How Diverse Content Production Helps You Become A Thought Leader

Establishing yourself as a thought leader can do a lot to build up a brand and make you stand out from the competition. Content is one of the best ways to build your reputation. However, many businesses and individuals looking to become thought leaders will focus primarily on one type of content with which they feel comfortable. 

In this article, we cover why diversifying your content production is important and the best types of content for becoming a thought leader. 

Benefits of a varied content strategy

If you just stick to one form of content for your thought leadership, you’re likely to only reach a certain audience. 

Blog posts that contain highly relevant and useful insights are great, but there are probably plenty of people in your target audience who don’t have the time to sit down and read an article. But they could listen to what you’ve got to say in a podcast while doing something else or they might watch a short 30-second video. 

Once you’ve grabbed their attention with one format, your audience might start to read your blog content as well because it gives them a bit more information. 

You can distribute different content formats on more platforms, which boosts your online presence. For example, your target audience might discover your videos on YouTube or your podcast will be listed in a relevant directory that helps more people to find your content. 

Various formats such as video and images will give you more flexibility to share content on different channels. You can create shorter videos to post directly on social media, or you can even do live videos where you cover the same points that you might be sharing on your blog. 

What types of content should you produce?

Producing varied content is going to increase your reach, but it’s important to choose the formats that are relevant to your industry, and you need to ensure you can produce content consistently. 

Podcasts 

Starting a podcast is one of the best ways to diversify your content production and build up your presence as a thought leader. Millions of people are listening to podcasts each week because they’re convenient — listeners can consume some interesting content while they do other tasks.

Podcasts will help you to reach a much wider audience of people who might not otherwise come across your content. And if what you’re saying is engaging and insightful, they’re likely to recommend your podcast to others.

In addition to sharing your own industry insights and tips, a good way to create content for your podcast is to interview other experts. For example, in this marketing podcast from Stephan Spencer, he talks to other marketers and entrepreneurs. Not only is this relevant, valuable content for a marketing podcast that the target audience will be interested in, but it’s also associating him with other thought leaders, which will in turn boost his reputation.

It’s also relatively easy to start a podcast, and they don’t cost a lot to produce. You just need a computer, microphone, and some audio editing software to set yourself up.

YouTube videos 

Video is one of the fastest growing formats of online content, and YouTube is one of the most visited websites in the world. So if you’re not creating thought leadership content for YouTube, you’re potentially missing out on reaching a huge number of people.

Not only will people find your content on YouTube, but you can also share your videos on other channels like LinkedIn or on your website. And if you’re producing great videos, other people are going to share and talk about them as well.

You do need to be confident in front of the camera, though, and creating a style and format for your videos will help people to connect with the content. For example, entrepreneur and speaker Marie Forleo has created a series of motivational and productivity-focused YouTube videos called MarieTV. The focus of the series signals what it’s about to viewers and helps Forleo develop a regular relationship wiht her audience.

The idea of producing video content can seem daunting, but it’s easier than you think. There are plenty of online resources to help you, but you really just need a camera that can record high-quality video and some editing software. 

Social media video content 

To further boost your reach as a thought leader, you can also create videos specifically to share on your social media channels. You can either repurpose your YouTube videos and edit them to be more concise or take advantage of the live video feature on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

As you start to build up your reputation and following, you could do live sessions where you share insights or engage with your audience to answer their questions. Live videos can make you seem more accessible and relevant to your audience, and it’s a great way to establish a stronger connection with people.

Research and case studies

Research and case studies are a great way to grow your thought leadership reputation. If you can do your own research and put together some useful statistics and unique insights, you’ll be demonstrating your expertise in the industry and providing something of value that others can use and share. 

For example, this SEO blog post from Backlinko outlines some research that they did into the link between Core Web Vitals and user experience, content that’s going to be useful for others in the industry. 

Case studies are also a great way to produce content that shows the work you do and exactly why you’re a thought leader.

Blog posts 

While it’s good to be producing a wide range of content to establish yourself as a thought leader, that doesn’t mean that publishing blog content isn’t important. You can use your blog to share detailed guides, how-to posts, and insights and opinions that provide value to your target audience. This will give people who have found you on other channels and platforms, like YouTube or social media, some more in-depth content.

Plus, you can optimize your blog content so that it appears in search engine results for relevant terms, so when people are looking for information about certain topics in your industry, they will discover your thought leadership content.

Putting it all together

Overall, producing a diverse range of content is going to maximize your reach and help you to connect with far more people in your target audience. Focusing on just one form of content is going to hold you back, but producing videos, podcasts, and blog posts will help build up your reputation as a thought leader and stand out as an expert in your industry. 

Rodney Laws is an e-commerce consultant and the editor at ecommerceplatforms.io.