Forbes published the article, “What is a thought leader” a few years ago and the definition they gave was spot on:
“ A thought leader is an individual or firm that prospects, clients, referral sources, intermediaries and even competitors recognize as one of the foremost authorities in selected areas of specialization, resulting in its being the go-to individual or organization for said expertise”
Forbes also imparted a part 2 of this definition:
“ A thought leader is an individual or firm that significantly profits from being recognized as such.”
I think it’s fair to assess that we are all in business to make money. Yes, we aspire to help people and reach out personal and professional goals… but ultimately we are in business to make money. And we want to be handsomely compensated for our subject-matter-expertise. To do that, it is absolutely 100% necessary to display our subject matter expertise to our prospects, clients, referral sources, and even competitors.
One excellent channel of distribution is the LinkedIn Publisher platform. The Publisher’s allows you to further establish your professional identity by expressing your opinions and sharing your experiences. When you publish your long-form posts, your original content then becomes part of your LinkedIn profile, ready for anyone to view that is driven to your profile.
Your followers will receive your long-form post through their homepage feed and many of your connections, but not necessarily all, will receive a notification that you have published a new long-form post (which does not happen when you post a status update). Other LinkedIn members that are not a 1st degree connection can then follow you for your content, and your long-form post becomes searchable both on and off LinkedIn.
Unfortunately, it is too often that the Publisher is not used for the thought leadership it was intended to promote. All too often you will see job postings, advertisements, promotions for events & products & services. LinkedIn’s Publisher Platform Guidelines provide information as to how the Publisher is meant to be leveraged. A word of warning – LinkedIn may restrict, suspend, or terminate your account for violations such as these.
Bobbie Foedisch, Chief Social Selling Officer here at AAL, recently provided this short video blog on how to publish long-form posts, along with some best practices here .