Thought leadership is the buzzword in the industry today. With social media platforms like LinkedIn providing the right setting for leaders to express their opinions and interact with like-minded individuals in their industry, the CEOs that ignore this strategy are the ones who risk missing out on the benefits. LinkedIn allows thought leaders to speak their minds, display their ideology and opinions and show the industry what they stand for. By creating content that adds value, inspires trends in the industry or reveals unique perspectives on industry topics, thought leaders can easily grow their followers, increase visibility and build trust in the company.
And while it sounds easy to succeed, there are various strategies you should follow. In this post, we will go over some methods that you can use to grow your following on LinkedIn and establish yourself as a thought leader in the industry.
Understand the Basics of LinkedIn as a Platform
In order to succeed on any social media platform, it is essential to understand how it works and the best practices to succeed on the platform. Some of the best practices for LinkedIn include posting consistently, engaging with others in your niche/industry and adding value through unique perspectives and hacks.
Learn more about why LinkedIn is so important for your brand here.
Create a Strong Content Strategy
Your content strategy is the most important thing for growing on LinkedIn. You need to create consistent content on various topics related to your industry. It is also good to comment and create content on any trending topic, as that helps you gain added visibility.
We recommend creating a content strategy at the beginning of every month, where you write a list of various topics you could talk about on your LinkedIn posts. This will ensure that you remain consistent with your posting. You could also use various scheduling tools to schedule your content each week or for the whole month ahead. We recommend Hootsuite or Sprout Social. Such scheduling platforms ensure that you don’t miss out on posting, since you will have a lot of important things to focus on during the day. These platforms also recommend the best time of the day to post, so your content can gain the highest engagement possible.
Use Infographics and Graphics to Make Your Posts More Appealing
Not every post needs a graphic to go along with it, sometimes you can just reshare important industry-related news articles. But if you do have a topic you would like to go into detail about; you could make it more interesting by creating some engaging graphics to go along with your posts. Having visuals to support your ideas can help you gain more engagement. Data reveals that 49% of marketers say that visual marketing is very important to their marketing strategy, 22% consider it important, and 19% say that their strategy is nothing without visual content.
Experiment with Long and Short Format Content
Many thought leaders use LinkedIn to create long blog format content that adds value and provides unique insights relevant to their industry. While this is a great way to establish yourself as a thought leader, it can be difficult to keep creating such long content pieces. So, you should switch things up and create a mix of short and long format content. You could also share updates about your company or reshare various relevant industry-related updates.
Make it Personal
While LinkedIn is a platform for showcasing your professional self, you could also use personal details to humanise and connect with your target audience. Such personal content tends to be relatable and inspiring for many. One such example is the #ThisLittleGirlisMe campaign started by Inspiring Girls International to celebrate International Day of the Girl. This campaign helped leaders showcase their vulnerable side and humanise their content strategy.
Engage with Others in Your Industry
Engaging with other thought leaders in your industry is important to grow your following. By adding insightful comments on other posts relevant to your niche, you increase your visibility, and this strategy also helps you increase engagement on your posts. Tools like Lempod help you engage with relevant posts in your industry.
Outsource to Experts
Establishing yourself as a thought leader isn’t going to be an easy feat. It will require consistent and ongoing efforts. The best way to achieve your results is by outsourcing to an agency or your marketing team. They can take care of everything that needs to be done, and all you will need to do is supervise and ensure that it genuinely reflects your values.
Book a call with Marketing Essentials Lab and see how we can help you take your thought leadership to the next level.
