Successful Thought Leadership Requires Shameless Self-Promotion

As discussed in Why, What, How on Thought Leadership, getting a first thought leadership article published can be something of a challenge. Moreover, it’s only half the battle: you have to engage in shameless self-promotion once you publish it if you want to gain followers. You cannot rely purely on the media journal to do that job for you.

The reasons are simple:

• The people most invested in you and your success are most likely those already on your social media feed. They are the most likely people to support your article.
• The media journal audience will be measuring the success of your first effort, just like you are. The more successful your article is in bringing them new audience members, the more likely it is they will want more articles from you.

So how do you maximize your efforts?

• Slate a multitude of posts sharing the blog on all your social media feeds over a period of time -- at least two weeks.
• Create several posts that highlight different quotes or aspects of the article.
• Use hashtags. You can use tools like Union Metrics to find the most successful hashtags for an audience, or search Twitter itself, see what hashtags are used hourly, rather than once a week.
• Tag colleagues on Facebook & Twitter. If use tag on Twitter, be sure you put a period before their handle – that way the post is visible to their entire feed.
• Share it on LinkedIn in your private groups.
• Use boost posts on Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn to further your reach. This will take some time. You will want to think about the audience you’d like to attract to your page, as well as who is most likely to engage with your article.
• Use aggregators: post it on Reddit, or ask a colleague to post it, to relevant subreddits. If it takes off there you will strike gold in terms of followers. If you can find relevant places to plant it on Quora, Answers.com, etc. these are good aggregators as well and material there has a very long shelf life.
• Finally there’s good old-fashioned asking – would you mind sharing this to your page? Don’t be bashful. At some point they will likely ask you to return the favor.

Follow any comments, answer any questions asked. Engagement is a critical component of ongoing success. Start by thanking anyone who retweets your article, whether you know them or not. Welcome all new followers to your feed.

Once the shameless self-promotion period is over, remember your audience is always hungry: it’s important to feed them regularly. Even if you can only post a lone thought or share something you read and liked, it’s a good idea to do so at least once a week.

Rinse & Repeat! It’s time to write another thought leadership article and begin the cycle once again.