8 Types of Thought Leadership Content to Build Authority on Social Media

By Gaurav Belani

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Every day, thousands of people create content on the internet and claim to be industry experts in selling their products and services. How do consumers cope up with this information overload?

Today, users are bombarded with content and sales-pitches from every direction. The only way to distinguish the best is through thought leadership. Thought leadership can set you and your brand apart from the rest of the world. And, what better way to build your thought leadership than to use an extremely potent medium such as social media?!

According to Wikipedia, “A thought leader is an individual or firm that is recognized as an authority in a specialized field, and whose expertise is sought and often rewarded.” Thought leadership takes a lot of time and energy. But once you become a thought leader in your industry, then you’ll be almost unbeatable.

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Content marketing is the best way to showcase your thought leadership in your niche. Thought leadership content could project your brand as an authority and expert in your industry.

Let’s look at the types of thought leadership content you can produce to build authority on social media.

1. Data from Original Research and Findings

Conducting original research and creating your own data/statistics is the best way to showcase your thought leadership. This is because curating any content that already exists on the internet doesn’t need as much expertise as conducting original research. Your audience knows this fact, and in an era of information overload, employing effective content filtering strategies is essential for distinguishing your insights in a crowded digital landscape.

You can start by picking a topic for your research. You can either use a trending topic in the industry, or you can pick one that has a lot of speculations and assumptions around it but no solid proof.

Social listening tools can help here by showing data from across social media on what topics are trending. If your customers are discussing it, they'll be interested in reading content relevant to that topic. Additionally, you can get feedback from them in the way of comments that help your business with product innovation.

Once you’ve picked your topic, do your research by collecting data through surveys or from the internet. Use any means to come up with solid proof. Your findings should be such that they not only interest your target audience but are also found valuable by other industry experts.

You can publish your findings through blog posts or white papers. The best way to promote your research and findings is through social media. You can curate your findings in a brief video, infographics, or any other type of content that best displays your findings. This way, you can establish your industry authority on social media.

2. Social Media Lives

Going live on social media can be the best way to connect with your target audience and establish your thought leadership. When you go live, people will know that you are a real authority and true leader in your industry. 

You can either go live with the content on a specific topic or simply conduct a live QnA session. Speaking on something that resonates with your audience is super-important. You can use customer relationship management platforms to understand your audiences’ interests better. You can also conduct polls to pick a topic for your social media live.

This way, you’ll increase your following and engagement, ultimately bringing in more awareness to your brand. You can also go live with other industry experts to increase your engagement even more.

3. Infographics

There is a reason why infographics are so popular and tend to go viral often. Infographics are value-packed resources represented in an easily understandable way. You can compress loads of actionable tips and information in one single infographic.

You can pick evergreen topics for infographics. Or, you can also go a little more specific and create the first infographic on a specific topic. This will give you an edge over your competitors - exactly what you need for building authority and showcasing your thought leadership.

4. Original Quotes

When was the last time you saw a quote from a social media personality? Seeing this would have instantly made you perceive the person as an industry leader. This is why quotes are so powerful.

If you have been creating content for a while, you probably would have made statements that make a point and showcase your expertise. Find such statements and post them on your social media in the form of quotes

Platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn work best for this purpose. You can also create quotes based on everyday findings and post them on your social media profiles. 

5. Thought-Provoking Social Media Posts

A leader is someone who leads others by planting new thoughts and ideas on their minds. Hence, to be an industry thought leader, ensure that whatever content you put out is unique, one-of-a-kind, and thought-provoking.

You should make your audience think about things that others are not talking about. That’s how you can establish yourself as a true thought leader. 

6. Thoughts on Industry News and Trends

What have you noticed when a new industry trend or news comes up? You’d have noticed that most of the masses are unclear about the new trend. Hence, they wait for experts to talk about news and trends.

This means that thought leaders do not wait for others to talk about new trends and news. Instead, they do their research, get their hands dirty, dig out the information that is best to their knowledge, and talk about it first.

Talking about industry news first is one of the most distinguishable qualities of a thought leader. Hence, stop waiting for experts to talk about them. Instead, you be the expert and be the first one to talk about it.

7. High-Quality, Valuable Videos

We live in the age of videos. People might scroll past long text-based posts, but visually stimulating content tends to make social media users stop scrolling. Hence, use this fact to your advantage.

If you have a good presence on YouTube, then you are doing a great job. If not, this can be the best time to start. You can use your YouTube videos and clips, and promote them on your social media platforms.

You should use the latest video format trends and experiment with both shorts and long-form videos. For instance, Instagram recently introduced reels that are shorter videos that are less than 30 seconds. Users who used reels saw an increased engagement and following. 

Use similar video trends on various social media platforms and put out punchy, valuable videos to emerge as a thought leader.

8. Podcast and Interview Clips

Podcasts and video interviews tend to be long but value-packed. Hence, clips from the podcast and interviews can form great thought leadership content. 

So, the next time you find yourself searching for thought leadership content, check your podcasts and interviews. Look for short 1 to 3-minute clips that consist of value-packed content and can leave your audience in awe.

Simply repurposing your podcasts and interviews this way can be of great help to increase brand awareness, engage with your audience more, and ultimately establish your credibility in the industry.

Start Building Thought Leadership on Social Media

Lastly, we can conclude by saying that social media is one of the best ways to reach more people and showcase your leadership. 

There are lots of unexplored sets of audiences hanging out on social media. All you have to do is to work proactively towards thought leadership content development. Use the tips in this guide as a starting point, and you’d start seeing the results soon.

About the company

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