a wide array of free platforms allowing you to distribute content about your expertise, you’re still required to have expert knowledge about content strategy and social media platforms. 

…And then you have to set time aside to actually come up with the topics and write. And review. And edit. And repackage for different platforms and audiences. It’s a whole thing. 

The challenge usually isn't getting started. It's sustaining the effort long enough to build momentum.

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Why many professionals work with writers

Thought leadership isn't difficult because professionals lack expertise.

It's difficult because expertise and content creation are two different skill sets. (See my post on ghostwriting for more information.)

Most professionals already have the experience, insights, and opinions that make for compelling thought leadership.

The challenge is turning those ideas into content consistently, distributing it to the right audience, and maintaining momentum over time.

That's why so many executives, attorneys, consultants, and business owners seek support. Not because they have nothing to say, but because they need help translating what they know into content that others can discover, understand, and engage with.

In many cases, the expertise was never the missing piece. The content strategy was.

 In this case, it really is the thought that counts.