The Thought Leadership PR Strategy

Thought lead­er­ship might be the right PR strategy for you.

What does thought lead­er­ship entail?
What does it take to become a thought lead­er?
What are the pros and cons of being a thought leader?

In this blog post, I’ll explore the prin­ciples of thought lead­er­ship as a PR strategy.

Here we go:

The Thought Leader and the Expert

Being con­sidered a “thought lead­er” in your industry ought to sound appeal­ing to many driv­en pro­fes­sion­als with decent amounts of expert­ise with­in their fields. Some experts will go for the easy route by simply present­ing them­selves as such on social media. But that’s a far cry from being con­sidered a thought lead­er by a com­munity of peers.

Being an expert is based on what you know. Being a thought lead­er is based on your status as a game-changer with­in your pro­fes­sion­al field. While all thought lead­ers are experts in some way or anoth­er, not all experts can be thought leaders.

All pro­fes­sion­al fields evolve over time. To be a thought lead­er, it’s not enough to reside at the fore­front of what’s going on in your industry. You must also be regarded as someone whose ideas con­stantly push your entire field’s evol­u­tion forward.

An expert can deep­en their expert­ise by acquir­ing more exist­ing know­ledge. A thought lead­er, how­ever, must cre­ate new know­ledge.

Creating Knew Knowledge

While thought lead­er­ship is a chal­len­ging PR strategy, it could also be seen as a major oppor­tun­ity. The dif­fi­culty level will make it almost impossible for com­pet­it­ors to suc­cess­fully chal­lenge your position.

“Thought lead­er­ship, includ­ing PR, is a key strategy for build­ing trust in glob­al mar­kets, lead­ing to new products, mar­ket expan­sion, and com­pany profits.”
Source: Journal of Public Relations Research ¹Bourne, C. (2015). Thought Leadership as a Trust Strategy in Global Markets: Goldman Sachs’ Promotion of the ‘BRICs’ in the Marketplace of Ideas. Journal of Public Relations Research, 27, 322 — … Continue read­ing

Thought lead­ers must con­tinu­ously probe exist­ing chal­lenges to find brand-new solu­tions. They must reshape cur­rent nar­rat­ives and reframe old prob­lems. They must always seek to destabil­ise the status quo. Their job is not to describe change but to be the change.

A thought lead­er is a vis­ion­ary with a fol­low­ing and a track record of cre­at­ing new know­ledge. There is a “before” the thought lead­er — and an “after.”

To be clear:
This isn’t a PR strategy for the faint of heart.

How do I cre­ate thought lead­ers? Well, I don’t. However, I some­times encounter indi­vidu­als with thought lead­er poten­tial. If I do, then (and only then), I sug­gest pos­i­tion­ing a thought lead­er as a viable PR strategy.

Existentialism: Thought Leadership, Advisory, and Education

Regarding thought lead­er­ship, advis­ory, and edu­ca­tion, I often remind myself of the beau­ti­ful words of the Danish exist­en­tial­ist Søren Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855): ²Søren Kierkegaard. (2023, November 27). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard

According to Kierkegaard, ser­vitude is the found­a­tion for suc­cess for all aspir­ing thought lead­ers, advisers, salespeople, and educators:

“If one is truly to suc­ceed in lead­ing a per­son to a spe­cif­ic place, one must first and fore­most take care to find him where he is and begin there.

This is the secret in the entire art of help­ing.

Anyone who can­not do this is him­self under a delu­sion if he thinks he is able to help someone else. In order truly to help someone else, I must under­stand more than he — but cer­tainly first and fore­most under­stand what he under­stands.

If I do not do that, my great­er under­stand­ing does not help him. If I nev­er­the­less want to assert my great­er under­stand­ing, then it is because I am vain or proud, then basic­ally instead of bene­fit­ing him I really want to be admired by him.

But all true help­ing begins with a hum­bling.

The help­er must first humble him­self under the per­son he wants to help and thereby under­stand that to help is not to dom­in­ate but to serve, that to help is a not to be the most dom­in­at­ing but the most patient, that to help is a will­ing­ness for the time being to put up with being in the wrong and not under­stand­ing what the oth­er under­stands.”
— Søren Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855)

Learn more: Existentialism for PR Advisers

Thought Leadership in PR

A PR strategy based on a thought lead­er­ship pro­gram must always adhere to these basic principles:

These prin­ciples not only define the eth­os of a thought lead­er but also serve as a guide for those aspir­ing to become influ­en­tial fig­ures in their respect­ive domains. 

THANKS FOR READING.
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