Thought leadership is not just about sharing your expertise and insights with your audience. It's also about making them accessible, engaging, and relevant to everyone who might benefit from them. How can you do that? Here are some tips to help you create and distribute your thought leadership content in a way that reaches and resonates with a diverse and inclusive audience.
The first step to making your thought leadership accessible is to understand who you are talking to and what they need. Research your target market, their challenges, goals, preferences, and pain points. Use surveys, interviews, social media, or analytics tools to gather data and feedback. Then, segment your audience based on their characteristics, behaviors, and interests. This will help you tailor your content to their specific needs, expectations, and contexts.
The next step is to decide how you will deliver your thought leadership content. There are many formats to choose from, such as blogs, podcasts, videos, webinars, ebooks, newsletters, or infographics. Each format has its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on your goals, resources, and audience. For example, blogs are easy to create and update, but they may not capture the attention of busy or visual learners. Videos are engaging and dynamic, but they may require more time and equipment to produce. The key is to choose a format that suits your message, your style, and your audience's preferences.
Once you have chosen your format, you need to optimize your content for accessibility, readability, and usability. This means making sure that your content is clear, concise, and consistent. Use simple and direct language, avoid jargon and acronyms, and explain any technical terms or concepts. Use headings, subheadings, bullet points, and white space to break up your text and make it easy to scan. Use images, graphs, charts, or diagrams to illustrate your points and make them more memorable. Use captions, transcripts, or subtitles for your audio or video content to make it accessible to people with hearing impairments or language barriers.
A big part of optimizing your content is remembering to stay away from too many Acronyms and industry jargon. If your intent is to capture a general audience to draw attention to a specific area this works. If not, you will only confuse people and turn them away.
The final step is to share your content with your audience and beyond. You need to choose the right channels and platforms to reach them, such as your website, social media, email, or online communities. You also need to consider the best time and frequency to post your content, depending on your audience's habits and preferences. You can use tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, or Mailchimp to schedule and automate your content distribution. You can also leverage your network, partners, influencers, or media outlets to amplify your reach and visibility.
To make your thought leadership Accessible you first need to ask yourself, who in your understanding should consider you a thought leader. Who is your thought leadership stakeholder? Once you know the same you can distribute your content in multiple ways. 2 approaches are, first host your content on on your own channel ( website, insta, youtube and so on) so that anyone coming to your channel regularly can access the content. Secondly walk up to your stakeholder. Research, which platform they spend most time and some time on? How much time and attention they hold, when do they come to spend time? And make it available on their hangout platforms. Third, what are some places where you may find your potential stakeholder.
Creating and distributing your content is not enough. You also need to engage your audience and build relationships with them. You can do this by inviting feedback, comments, questions, or suggestions from your readers or listeners. You can also create polls, quizzes, contests, or challenges to encourage participation and interaction. You can also join or host online events, forums, or chats to connect with your audience in real time and showcase your expertise. The more you engage your audience, the more you can establish your credibility, trust, and loyalty.
It's so simple yet very effective to end your post with a question. This alone encourages a response. I particularly enjoy when a response poses a question back to me. It can become an open dialogue that other engagers can jump into as well.
The last tip is to measure and evaluate the impact of your thought leadership content. You need to track and analyze your content performance, such as views, clicks, shares, downloads, or conversions. You also need to monitor and assess your content feedback, such as ratings, reviews, testimonials, or referrals. You can use tools like Google Analytics, HubSpot, or SurveyMonkey to collect and visualize your data and insights. You can also use qualitative methods, such as interviews, focus groups, or case studies, to understand your audience's experiences and outcomes. The more you evaluate your impact, the more you can improve your content and strategy.
I like to go outside of my niche audience when seeking feedback on my content as much as engaging with my market audience. The goal is to reach people that I've not yet reached and by taking an active interest in their content, analyzing it and interacting with indirect feedback in my comments, usually sparks a great convo.
How can you make your thought leadership accessible to everyone? Prioritize empathy and connection. Share insights in simple language, using stories and examples that resonate universally. Offer free resources like blogs, videos, and podcasts. Engage with diverse communities, actively listening and valuing their perspectives. Foster a culture of inclusivity and collaboration, inviting feedback and co-creation. Embrace vulnerability, showing authenticity and humility. Ultimately, lead with love, aiming to uplift and empower others on their journey of growth and learning. ??
In my experience, a common deficiency in leaders lies in their ability to streamline ideas and convey a clear vision to their team. The human mind fears ambiguity and loves clarity.