How I Leverage My Thought Leadership To Increase Reach & Engagement
Are you seeking a new marketing strategy to increase your reach and engagement? In today’s blog post, I’ll talk about a strategic concept when it comes to creating content as a subject matter expert. Specifically, the Hedgehog Concept by Jim Collins. The Hedgehog Concept is a powerful approach that leverages thought leadership to help you reach a wider audience and boost engagement.
This blog post will discuss why this strategy is so effective and how it can help you become a thought leader in your field. I’ll also provide practical tips on creating effective content and strategies for promoting your blog and brand on social media. By the end of this post, you will better understand the Hedgehog Concept and how it can help you increase your reach and engagement.
Finding ways to repurpose my speaking opportunities into shorter, digestible content. With a tool like Go.Charlie., I truly have a content creator’s best friend and repurpose video footage of my talks, into blogs and Twitter threads.
Creating Effective Content For Business Success
Creating content for your business is an essential part of any successful strategy. However, many businesses need help creating content that resonates with their audiences. According to a recent study by Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 45% of marketers say they struggle to create content that is both useful and interesting to their audience. This is partly because most businesses focus on what they know best instead of embracing a hedgehog concept – which means focusing on what they know best and delivering excellent value.
The book Good to Great by Jim Collins introduces the Hedgehog Concept. A concept that flows from a deep understanding of three circles: 1) what you are deeply passionate about, 2) what you can be the best in the world at, and 3) what best drives your economic or resource engine. Applying it to writing, the goal is not best writer in your field. It’s an understanding of identifying what you are good at, and leaning into that. We all have a unique story to tell based on our experiences, personal and professional. And by telling that authentic story, you can find your tribe.
By embracing a hedgehog concept, businesses can focus on delivering detailed buyer personas, segmenting the audience, becoming a thought leader by leaning on Google’s EAT (Expertise, Authority and Trust) principles, and making content shareable. In addition, thought leadership can be leveraged to change perceptions for the better in addition to being more trustworthy than marketing materials. By taking these steps, businesses can utilize their employees to help increase their content's reach and impact while engaging their target audience more effectively.
Strategies For Promoting Your Blog
You can find ways to increase your blog’s reach by utilizing social media as well. Having a social media presence is the first step, but you can also incorporate tactics to help. Bloggers everywhere are using social media to promote their blogs. In fact, according to a study by BrightLocal, 69% of bloggers use social share buttons on their blog posts. This is an effective way to ensure that your blog content reaches your target audience and makes it easy for them to share it with their respective audiences as well.
Instead of trying to develop supplementary products or services that will drive traffic, focus your energy on developing well-researched and unique products or services that stand out from your competitors. By identifying the topics that are driving the most clicks to your website, and writing content around that, you'll truly be tapping into your audience’s interests. This will put you in a better position to succeed over time, resulting in more eyeballs on your thought-leadership content. And lead to increased website traffic, higher search engine rankings, and building affinity with your audience.
Be sure to publish your blog content on LinkedIn. It's a great platform to become a thought leader in your local community and overall industry by engaging with your current and future LinkedIn connections. It's also an opportunity to share your organization’s culture with potential customers, partners, and future employees.
When thinking about what type of content lives best on LinkedIn, a recent platform survey said 44% of respondents said the last piece of content they read on LinkedIn was straight to the point, and provided real value to businesses in their industry.
Final Thoughts
By leveraging your thought leadership as a subject matter expert, you can increase your overall reach and engagement through blog content that resonates with your target audience. Over time, you can position yourself as a trusted source of information. Furthermore, social media, like LinkedIn, can be used to promote your blog and personal brand to reach more potential customers. Be sure to consider how the Hedgehog Concept can be used to identify what your niche is, so you can focus your content efforts on that.
Looking for more ways you can amplify your social media efforts, be sure to check out one of my freebies to help you and your brand.
