Many individuals, marketers, and agencies struggle with establishing a perception of being a thought leader. This post will help you understand the value of being perceived as a thought-leader, and will offer some techniques to amplify your work.

The Benevolent Thought Leader

Creates content & shares it openly. These users care less about distributing content & care more about working through ideas & offering them to their community.

The Connection Hunting Thought Leader

Creates content specifically designed to help build connections. These users are pro's at targeting content & turning readers into connections.

The Conversationist Thought Leader

Creates provocative content designed to create conversations. These users are pro's at asking for feedback & responding to questions. They move beyond simple connections and turn readers into advocates whenever possible.

The Thought Leader Catalyst

Creates innovative content designed to move an industry into a new space, or introduce a new idea. These users often target other thought leaders & attempt to engage them in conversations about innovative topics. Additionally, these users will often identify quality industry-related content & re-publish it; a generally accepted technique of showing your interest in another thought leader.

Regardless of how you want to be perceived, creating quality content & openly sharing ideas is the primary method of establishing a perception of being a thought leader.

Although "The Benevolent Thought Leader" might not care about how he distributes his content, defining content distribution channels is an important step in becoming recognized as a thought leader.

Content Distribution Models

Publishing Model: The one-man show. Users publish their own content and hope though organic search & word-of-mouth to be found. If enough content is produced & enough people find the content, the user may end up being seen as a thought leader.

Revenue Increase Potential: Low, this model will return the lowest ROI. This model will also take the longest to see a return on investment.

Publish & Promote Model: Users publish their own content and promote it though all channels available to them. This might include SEM, networking, direct messaging, media buying, partnerships etc.

Revenue Increase Potential: Medium, promotional strategy will dictate revenue potential. If promoted well & cost/benefit is balanced, the ROI stands to be substantial. Lead nurturing & community dialog are important to turn perception into realized revenue.

Publish & Syndicate Model: Users publish their own content and syndicate it to additional owned channels. This stands to create an integrated web of content thought owned channels, which represents multiple potential points of content discovery. 

Revenue Increase Potential: Medium, time committed to nurturing each individual network will dictate revenue potential. Users tend to develop stronger connections when a dialog can be established. If little or no time is devoted to networking on a specific channel, that channel will likely be less effective at establishing a thought leadership perception.

Re-Publish/ Executive Publish Model: Users publish their own content and get it re-published in a curated forum, or create exclusive content for a curated content distribution channel. (i.e. writing an article for Mashable, or getting an article published on Social Media Informer)

Revenue Increase Potential: High. Sites like Mashable, Social Media Today, & Social Media Informer represent communities of people who are already engaged with a specific type of content. These communities built business models on generating traffic to their site. The higher the quality of content; the more people will visit their site. The more people who visit & share; the more revenue the site can get from ad sales. - For content creators, being featured on one of these sites can represent a major source of content discovery. Additionally, if the content curation is done well, simply being featured on one of these sites can achieve establishing a perception of thought leadership.

Conclusion

I personally use several different techniques & haven't really been creating enough content to qualify as a thought leader yet. I'm still looking for my niche & focused on learning new ideas just as much as sharing my ideas.

I've recently discovered Social Media Informer, a valuable alternative to Social Media Today, and other community-based content-rich sites. I subscribe to Social Media Informer & like the quality of the content curation. I've decided to offer all my content to Social Media Informer to curate as they see fit.

I'm impressed with the range of topics & number of authors being featured on Social Media Informer. In addition to being a great place to keep your thumb on the pulse of global social media, it's a useful resource for identifying smart people that are worth connecting with.

I highly recommend subscribing to the Social Media Informer RSS feed. For content creators, I recommend allowing them to syndicate your content. It's a great networking opportunity & is becoming a very visible, well-read site.

Remember: generating revenue from giving away content can be successful if you understand the principles I've discussed. Define realistic goals for what you want from content creation & choose the right creation/ distribution model for your needs.

@thejordanrules