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Takeaways:
- What’s a thought leader and why should you include them in your blogging efforts?
- If your content is high-quality and your mentions are sincere, thought leaders will almost always share your content.
- When you mention a thought leader, it should be evident to them why you mentioned them.
I’m going to share what I consider to be the single most effective strategy available to bloggers today, including six highly actionable examples.
So here it is, the blogging strategy so effective that you can’t afford not to use it: Identify thought leaders in your market and mention them in your posts. There are several caveats to this, but we’ll get into that later, as well as those actionable examples.
What is a thought leader?
Defined by Google as “one whose views on a subject are taken to be authoritative and influential.” Because I am a marketer for a large corporate real estate technology provider, the thought leaders who are relevant to me are real estate professionals and marketing experts.
However, to the bulk of real estate professionals reading this, thought leaders can be considered any person or organization who has influence in your target market, such as restaurant owners, chefs, business owners, entertainers, athletes, community figures, local authorities, etc., as well as other real estate professionals.
Why do this?
As a blogging strategy, you do this to encourage thought leaders to share your content with their audience and give you exposure to readers that you would not reach otherwise.
You also do this to let thought leaders know that you appreciate their expertise and to form the basis for a relationship that offers mutual value.
Why does this work?
As long as your content is high-quality and relevant, and your mentions are sincere, thought leaders will almost always share your content.
They know why you mentioned them — it’s no secret — but if you’ve done the work to create a piece of content that they are proud to be a part of, you will never offend them. And they will frequently reward you with the shares you desire.
Some more detail about the points mentioned above:
High-quality content
You can’t create a blog post that is complete trash, mention a bunch of thought leaders and expect them to share. Thought leaders have large audiences who depend on them for high-quality content.
They won’t alienate their readers by sharing articles that offer no value. It would dilute their social stream and subtract from their value as a thought leader. Good blog posts can take hours, days — even weeks to complete — you have to put in the work.
Relevant content
On the same note, you can’t create a blog post that has nothing to do with a thought leader’s field of interest and expect them to share. If you are seeking shares from local restaurant owners, write an article featuring the best restaurants in your target market.
If you are seeking shares from real estate professionals, write a post about your favorite real estate marketing techniques. Incorporating thought leaders in your content means considering not only your target audience but theirs as well.
Sincere mentions
Finally, the mention has to be sincere. Nobody wants to feel like they are being used or flattered. In other words, don’t Google “real estate thought leaders” and mention the first five people you discover.
Make a habit of reading daily, and keep track of the great writers and online personalities you encounter. Then follow their social accounts, subscribe to their newsletters and share their articles.
When you mention a thought leader, it should be evident to them why you mentioned them. Did they release a great article or case study that relates to the topic in which you are writing?
Did their point of view help you gain inspiration or success? If you don’t take the time to read and share their content, why should they take the time to read and share yours?
Bonus tip
Always include links to the thought leaders you are mentioning. Link to their articles, if relevant, and link to their blogs or websites and their social channels.
Not only does this offer potential SEO and follower-acquisition benefits to the thought leader, it just the polite thing to do.
Read “The blogging strategy so effective you can’t afford not to use it: Part 2.”
Patrick manages the Lone Wolf Real Estate Technologies Blog. He is interested in empowering real estate professionals with dynamic content marketing strategies and recipes for personal success.
