What Is a Thought Leadership Framework?
Thought leadership — first-person ideas and insights from people, not brands — helps executives engage their audience, generate brand awareness, and build trust.
It’s also highly persuasive, with 73% of decision-makers agreeing that thought leadership content is more trustworthy than marketing and sales collateral.
If you’re looking to drum up buzz for your business and get your ideas in front of more decision-makers, it’s time to give thought leadership the attention it deserves. In this post we’ll explore how to get started by developing a thought leadership framework.
What is thought leadership?
Thought leadership is the process of sharing insights and expertise on a regular basis to demonstrate the authority of both yourself and your organization. By covering industry trends, solving customer problems, and introducing new ways of thinking, you can showcase your unique perspectives in a way that grabs your audience’s attention.
When you’ve established yourself as a thought leader, you become a go-to expert in your field, which can lead to all sorts of opportunities — including new partnerships, more customers, and invites to speak at events. LinkedIn’s own COO, Dan Shapero, may have said it best: “It is often easier to build trust with people than corporate brands,” making thought leadership a powerful way to “build connection and trust with the audiences they care about.”
Today, 65.4% of businesses already use thought leadership to enhance their content marketing strategy; a further 29.5% are planning to do so soon. Unless you want to be left behind, you need to do the same.
What is a thought leadership framework & why does it matter?
But you can’t just declare yourself a thought leader and expect people to listen. There’s an art and a science to crafting content that creates value for your audience while highlighting your unique expertise. According to data compiled by The New York Times, 63% of decision-makers agree that thought leadership fails when it’s too generic, lacks original insights (58%), or is too self-promotional (53%).
That’s where a thought leadership framework can come in handy.
A thought leadership framework is a structured approach that outlines key steps and strategies you can follow to establish authority and credibility in your field. At a high level, the framework helps you zero in on the topics you’re going to be writing and speaking about, the folks you’re attempting to connect with, and the channels you’re going to use to publish your thought leadership output. It also governs what the content ultimately looks and sounds like, as well as how you’re going to measure success.
By creating and following a thought leadership framework, you can build influence incrementally with each post you publish. Think of it as a way to stay laser-focused on your strategy, which increases the likelihood of seeing ROI from your thought leadership investment.
According to data compiled by The New York Times, 63% of decision-makers agree that thought leadership fails when it’s too generic, lacks original insights (58%), or is too self-promotional (53%).
What are the key components of a successful thought leadership framework?
While there isn’t necessarily a single formula for creating a thought leadership framework, a few key guardrails can help keep your efforts focused and on-brand. Follow these steps to develop a framework that supports your goals and helps your content stand out.
1. Conduct a situation assessment & SWOT analysis
Kick off the process by conducting an assessment of your current situation. That means auditing the kind of content you’re already sharing on social media and elsewhere and identifying what’s missing and what can be improved.
Once you’ve gotten the lay of the land, it’s time to fill in the missing pieces. Maybe your messages aren’t clearly defined or you haven’t differentiated your social channels enough (e.g., you’re posting the same content on LinkedIn and Instagram).
Before moving on to the next step, spend some time on a SWOT analysis to sum up your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You might find out that your proven track record in your industry is your biggest strength, but your inability to choose a lane for sharing content is undermining your efforts to build authority.
2. Identify strategic goals
After you’ve defined your current situation, identify the strategic goalsyou hope to accomplish with your thought leadership investments. Is it increasing the visibility of your personal brand? Becoming an authority in your field? Driving sales? Kicking off engaging industry discussions?
There’s no right or wrong answer here. By defining your goals clearly up front, it’s easier to create content that helps you achieve your objectives, whatever they are.
3. Pick out target audiences
Who are you going to be speaking to every time you hit the Post button? Whether it’s potential customers, would-be investors, or industry peers, you need to have a clear idea of who your audience is so you can understand their pain points — and use that information to guide content creation.
Keep in mind that it’s okay to have a couple of different audiences; there’s nothing wrong with creating posts that appeal to potential employees along with posts that cater to prospective investors.
Bottom line? By focusing on the right people, you can increase the chances your thought leadership strategy pays dividends, driving engagement and building trust.
4. Identify big themes and content ideas to talk about
Now that you know your goals and your audience, it’s time to identify topics that will resonate with the people you’re trying to engage.
For example, the CEO of a cybersecurity company trying to appeal to three distinct audiences on social media might come up with the following themes:
- For investors: focus on industry trends and growth of the cybersecurity sector.
- For prospective employees: highlight tools and technologies the team is using, the organization’s commitment to innovation, and opportunities for career development and growth.
- For potential customers: explore topics related to emerging cybersecurity threats and why it’s so important to proactively deploy solutions to protect sensitive enterprise data.
5. Create guidelines on tone, voice, and appearance
To ensure your messaging stays consistent and feels authentic, it’s important to create guidelines on tone, voice, and appearance. These guidelines help you define how you’ll communicate with your audience.
Do you want to be authoritative, friendly, and conversational? Or is it more important to be inspirational and bold? Appearance also matters too; by creating guidelines for visuals and design elements that will appear across your content, you can build a more cohesive brand across channels — increasing the chances you’ll make a lasting impression.
Since 98% of Fortune 500 CEOs that use social media are on LinkedIn, the world’s leading professional networking site is probably a place you’ll want to include in your thought leadership strategy.
6. Figure out what channels to use to disseminate messaging
You might have a lot to say. But how do you get your message out there? Given the saturated media landscape, it’s critical to choose the right channels to reach your audience.
Since 98% of Fortune 500 CEOs that use social media are on LinkedIn, the world’s leading professional networking site is probably a place you’ll want to include in your thought leadership strategy. Depending on where your audience spends their time online, you might want to add more social channels to the mix — like X, Instagram, and maybe even TikTok.
On top of this, you might also decide to leverage your company’s blog and say yes to podcast and webinar invites. Sharing your thoughts with traditional media — whether in the form of interviews or your own op-eds or bylines — is also a powerful way to reach a business audience.
By choosing the right mix of channels, you can ensure your messaging reaches the right people in the most effective way.
7. Decide how to measure success
By measuring the impact of your thought leadership strategy, you can figure out what’s working and what isn’t and adjust your approach accordingly.
Start by defining clear metrics that align with your strategic goals. In addition to measuring things like followers and engagement rates on social channels, you can also track other key performance indicators, including website traffic, media mentions, and backlinks.
By setting benchmarks and regularly evaluating where things stand, you can refine your strategy — making it that much easier to accomplish your thought leadership objectives.
Need help creating a thought leadership framework?
As a business leader, your plate is full enough as it is. You may not have the bandwidth to create a robust framework or the expertise to identify optimal content or channels for dissemination.
The good news that specialized thought leadership agencies have emerged to help business leaders strategically elevate their profile and advance business goals.
Ready to get started? Learn more here.