Thought Leadership Is Given, Not Taken

 

Hey guys, it’s Jay, and today, let’s talk about thought leadership. Jay Today is brought to you by my friends at Emma, get more from your email marketing. Go to myemma.com.
According to Google, a thought leader is one whose views on a subject are taken to be authoritative and influential. Now, that makes a lot of sense. I think that definition is accurate. But who decides? Who decides whether or not those views are in fact authoritative or influential? It’s not, at least I don’t think it should be, the parent of those ideas, but rather the consumers of those ideas.
See, thought leadership is no different than any other kind of leadership in that it is given, it’s not taken. It is bestowed by the people based on quality and consistency and accuracy and helpfulness. You wouldn’t just walk onto a jet and proclaim yourself the captain, yet in business, and I think this is mostly true in social media and content marketing and related fields, unfortunately, they’re particularly guilty of this. People routinely just decide that they deserve to be a thought leader and they give themselves the crown. They add thought leader to their Twitter bio and to their LinkedIn bio, and most of all, they start to create graphics with quotes that they created and they post those graphics on Facebook and on Instagram.
Look, if you have an idea worth spreading, it will spread. People will make that happen. Quality attention is a meritocracy. You do not have to help it along by posting a quote, plus a scene of a beach, plus your name. If someone else creates a quote graphic of something you said, hey, go ahead and share it, but trying to ignite a fire around your own work doesn’t make you a thought leader. It makes you an arsonist.
But you know what, maybe I’m totally wrong. Maybe I have this absolutely backwards, so let’s find out in today’s question, shall we?
In the comments on YouTube, please answer this:
On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being that you love it, how much do you like it when people create quotes of their own work and share them on Facebook, Instagram, and beyond? That’s today’s question.
Please share this video and visit JayToday.tv for the archives. I’ll see you in a couple days!