Every day, we see industry practitioners aggressively curating and sharing content on their social media platforms in a bid to be considered a Thought Leader. Yes, I  know this because back in my agency days, we provided this service called “Executive Profiling” where we worked with clients to help portray their C-Level executives as Thought Leaders. What we essentially did was consistently curate and post relevant industry content on their social media platforms.

What is a Thought Leader?

Before we go on further, let’s first define what a Thought Leader is. Here’s a good definition from an article on Forbes.

A Thought Leader is an individual or firm that prospects, clients, referral sources, intermediaries and even competitors recognize as one of the foremost authorities in selected areas of specialization, resulting in its being the go-to individual or organization for said expertise.

Sharing Articles on Social Media Does Not Make You a Thought Leader

There’s nothing wrong with sharing curated articles and airing your opinions about it on social media, but that alone does not portray you as a Thought Leader as you are merely sharing something that’s written by someone else (the real Thought Leaders).

To be a foremost authority, you’ll need to showcase substance by developing your own content that can present your expertise in that particular specialization.

One can easily get an intern to curate and schedule a few months’ worth of “Thought Leadership” content in less than a day. There are even tools that automatically curate such content.

I Write Regularly on Platforms Like LinkedIn and Medium, Does That Count?

Good content is still good content regardless of where it’s hosted, and I know of real Thought Leaders that only post on Medium or LinkedIn.

But herein lies the danger, over time you’ll build a dependency on the platform and subsequently it has the potential to hold you hostage due to all the content you’ve created and shared over the years.

Platforms like Medium and LinkedIn are great places to start, but eventually, when you have accumulated enough content you should strongly consider shifting your articles to a content hub.

Future-proof Your Digital Marketing Strategy

As a content marketer, I always see social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn as nothing more than distribution and engagement platforms. It is important for brands not to build too much dependency on a particular social media platform because the next big thing will eventually come along and you’ll be forced to re-evaluate your entire digital marketing strategy.

Instead, put your focus on your content hub and seek to drive traffic there. In this way, when something bigger comes along, all you have to do is re-look at your distribution channels. Your focal point which is your content hub remains the same.

To further substantiate this point, just look at the demise of Friendster and MySpace and how Facebook has destroyed organic reach for brands in recent years.

Is it Expensive to Develop a Content Hub?

In all honesty, building a content hub is no easy feat but it isn’t something that is insurmountable as well. But the good news is, there are content marketing partners who can help your brand build a kick-ass and cost-effective content hub along with a sound content strategy.

You’ll need to look at the content hub as a long-term investment. If you are already spending a bulk of your marketing budget on social media, it’s time to shift some to your content hub.

Do I Have to Write Every Day?

Real Thought Leaders have actual work to do, so it doesn’t make sense to be developing and sharing content every day, people will start to wonder if you actually have real work to do.

The key point is here is consistency, being consistent can be as frequent as once a week to once a month depending on the resources you have at hand. People value quality over quantity.

Real Thought Leaders have actual work to do 🙂