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42 Thought Leadership Content Examples for BRAND Success

Keith Kakadia's Profile Picture
13th July, 2024

Elevating your brand voice and tone above the noise can be nothing short of exhausting. Thankfully, though, there are ways to establish yourself as an authority within your industry and take over a thought leadership role for better results.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP CONTENT EXAMPLES FOR YOUR IMPRESSIVE BRAND SUCCESS in 2022

Today, we’re going to dive into the secrets behind creating and distributing thought leadership content, as well as give you a glimpse of some stellar examples that can help give you a push in the right direction. 

Ready? Let’s get started!

RELATED CONTENT:

 17 EPIC CONTENT MARKETING EXAMPLES TO BOOST YOUR BRAND 

What is Thought Leadership Content?

Thought leadership is, put simply, a way to build transparency and credibility with your audience as a resource and an expert on your chosen topic or industry.

Thought leaders often must take a very active role in their given industry’s online community, taking the stage in a way that encourages others to ask questions and become more involved underneath their careful leadership.

The content you produce to do this is known as “thought leadership content” and it consists of educational, helpful and resourceful content.

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How Could My Business Benefit From Thought Leadership Content?

Creating and distributing thought leadership content can be beneficial to your brand for a variety of reasons outside of just conversions, clicks or downloads.

Individuals and brands alike can benefit from thought leadership content because:

  • It demonstrates how helpful you and your brand are in a time of need,
  • It improves your social proof
  • It grows your audience
  • It positions you as “the answer” when it comes to your industry
  • It proves the quality of your products and services
  • …and more!

When it comes to whether or not your brand could benefit from thought leadership content, the answer is ALWAYS yes. After all, why WOULDN’T you want to position your brand as THE answer to your target audiences problems?

How to Jump Start Your Journey into Thought leadership Content Marketing

You know how it can benefit your business and why, but what you might not know is HOW to go about thought leadership content marketing. And that’s where we come in!

To get started, we’re going to go over the bare essentials of thought leadership content marketing.

#1 Be “In the Know” When it Comes to Your Audience

Perhaps you’ve heard the popular saying: “the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know” and this is true no matter what industry or audience you’re working with.

It’s important to remember that while you may “know” your audience, you should always be willing and ready to listen and learn more about them. Not only because your audience is constantly shifting and changing, but also because it’s constantly growing.

Your entire audience won’t react to everything the same way, and each group requires different messaging and care.

Start simple and consider what the motivating factors, pain points, fear, inspires and gets your audience fired up and use that knowledge to your advantage when it comes to when and what to share.

You can find this kind of information easily by checking out competitors profiles, customer reviews, message boards, social media communities and other popular gathering spots for your competitors and your audience.

#2 Get Active and (Stay) Active on Social Media

Getting active and staying active on social media plays a crucial role in effective thought leadership content marketing.

It allows you to interact with your target audience through comments, communities, groups, tags, the opportunities are endless once you’ve gotten started!

It’s also a fabulous way to promote your brand in a non-sales-y way that gives your customers insight and education around your brand.

#3 Spread the Social Love Around

Thought leadership content should always be visible wherever YOUR target audience resides. This means that if your audience is on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, that’s where you need to be spending the majority of your time.

Publishing a podcast, hosting webinars and co-hosting online events is another great way to spread the word about your personal brand.

#4 Measure, Analyze, Improve

Here’s another awesome inside secret when it comes to thought leadership content marketing: always analyze and improve upon your competitors content efforts.

Ask yourself: where are they spending the majority of their time? What are they doing on those platforms? What are they sharing and commenting?

When you’ve narrowed down what your competitors are doing and how, you’ll be able to better tell what they’re NOT doing: which will help you fill in the gaps and provide everything they don’t. 😏😉

#5 Embrace a Genuine Voice and Tone

One of the most IMPORTANT rules of thought leadership content marketing is that you MUST always embrace a genuine voice and tone when addressing your audience.

This is both because your audience will be looking to you as a trustworthy resource for information about your industry, and because overly promotional content can drive your audience away, even as you actively try to connect with them.

#6 Create and Distribute Creative, Original Content

If you’re going to be a strong voice in your industry, you have to take initiative when it comes to the content you’re creating and distributing.

You want it to be creative, original and engaging content that will ultimately build trust and transparency, as well as pave a way to through-provoking and educational conversations.

 

Creating Successful Thought Leadership Content

But HOW do you get creative when it comes to content? Maybe you’re not even sure where to start for a brainstorm, or you just have no clue what your audience needs, wants and will engage with on a given platform.

That’s all-natural, so no sweat.

Here are a few tricks to make brainstorming content easier than ever:

  • Take a look at what your competitors are posting and improve on it!
  • Perform some keyword research to find out what kinds of questions your audience is asking and answer them!
  • Solve problems for your audience with Q&As, surveys, quick tips and industry tricks.
  • Share best practices.
  • Focus on long-form, educational, engaging content.
  • Share industry news.
  • Ask your audience questions about themselves and their lives apart from work.
  • Share about your own life, goals and dreams.
  • Your favorite products and services.
  • Forecast the future of your audience and ask what others think!

You can never go wrong with educational or engaging content that speaks specifically to your audience, so share away!

Thought Leadership Content Examples

There are lots of excellent thought leadership content examples on the web. Some of our favorites include GaryVee and Neil Patel.

Their content works because it speaks directly to their audience, zero BS included, and is engaging, exciting, educational, and creative.

Today, we’ve compiled some of our favorite examples from thought leaders, including our own employees, my personal account, my partner Kaushal’s account, and more!

1. Kaushal Kakadia

We couldn’t help but share a few examples from our amazing CMO’s LinkedIn.

Key thought leadership content example takeaway: down to earth, engaging, realistic, kind, encouraging.

2. Keith Kakadia

Here’s one of my personal favorite thought leadership content pieces my team has created for my personal brand:

My main takeaway from this piece: It’s engaging, informative and educational with a push that gives people more freedom to ask questions!

3. Hank Washington

 

Key Thought Leadership Content Example Takeaway: while just a tad promotional, Hank is also providing VALUE to his audience and engaging with them in creative and fun ways. (Another reason why thought leadership content marketing is so powerfully effective- sometimes more effective than advertising!)

Don’t Have a Large Following? It’s NEVER too late to start your journey to thought leadership content marketing success!

Just take a peek at a few more of these dope examples that include sharing some of your work, inspirational content, or just plain industry news.

4. Christopher Shunnara 

5. Marl Jude Roy Macabenta

6. Sannidhya Baweja 

 

7. Nicolas Bowles

35 More No BS Thought Leadership Content Examples

Nope. We’re not done. 😏

In case you still need some ideas for WHAT to post on your profile, we’ve got ideas.

  1. White Papers
  2. E-Books
  3. Inspirational Videos
  4. Contests
  5. Webinars
  6. Live Q&As
  7. An online exhibit
  8. Online conference appearance
  9. Guest speaking in the future or posts about past speaking events
  10. Guest posting
  11. Media appearances
  12. Inspirational Motion graphics
  13. Educational Motion graphics
  14. Educational videos
  15. Unboxing
  16. Explainer videos and tutorials
  17. Interactive content
  18. Polls
  19. Custom research
  20. Market insight
  21. Things that inspire YOU
  22. How you stay creative/get your head in the game
  23. WFH tips and tricks when applicable
  24. Insight about staying productive
  25. Human rights issues that resonate with you
  26. Music you enjoy that helps you focus
  27. Your favorite foods
  28. Special holidays and events
  29. Vlogs
  30. Your favorite industry news sources
  31. A start-to-finish explanation of a job well done
  32. Introduce your friends and family!
  33. Posts about supportive people who have helped you achieve success
  34. Your pets
  35. Random thoughts, questions and reflections

Frequently Asked Questions

While we’d love to think we have already answered all of your questions, here’s a small section for the lingering possible questions. 😆 (And if we still fail you, drop us a comment below and let’s get you some answers!)

Why Thought Leadership Content?

Or, more importantly, why not? 😂

Thought leadership content gives your brand power and a platform that ordinary content doesn’t provide. By embracing a thought leadership role, you’re providing proof of your honesty, transparency and professionalism.

What is Thought Leadership Marketing?

In short, it’s simply the act of building and promoting your personal brand on social media and elsewhere to provide insight to your audience and position yourself as an expert that people WANT to hear from and trust in the space.

What is Thought Leadership Content Marketing?

Similar to thought leadership marketing, thought leadership content marketing is the art of using engaging, creative and educational content to market your personal brand or business.

How to Leverage Content for Thought Leadership?

Put simply, leveraging content for thought leadership is as easy as creating content your audience resonates with and can use to their advantage, driving a larger audience to engage with you!

What is a Thought Leadership Strategy?

A thought leadership strategy is a strategy that outlines how you’re going to approach thought leadership marketing for YOUR brand.

It usually involves a competitor analysis, hashtag strategy, voice, tone, buyer personas, content plan and a plan for analyzing and improving results in the future.

What is an example of an Entrepreneurial Thought Leader?

We’ll hand off our favorite example: GaryVee! His content is ALWAYS top notch and cuts right through the fluff to the meat of the conversation

We’re a No BS Agency Ready to Help YOU

From a flawless strategy on paper to thumb-stopping content in your potential customer’s feeds, Sociallyin can take your customers from the top of the funnel to the ground floor in no time.

What are you waiting for? Click down below and let’s get in touch!