003: What To Post As A Thought Leader
This podcast episode is Part 2 of 4 series, links for all episodes are below. What to post as a thought leader?
If you are a leader, working in the corporate world, and have made it to the top, and are not happy where you are at, this is the podcast episode for you. It is a tactical approach to determine if you want to share your content and thought leadership. The strategy is to share your expertise publically, and outside of your current community.
This is a 90-day plan for yourself to see if you are ready to take the leap. It is a long game, not something you want to do for a few days.
This series of 4 podcasts are a plan for 90 days that will take about 5-10 minutes a day.
All the Episodes In This 4 Part Series:
Part 1: Is Thought Leadership For You?
Part 2: What To Post As A Thought Leader
Part 3: How To Post And Engage More
Part 4: How to Get More Traction With A Post Buddy
QUESTIONS THAT ARE ANSWERED IN THIS PODCAST
[2:50] Where to find content sources
[3:35] When to post
[5:30] How to respond and engage
[6:00] What metrics to track
How do I know if my thought leadership is working?
This focuses on the 1st 30 days of your thought leadership journey.
You will discover how to get started today as a thought leader in part two of this series. What and where to Post in the First 30 Days.
There are a few things that we need to do to get started, and the next 90 days of activities are all going to be on Linkedin.
LinkedIn Profile
The first check to do is make sure that your Linkedin profile is up to date. Make sure that all items and all sections are complete and current. Please make sure you have a current and professional headshot. This is not like online dating. I don’t want to see you from 10 years ago, or a glamour shot. I want to see a current picture and be able to recognize you when I see you in person.
Content Sources
The other thing that you need to do is find articles relevant to your areas of industry and expertise. Now, you may already get these, and you probably already are getting these in your inbox. In case you’re not, let me go in a little deeper.
For example, if you are a VP of Audit in a hospitality industry. You are probably already following some finance, auditor, and hospitality blogs, or emails.
If you are a principal consultant for human capital management for the manufacturing industry. I would expect you to be following people and blogs in the HCM world, talent, public consulting, and the manufacturing world.
A couple of tools I used to find and follow are Twitter (I follow people in those industries and certain areas), Flipboard, and even other folks on Linkedin. Again, you probably already have some of these coming to your inbox so I would look at those.
Consistency
The goal is for us to take one of those articles we’re getting, and to use them as inspiration. We’re going to post one day a week, Monday through Friday, and we’re going to post about the same time every day.
I post mine in the morning about 6:00 my time. The reason is, are we want to be consistent? We want to do it at the same time so people can expect it, and I say Monday through Friday because I want to do it during the work week and not on the work weekend.
What you do is for the next 30 days, you’re going to create a post or a text post, so when you log into Linkedin, I’m not sure where you take. Just make sure the URL up top says linkedin.com/feed, and when you do, you’ll have a little white box near the top. I think it will say Video and Article. Do not click on those two little buttons. Click on the white space.
What To Do
I just want you to type in one sentence on your perspective. Or why you agree or don’t agree with this article, and then I want you to post the link to the article. The articles you’re getting would be from your inbox or some of the other resources I shared earlier. Type in one sentence that says why you agree, disagree, don’t like your perspective on this article, and then you’re going to say, Then post.
It will save it, and it will add it to your feed. If you did the exercise yesterday, you’re going to have the one that said you committed to post every day. Then you’re going to have this one, which is your second post text. For the next 30 days, do this Monday through Friday.
Then also respond and comment back to everybody that comments on your text post. Now, you don’t have to sit here and monitor this throughout the day. I would suggest you just check back at lunchtime, maybe when you’re getting a coffee later that morning if you’re taking a quick afternoon break.
It literally takes about two minutes to look at on your phone. If somebody has responded, you just respond to them. You want to engage. You want to let people know that when they take the time to comment; you are going to take the time to respond, and you’re interested in what they say.
What Metrics To Track
The other thing I would begin doing is I would create a spreadsheet so you can track these posts over the next 90 days. Every day, what I would do, is I would put the date, I would put the headline or the line that you’ve typed in, or your commentary. And then I would copy the URL from your Linkedin post, not from the link you shared in the post, but from your Linkedin text post.
How you do that, is if you go back to Linkedin and you find your text post for that day, there are … its a drop-down box, or three dots in the top right of your post. If you click on that, it will say, Copy the Link.
Again, the three things I would put in your spreadsheet to track this every day would be the date, the headline or the line that you typed in, and then the URL for the post in Linkedin that you shared. I would do that every day.
Then on Fridays, I would do an additional update to that spreadsheet, and I would go back and look at the five posts for the week, and I would add in additional columns that have views, likes, and comments, so that way you can post at the end of the week how many views, likes, and comments each one of your text posts has.
Next Steps
Those are the activities for the first 30 days, and I find the actions for your first one or two articles and get ready. Go ahead and just craft them out, and it might take you a little longer at first as you do it. You will do this process much quicker than your 30 days progressed.
Create your tracking spreadsheet. If you need to put this as a calendar reminder every day to do it, then do it. Give yourself 10 minutes the first part of the day, and just see how long it takes. Start posting and engaging every day in your thoughts to show people you are a thought leader.
All 4 Episodes In This Series:
Part 1: Is Thought Leadership For You?
Part 2: What To Post As A Thought Leader
Part 3: How To Post And Engage More
Part 4: How to Get More Traction With A Post Buddy
Show Notes Link
To get the show notes for this episode and that little phrase, please go to http://kimdsnyder.com/003. Thank you for listening to this episode on how to get started today for being a thought leader. This is part one of four series to decide if it’s for you.
Please Share The Love
Did you enjoy this episode? Do you have a friend or colleague that would also enjoy this episode? If yes, please share, subscribe and give the show a review on iTunes so more women leaders can listen to it. Go to http://kimdsnyder.com/itunes, and I will see you in the next episode.