The Complete Guide to Becoming an Authentic Thought Leader

Edited by Emilie Martin

Friends, we are drowning in content, and there's no end in sight. Every day, new AI marketing tools spring up, encouraging creators to craft AI-generated content that lacks personality. This saturation leaves your audience feeling frustrated and makes it difficult to stand out.

Thought leadership pierces the monotony of 'sameness' with unique insight that is helpful, actionable and builds trust with your target audience. By consistently sharing your expertise, you become the go-to authority on the topic, elevating your voice above the noise.

In this guide, drawn from my personal experiences, I'll show you how to craft a thought leadership strategy that complements your content marketing efforts and positions your brand as the source of truth.

Thought leadership is the expression of ideas and helpful insights that demonstrate your expertise on a specific topic. In content marketing, you use thought leadership to establish brands and individuals as authoritative sources of truth, which leads to SEO benefits.

Contrary to your thinking, anyone can become a thought leader, not just folks with 20 to 30 years of expertise in their niche. Whether you’ve completed a couple of projects or spent a few years on the job, you have unique insight valuable to your audience.

Furthermore, as generative AI and other LLMs become popular, we’re seeing more content on the web, such as automated responses to LinkedIn posts, AI-generated images that are eerily similar to the real thing, and unverified information that increases distrust.

People will turn to thought leaders for answers and trusted information as the SERPs become more diluted with AI-generated content.

Still on the fence about whether you have what it takes to become a thought leader? Here are some qualities every thought leader should possess:

Expertise

68% of respondents in an Orbit Media study consider expertise as an essential component of thought leadership. In my opinion, you’re an expert if you create repeatable processes for problem-solving, fail, learn from mistakes, and share it all with your audience so they can make better decisions when facing similar issues.

Unique perspective

As a thought leader, you form opinions even if they contradict public views. You bring a unique perspective to the conversation that encourages your audience to think differently about the topic.

Communication

You have a clear vision of your brand, well-thought-out ideas, and a strong call to action in every message. Equally, you’re a great listener who welcomes differing opinions, not an echo chamber.

Increased visibility and audience

As you share your expertise, you build a community of learners, fellow experts, and curious generalists. The more content you create, the more visibility you gain. The engagement could lead to invitations to speak at industry events, webinars, and podcasts, which exposes you to more people who align with your brand messaging.

For example, I received my first invite to speak at an event in 2021. Mad Singers put out the word that he was looking for speakers for the SEO Mastery Summit, and many folks mentioned my name. It was an online event and the perfect launch pad for a first gig.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. I tweeted on X, formerly Twitter, to promote the post. Kelvin Newman saw it and asked if I wanted to speak at the in-person BrightonSEO event.

It all happened because:

• I post regularly on social media about topic clusters as the best type of content strategy

• I have a loyal audience on LinkedIn that saw me as an expert and nominated me to speak

• I took the opportunity when presented

Stand out from bland, AI-generated content

The internet is flooded with AI content lacking depth and validation. It’s hard to tell what’s real or isn’t these days. But it presents an opportunity for thought leaders to shine with data-backed insights.

AI tools have their place for tasks like ideation, automating repeat tasks, and data analysis. However, their output shouldn’t replace but rather complement your expertise.

Here’s a LinkedIn post I wrote on using AI correctly, and here’s a fantastic presentation from Aleyda Solis on how to 10x your SEO with AI bots.

Become the authoritative source of truth

Trust is the holy grail of thought leadership. You’ll know you’ve earned your audience’s trust when people use something you’ve said to refute an argument, support a claim, or prove that a concept works.

Your voice also becomes the go-to source when people Google a topic, plus your name. This is where thought leadership transcends into an integral part of your content marketing strategy.

For example, Marie Haynes is THE expert on Google penalty and manual action removal.

If I wanted to learn more on this topic, I would simply search her name plus the keyword and start my journey with the resources I found.

Attract new business

Businesses want to hire the best, and there’s no one better than someone with demonstrated expertise on the problem.

As you share your processes and results, you become the first person or brand people think of when they need a solution you offer. It’s like building a portfolio of work in public to attract new business organically.

For example, as I published social media content and jumped on podcasts, more marketers hired me to build topic clusters for them. Jeanna Barrett, the founder of First Page Strategy, reached out after listening to my talk on the Agency Ahead podcast, which Garrett Sussman ran at the time.

That podcast episode brought in over $20k in revenue from multiple clients. It also led to my first feature on Moz, in an article Miriam Ellis wrote on reviewing topic clusters.

Improve E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T means Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. While E-E-A-T is not a ranking factor, it signals to search bots that your content is authoritative, written by an expert (or featuring an expert), and trustworthy.

As you build thought leadership, you improve your E-E-A-T, enhancing on-page SEO performance. In his MozCon talk on thought leadership and SEO, Andy Crestodina points out that thought leadership attracts authoritative backlinks and qualified visitors, driving big wins for SEO.

Knowing the benefits of thought leadership, you’re ready to take that first step. I’ve split the tips into proactive and reactive to make them more actionable. If you do more of the proactive, the reactive steps will happen naturally.

Proactive

Post helpful content on social media

If you’re a content marketer or SEO specialist, social media is a great platform to show topical authority through helpful content.

You can share tips around:

• Data-driven insight

• Content strategy hacks

• SEO tips that worked for you

• Industry updates

• Quick wins

• Google algorithm update changes

• Analyze industry stats or trends

I also love adding visuals to make content more engaging. Aim to post at least 3x a week to keep your audience’s attention without overwhelming them.

For example, I’ve been sharing helpful tips under the hashtag #40DaysOfContentLessons:

I use a varied mix of data-led insights, actionable tips that worked for me, and wins from executing the strategy.

Build in public

I’ll be honest; building in public is scary. You’re letting people see everything – the good, bad, and ugly side of nurturing a product or growing a business. But it’s worth it.

Building in public creates a sense of accountability to your audience. It humanizes your brand, makes you relatable, and allows your audience to see your progress in real time.

Document experiments, processes, and setbacks. Which strategies would you bin because they cost too much to execute, and which would you reuse because it’s battle-tested for success?

For example, I’ve followed Ash Young on X for a few years. I knew when he started tweeting about growing carmats.co.uk as a side hustle and sharing the strategies that worked for him.

He recently posted that they passed £5 million in revenue and over 100,000 orders on Shopify.

Interestingly, Ash runs Evoluted, a full-service digital marketing agency. There’s no better way to show clients that you have the chops than using the strategies for your brand.

Produce original research

Original research involves gathering data through qualitative or quantitative methods and presenting your unbiased, unique findings. It could be an industry report, survey, or in-depth trend analysis.

Given that AI can mass-produce content with minimal input, it’s become increasingly important for content marketers to stand out with content AI can’t replicate.

The differentiator adds a layer of credibility to your content and serves as a goldmine for repurposing opportunities.

For example, Dr Pete Meyers published a study on how Google changes your searches using a dataset of 10,000 keywords.

The idea for the study, his process of gathering the data, and the analysis is the level of expertise that AI cannot replicate yet.

Create an original concept or framework

Creating an original framework means developing a unique methodology that addresses a specific problem.

More than just a thought leadership asset, an original concept helps you stand out because machines can’t create nuanced frameworks from years of expertise gained through real-life experience.

For example, Lily Ugbaja came up with the LEMA framework as a way for anyone to create remarkable content.

It has become so popular that she’s been invited to speak on multiple podcasts like Marketers in Demand and SEO Case Study.

Have an opinion you can defend

Every thought leader is a critical thinker, unafraid to go against the grain. Having an opinion is about taking a stand and challenging norms based on evidence.

A few things I enjoy doing include:

• Questioning an existing framework

• Reacting to newly published research or updates from Google

• Calling out a flawed process

• Supporting an excellent methodology that more people should adopt

The goal is to make people rethink their current processes or point them in the right direction with logical reasoning. It’s important to be open to counterarguments and engage in respectful debates, as every one might not agree with your point of view.

However, the goal isn’t to win an argument but to enrich the conversation. Voicing your opinion is a great way to shape industry dialogue and elevate from commentator to thought leader.

For example, Lily Ray recently shared a thread about how content from communities like Reddit (probably with high purchase intent) provided more value than affiliate websites that usually rank for that type of keyword because there’s no incentive to sell.

I love how she closes the thread with a best practice for writing reviews, as it tells the reader what to do.

Reactive

As you share your expertise with your audience, it’s easier to attract opportunities to grow your thought leadership. A few of those include:

Speak at conferences, podcasts, and webinars

Speaking engagements allow you to get in front of your target audience and share unique insight that positions you as an authority on the topic.

When you speak at events, webinars, or podcasts, you’ll get a backlink to your website or social profile from the event organizers. Attendees who do a recap post of their experience will also link to you, increasing your visibility and online authority.

For example, I earned backlinks to my social profiles after speaking at the last Women in Tech SEO Festival. Attendees who wrote a recap of the event linked to my social profiles on Twitter or LinkedIn.

When reaching out to event organizers, think of a problem their audience is facing and how you can solve it. Even better, highlight a solution that isn’t commonly discussed because the innovative factor makes you more attractive to a host.

Contribute to roundup posts and guest contributions

Roundup posts are articles collecting insights and tips from multiple experts. Once you become known for a topic, you’ll get invited to contribute to roundup posts on that topic.

For example, I’ve received invitations to contribute to articles in popular publications like BrightLocal, Buffer, Superpath, and The Entrepreneur.

When contributing to a roundup post, here are a few tips to guide you:

• Avoid generic advice that AI can spit out. Share tactics you’ve implemented and results you’ve achieved to make it actionable.

• Ensure your contribution aligns with your overall thought leadership strategy. You want consistency in messaging across publications and platforms to build a cohesive brand identity.

Publish on high-authority industry sites

High-authority websites include brands like Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Watch, and Content Marketing Institute. These brands have a built-in and highly engaged audience that consumes quality content. By publishing on their website, you’re getting an endorsement from a trusted entity and earning credibility that fast-tracks your journey to becoming a thought leader.

However, there are other benefits of guest posting I want to highlight:

• SEO benefits from earning a Google knowledge panel, improving E-E-A-T, and getting a quality backlink that yields referral traffic.

• Increased visibility as your work is seen by thousands of people, leading to more social media followers and potential client opportunities.

For example, a guest post I wrote on Hackernoon has earned links from over 300 domains.

When identifying sites to pitch to, look for the following:

• Niche relevance: Only pitch to sites relevant to your expertise. One backlink from a relevant website carries more weight than ten backlinks from an irrelevant website.

• Traffic: Check how much traffic the site receives. I usually target websites with at least 10k monthly visitors.

• Overall SEO health: Check metrics like the site’s backlink profile, Page Authority, and Domain Authority.

• Editorial standards: Check the quality of published articles on the site. High editorial standards correlate with an engaged and discerning audience.

• Difficulty getting published on the site: If you’re looking for quick wins, you’ll want to prioritize websites where you have a relationship with the editor or where your name moves you to the top of the list.

1. Study those doing an excellent job

Before diving headfirst into thought leadership, take time to study those already excelling in your niche. Research helps you to identify market gaps, understand audience preferences, and discover opportunities to innovate.

When I set out to use social media as a launch pad for branding, I took three months to study the platforms. I wanted to observe the following:

• Content quality: Identify people who consistently post insightful content and follow them.

• Performance metrics: Observe what types of content get the most engagement—likes, shares, comments.

• Personal branding: Study how experts craft their bios and headlines to capture their expertise.

• External features: Note where these thought leaders are featured outside social media.

• Posting frequency: Keep an eye on how often they post without overwhelming their audience.

• Inspiration sources: Understand where they draw inspiration for their content.

• Lead generation: Observe how they use content to generate leads and build their brand.

• Content types: Identify which formats — articles, videos, podcasts — perform best for them.

I’m a content strategist, so it makes sense that I attract writers, SEOs, and founders.

I also like filtering by industry to ensure that my content reaches folks who work on the agency side or for SaaS and tech, as these are my ideal customers.

4. Tailor your message to fit your audience (What)

Knowing your audience helps you tailor your message. If you're targeting professionals with at least two years of experience, skip the basics. Instead, focus on advanced strategies and in-depth analyses.

Not sure where to start? Here are some actionable tips:

Analyze competitor content: Look at what other thought leaders are saying to a similar audience. This gives you clues on what topics resonate.

Read the comments: The comment sections on industry articles and social posts often contain follow-up questions and differing opinions that can inspire your next piece.

Address common mistakes: If you notice recurring issues like poor execution of briefs or unimaginative content strategies, tackle them head-on in your content. For example, in this post, I talked about mistakes I was making with content briefs and how I fixed them to deliver more value to readers and SERP.

Introduce your processes: If you've streamlined a particular process, share it. It could be the solution someone else is looking for.

Jump on trends and news: If there's a hot topic or emerging trend, offer your unique perspective.

Share industry insights: Attended a webinar or podcast that offered valuable insights. Summarize the key takeaways and how they can be applied.

Share your successes: Write about strategies that have worked exceptionally well for you. Your audience will appreciate the proven advice. For example, I shared the process I used to help a former client rank for a keyword with over 2.2 million monthly searches.

Question outdated strategies: If you see a strategy that's losing steam, suggest alternatives based on your experience and data.

5. Establish communication channels (How)

Once you know who your audience is and what they want to hear, the next step is figuring out how to reach them. Here's how:

Choose the right platforms: You don’t need to have a presence on every social media platform. Pick two platforms where your audience hangs out and create content for that platform. For example, I’m active on LinkedIn and X because my target audience (SEOs, B2B SaaS, and marketers) is active on these platforms.

Repurpose content: Don't limit yourself to just one type of content. Consider repurposing your content on Quora, Reddit, or even in webinars and podcasts. This increases your reach and reinforces your message.

Follow Your audience: Go where your audience goes. If they're active on X, that's where you should be posting. If they frequent industry webinars, consider becoming a guest on these webinars.

Daily vs. In-depth content: Balance is key. Use social media for daily tips and insights, and reserve your blog for more comprehensive guides and articles.

Network with influencers: Your audience is likely following other experts in the field. Engaging with these influencers puts your content in front of a like-minded audience. I try to spend 30 minutes to an hour daily engaging with content on X and LinkedIn. This is the best way to build a relationship so you’re not a complete stranger when you DM privately.

6. Think of thought leadership as part of your content marketing efforts

As with other content efforts, thought leadership doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It thrives when woven into a cohesive content marketing strategy. By aligning individual authority with your brand, you amplify the credibility of both.

Think of it as top-of-the-funnel content to:

• Build awareness about your brand

• Highlight the problems you solve

• Demonstrate expertise by platforming experts within the company who deliver solutions

Consider the user journey. An individual enters at the top through a social media post, podcast, or blog post. Intrigued, they want to learn more about you and either search your name on Google or social media. If they like what they see, they might visit your website, and if the information fits their needs, they move from passive readers to active prospects in your sales pipeline.

Embedding thought leadership into content marketing allows you to reach a wider audience, maintain messaging consistency, and stay top of mind for your ideal buyer.

7. Use storytelling to capture and retain attention

A recent study by a team of European scientists revealed that the collective attention span is narrowing due to the amount of information humans receive daily. People are mindlessly scrolling through their feeds, looking for content that compels them to stop and read.

That’s where storytelling comes in. Stories have the power to evoke emotions, whether it's happiness, sadness, anger, or surprise. When users connect emotionally, they're more likely to engage and remember the content.

As a thought leader, it’s not enough to tell engaging stories. You must connect stories to problems your audience faces to guide them toward a solution you provide.

A few ways to use storytelling for thought leadership include:

• Personal stories that make you relatable to your audience: I loved this post from David Orangui sharing the backstory of why he founded his company, We Are Distributed.

• Simplify complex concepts. For example, here’s a post from Gaetano DiNardi on providing high-level conversion reports to decision-makers.

• Build credibility through case studies. This LinkedIn post from Steven Macdonald is an excellent example of storytelling through case studies

Most of his posts open with a metric, then provides more context of the problem/solution, and finally details his process to solving the problem. He does it repeatedly, and his content has some of the best engagement I’ve seen from a marketing account on LinkedIn.

Every good story follows this structure:

• Introduce the scenario and key players

• Highlight conflict or challenge

• Present the solution

• Show the outcome

• Conclude with a key takeaway

8. Use repetition and consistency to stay top of mind

Another way to counteract the waning attention span is through repetition and consistency. When you hear something repeatedly, your brain recognizes it as important. Meanwhile, consistency complements repetition by reinforcing the message. For example, I’ve been talking about topic clusters and how to use them properly since 2021.

Here’s what I’ve done around topic clusters:

• Four public speaking engagements

• Two webinars

• 10 podcast appearances

• At least 50 social media posts

• A course

Repetition and consistency helped me build authority around topic clusters to the extent that folks would mention my name in conversations when a prospective client was looking for this service.

As a thought leader, you need to stay top of mind with the user and become known as the source of truth on a specific topic. Over time, your audience recognizes and trusts your voice, making you the go-to expert on the subject.

9. Repurpose and distribute content to build memorability

One of the best ways to maximize your content reach is to repurpose content. You ensure that your message resonates and sticks with your audience, reinforcing your brand's presence in their minds. In the same vein, content distribution is essential to broaden your reach, increase visibility, and keep your brand top of mind.

Here are a few ways to do this:

Blog posts:

• Transform subheadings into detailed Twitter threads or LinkedIn posts to share bite-sized insights.

• Pick the most important subheading and dig deeper in a podcast episode.

• Summarize the content in a short and engaging YouTube or TikTok video to reach a broader audience.

Social media:

• Leverage your best-performing social media content by pitching it as a topic for talks, webinars, or podcasts.

• Expand a popular social media post into a comprehensive blog post.

• Create a follow-up video to provide additional insights or address questions from the audience.

Speaking engagements:

• Convert your presentation slides into a blog post, providing a written version of your talk.

• Identify follow-up ideas from your talk and pitch them for future speaking opportunities.

• Transform the core message of your speaking engagement into a webinar.

• Use the key takeaways to create engaging Twitter threads and LinkedIn posts.

Video:

• Extract short clips from a longer video to share as teasers or highlights on social media.

• Create GIFs from memorable moments to use in your content or social media posts.

• Transcribe the video and turn it into a blog post or an article.

• Use the audio from the video as a podcast episode

Research reports:

• Break down the report into a series of blog posts, each focusing on a specific section or finding.

• Create infographics to highlight key data points and share them on social media.

• Develop a webinar or workshop based on the research findings to educate your audience.

• Use the research data to create engaging and informative Twitter threads or LinkedIn posts.

• Pitch key findings for conferences and guest posts on high-authority sites

10. Measure results

The metrics you measure for thought leadership should depend on your initial SMART goals. A few metrics I like to measure include:

Social media content

• Social media engagement

• Traffic from my social profiles to my website

• Prospects who contact me on my website after interacting with my content on social media

• Prospects who DM me via social media

• Event organizers who invite me to speak at an event, webinar or podcast after reading my content

Speaking engagement

• The number of attendees who share their key takeaways from my talk on social media and their blog. It’s usually an indicator of how helpful they found the content

• Leads generated from the speech

• New followers

• Follow-up invites to other speaking engagements

Podcasts

• Leads generated from appearing on the podcast

• Invitations to be featured on other gigs

• Social shares

Guest posts

• Backlinks

• Referral traffic

• Leads generated

• Social shares

Blog posts

• Social shares

• New followers

• Organic backlinks earned from the post

• New leads

• Email subscribers

• Traffic

• Bounce rate, dwell time and scroll depth

Chima Mmeje — Known for topic clusters, course creator, content strategy, and advocacy

You didn’t think I was going to leave my name out of the list, did you?

I do content marketing and strategy at Moz to solidify our position as the authentic source of truth in the SEO industry. I also run the Freelance Coalition for Developing Countries, a UK non-profit offering essential resources and training to BIPOC marketers across the globe.

I consider myself a thought leader in content strategy and SEO copywriting. I've created comprehensive courses and spoken at events like BrightonSEO and WTS Fest. I also share insightful content on webinars, podcasts, and social media to cement my authority. In 2024, I'm turning my attention to "thought leadership," using pieces like this one to showcase my expertise on the topic.

Aleyda Solis — Speaker, SEOFOMO, Crawling Mondays, LearningSEO.io

If I had to mention one person with the most impact on my SEO career, it would be Aleyda Solis. Aleyda is a Technical SEO specialist and the founder of Orainti, an international SEO consultancy based in Spain.

Aleyda has made her mark by speaking at over 100 conferences in 20 countries, including Inbound, BrightonSEO, and Mozcon. She’s the brain behind the popular SEOFOMO newsletter, and Crawling Mondays podcast. She also contributes to the SEO community through learningSEO.io, a free resource with a wealth of knowledge for SEOs at all levels.

Areej AbuAli — Speaker, community builder, and advocate for change

Areej AbuAli is a UK-based SEO consultant and the founder of Crawlina, a consultancy focused on technical and on-site SEO.

Beyond her consultancy, Areej is a staunch advocate for change. Recognizing the gender disparity in the industry, she founded Women in Tech SEO and has grown the community to over 5,000 members. The community is a safe space for women to connect, learn, and grow.

Areej regularly shares her insights and experiences at international conferences such as SMX, BrightonSEO, MozCon, and LondonSEOXL.

Dr. Marie Haynes — Google Algorithms and author

Dr. Marie Haynes is a seasoned SEO professional and leader with 15 years of experience. She runs Marie Haynes Consulting, where she helps clients improve Google search performance.

Dr. Marie has carved a niche as a Google penalty expert and possesses a deep understanding of how Google algorithms work. She publishes a weekly SEO newsletter and podcast called Search News You Can Use, which is an invaluable resource for many in the SEO industry.

Her expertise is not just confined to consultancy; she is a prolific guest author and has contributed to publications like Search Engine Land and Moz. Dr Marie has also written popular books on content creation and technical SEO.

Dr. Pete Meyers – Google Algorithm tracker, marketing scientist

Dr. Pete Meyers (fondly referred to as Dr. Pete) serves as a Marketing Scientist at Moz. With a background in cognitive psychology and computer science, Dr. Pete is dedicated to demystifying Google's algorithms, developing tools like the MozCast Project, and documenting the history of Google updates.

His work is a cornerstone for SEO professionals seeking to understand Google’s rapidly changing landscape. Dr. Pete has a knack for explaining complex search behavior in clear, practical guidance, which has made him a trusted authority in the SEO industry.

You won’t become a thought leader overnight or earn 100k followers with zero efforts. The first step is to share content and do it consistently, even when it’s not getting the desired results. Look to successful peers for inspiration, choose the right audience and platform to target, and create content that teaches your audience something new.

You might think they already know what you’re about to say. But I guarantee there’s someone who doesn’t and will find your information useful. Every thought leader started with one piece of content. So, take the leap and share your expertise today.