While creating authentic, authoritative and informative content is essential to establish Thought Leadership, we need to be able to distribute it to a large audience. This post takes a look at a three-pronged approach to sharing great content created by you.
Company Blog
It is general knowledge that a blog on the website drives traffic. If the blog is educative or informative without being sales oriented, it can bring fresh traffic to your website and keep current customers coming back for meaningful, first-hand insights. Done right, a blog is an effective marketing tool to promote the business. Apart from driving traffic to the website, it also increases your sales and establishes you as an authority in the industry. All it takes is some time for writing, and quality content, preferably experiential.
Ideally, the blog should aim to either solve a problem for your customers or provide examples of problems solved. A great strategy can also be to answer the frequently asked questions.
The content can reach a vast network if the blogs are easily shareable by the reader on popular social media platforms.
Contributing to Media
Many media houses accept and publish articles written by industry experts as a way to add an ‘insider’ perspective to their publications.These articles, however, need to be neutral and need to be informative. These will reach the reader base of the publication (who may not have heard of you). It is well worth the effort to create and submit articles – usually referred to as authored or bylined articles to business or industry publications. It is an excellent PR strategy and positions you as a Subject Matter Expert.
Building content on LinkedIn Pulse
Posts published on LinkedIn become a part of your professional profile and they go a long way in building credibility. They are shared with your network and reach the large group of professionals. LinkedIn allows people to follow you even if they are not in your network, increasing the reach of your posts. LinkedIn enhances your visibility & credibility. A great way to drive additional traffic to your website is to write a summary of the blog and share it on your profile with a link to your website.
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A few aspects can be kept in mind:
- Content needs to provide insights to the reader. It can be best practices or what customers / prospective customers may be asking for.
- Keep the Language simple with least use of jargon.
- Maximise the reach of the articles/blog posts by sharing them on your social platforms.
- Maximise by repurposing them as infographics, or e-books which are downloadable.
Related: Who is a Thought Leader? What is Thought Leadership Marketing?