Measuring the success of Thought Leadership content involves assessing its impact on your target audience, industry recognition, and engagement. Monitor the comments section on your blog, social media, or other platforms where your content is shared. Positive comments, questions, and discussions indicate engagement. Track the number of social media shares. If your audience finds your content valuable, they are likely to share it with their networks, increasing your reach.

Create your own rubric for evaluating whether your content is "hitting the mark" For example, my content rubric currently looks like: On a scale of 1-5: - Is this Cheryl’s voice? Or does it make you think “Hmm… There’s a hint of so-and-so's voice here” - If I took away all identifying information… Does the content sound like everyone else? Or is there a sense of distinctiveness to it? - Can you feel Cheryl’s sincerity or fervor? Yes/No: - Did I include specific, concrete examples when explaining a concept? - Did I share either my thought process or a story/personal experience? - Did I include something actionable that the audience could apply or think deeply on?

Engagement Metrics: Monitor likes shares comments & views for audience interaction📊 Audience Feedback: Encourage comments to understand sentiment🗣️ Social Listening: Use tools to track mentions & discussions🔍 Expert Endorsement: Seek recognition from industry leaders👩💼 Web Analytics: Analyze website traffic bounce rates & time spent🌐 Content Reach: Measure content's reach across platforms🌍 Thought Leader Mentions: Check if content is referenced🤝 Survey & Poll: Conduct polls for direct opinions📝 Relevance Check: Ensure alignment with industry trends🎯 Conversion Rate: Track content's impact on business conversions💼 Consistent Branding: Reinforce brand value & messaging🏷️ Adaptability: Stay flexible based on audience preferences🔄

It is critical to be clear of what outcomes you want to achieve. In some instances, you can achieve two or more outcomes. For example, while building your brand, you are also increasing engagement and educating your audience. I ensure that each outline serves a specific purpose to the audience by way of adding value at the same time helping me position better.

Creating Thought Leadership content? First, pause and ask: Is it truly leading-edge? How does it measure up against industry standards? Are these ideas genuinely transformative, well-researched, and original? Or just AI-generated noise? True thought leadership should provoke, challenge norms, and offer grounded, insightful perspectives. If your content is authentic and valuable, it will stand out. Quality naturally rises above the sea of mediocre, recycled ideas. Remember, real impact comes from originality and depth, not just volume and visibility.

Dive deep into your audience's comments, shares, and hashtags on platforms they love. See what sparks conversations, makes them tick, and leaves them wanting more.

Choose an audience you know well to be sure you can serve them well with your Thought Leadership. Consider: - Which clients love you? Let's find more like them. - Ask your target audience which podcasts and other Thought Leadership content they follow. - Which topics/issues are hot for that audience right now? The greater the potential impact - the hotter the issue is. - Always include a mix of topic frameworks: trends, tips, guests, mistakes to avoid, opportunities, best practices. - Which audiences do you have the most credibility with? Consider cross-industry credibility, where there are similar issues. I'm often asked how narrow an audience should be. There is benefit in narrow niches - it makes your expertise stand out even more.

Let your audience steer your Thought Leadership. Discover their pain points through analytics and research. Unearth questions and topics resonating in your niche. Understand their needs, challenges, interests. Tailor your content to speak directly to them. Make your podcast not about you, but for them. Let it address their concerns and curiosities. Show you comprehend their world. Your relevancy will magnetically draw them in.

The expertise that you use in your field determines your target audience. This is different than "Market Audience." For example, your market audience can be those who support DEI, but your target audience are the roles you want to support in DEI. Thus, your target audience could be board members, HR, executives, recruiters or managers. You will leverage your expertise with the group that you want to help. In this way, you are not speaking solutions to everyone in DEI, but the target group you desire to help. As your offer thought leadership, your analytics (i.e. impressions, reposts, likes, comments and even profile views) will confirm who your target audience is.

Understand your audience's needs, preferences, and pain points. Tailoring your content to resonate with them on a personal level fosters connection and receptivity. Neuroscience emphasizes the importance of emotional connection. Craft your thought leadership with narratives that evoke emotions, creating a memorable experience for your audience. Develop personas to visualize your audience. Create content that speaks directly to their challenges, aspirations, and emotions - ensure that you are being truthful and transparent to drive engagement. Leveraging insights from "The Art of Storytelling," weave relatable stories into your thought leadership. Stories engage the brain more effectively, ensuring your message stays with the audience.

Think out of the box when it comes to formats - I love memes as a way of engaging with people. They can be used to explain a concept, highlight a news item and make someone laugh. We also work with GIFs to highlight short overviews of research or market developments - not everything needs to be long form.

Let your podcast format amplify your message. Will interviews spotlight diverse insights? Will solo shows showcase your expertise? Will panels enable lively debate? Will stories humanize your ideas? Experiment and find what resonates. Choose tools that ease production and expand reach. Edit to hone your voice. Length, frequency, tone - optimize each. Make your podcast polished, accessible, shareable. Let the format support your goals and enrich your audience's experience. With purposeful production, your leadership will shine through.

Great points have been raised. As I considered a podcast, considered what platform I wanted to use and the format that worked best for me. I wanted to showcase my expertise as a Black woman leading DEI+ through short stories that link root causes with real solutions. What identity makes you stand out in your niche? Using podcast for thought leadership is a brilliant way to have an access to your authentic voice. With lack of representation of Black women in leadership roles, this is a fantastic medium to hear my distinct voice. Finally, I highly recommend Anchor and Podbean because they are easy to use right from your phone. Those platforms will allow you to expand to other platforms to expand your audience.

Selecting the right format – be it articles, videos, or podcasts – depends on your audience and goals. Leverage a recent funny video or news story that has gone viral to help illustrate your opinions and content to help explain more difficult topics. Neuroscience suggests that varied formats stimulate different parts of the brain. Incorporate visual elements, storytelling, and interactive elements to enhance cognitive processing. Experiment with different content formats. Analyze audience responses to identify which formats resonate most effectively. Referencing "Out on the Wire," embrace the power of storytelling in podcast format for compelling thought leadership. Engaging narratives through audio can create a unique connection.

A certain level of A/B testing is essential for promoting your podcast. One thing I would suggest is low-stakes paid advertising on social media platforms or podcast advertising networks to reach a wider audience. Test different ad formats, targeting options, and messaging to see what resonates best with your target audience.

Join online groups, forums, and subreddits where your target audience hangs out. Share what you know, be helpful, and casually bring up your podcast (no spam).

Your Thought Leadership podcasts deserve an audience. Promote them across channels. Share snippets on your website and social media. Collaborate with those in your niche. Leverage influencers and communities. Be creative and consistent with marketing. Track analytics to optimize efforts. Keep honing your outreach and expanding your impact. Let your compelling insights spread far and wide. To grow your listenership, persistently sow promotional seeds. With strategic awareness building, your voice will be heard and your leadership magnified.

There are many ways to promote a Thought Leadership podcast. To reach your target audience, you begin sharing with your email list, connections and followers on LinkedIn and Tik Tok. I suggest sharing question as a "podcast pitch" to get your audience interested in listening and engaging. I did so with each podcast and it expanded to 6 countries. Don't be afraid of promotion. Embrace it. Your past and present clients and past and present colleagues will appreciate learning new insights from you that will help them "get better faster."

When you are just starting focus on these basic metrics like likes, shares, comments, and retweets. After that, look for downloads, webinar signups, and comments with actual questions.

Ever wondered why it's always called best selling and never best written novel? 😉 It's the same when it comes to digital content. The key metrics that help your message go further and wider tends to be favoured over others for thought leadership. So things like Reach is better than Likes. Imagine what are you leading in thought when your best written content is read by no one? 🤣. So focus on consumption than engagement as priority.

Measure your podcast's impact against your North Star metrics. Track downloads, subscriptions, reviews, shares. Dig into engagement and growth insights. Survey listeners for qualitative feedback. Keep optimizing based on data-driven discoveries. Refine and realign as needed, but stay true to your purpose. Let analytics reveal what resonates so you can deliver more value. Use metrics not just for validation, but for continuous improvement. With regular analysis, your podcast will evolve and your leadership lessons will keenly resonate. Evaluation is the compass guiding your journey.

Regularly assess key metrics aligned with your goals. Utilize analytics tools to measure engagement, conversion rates, and audience feedback - this will ensure that you are not drifting too far from your original content creation intentions. Neuroscience emphasizes the brain's reward system. Analyzing positive responses to your content triggers a sense of accomplishment, reinforcing your commitment to thought leadership. Establish a consistent analytics routine. Use insights to refine your content strategy iteratively. Following principles from "Creating a Data-Driven Organization," leverage analytics tools effectively. Data-driven decisions refine your thought leadership approach based on real-time insights.

Rather than focusing solely on immediate reactions, I look at long-term engagement. Does the content continue to be referenced or discussed weeks or months later? Thought leadership should have a lasting impact, influencing perspectives and decisions over time. Personally, I value content that leads to introspection and change. When readers reach out to share how a piece influenced their thinking or led them to change a behavior or approach, I know it has truly resonated. Finally, I measure the success of my content by how fulfilling the process of creating and sharing it is. Authentic thought leadership should stem from a genuine desire to contribute and share knowledge, not just from a pursuit of recognition.

You'll be surprised to know that the same content posted at different times will give you very different results. 😱 This is the unfortunate reality of real-time content affecting the newsfeed algorithm of digital platforms. So at first your content doesn't succeed, try again but with slightly different parameters. Hence reposting older content to refine your positioning, delivery and timing can give valuable insights to better performance over time. 😉

To gauge if your Thought Leadership content is hitting the mark, monitor engagement metrics such as views, shares, comments, and the time spent on your content. Look for increases in followers or subscribers as an indicator of growing interest. Analyzing feedback in comments or through direct communication can provide qualitative insights into the content's impact. Additionally, tracking any uptick in inquiries about your services or mentions in industry discussions can signal that your content is resonating with the intended audience and establishing you as a thought leader.

Check how far you are able to- Collaborate (and not just engage) Thought Leadership is not just about having insights and ideas. It's about sharing them, improving them and inspiring others progressively. See if people are able to contribute to your perspective and have conversations with you. If people love to partner with you for your niche, you are definitely doing great at Thought Leadership. All the best 👍

Test and learn, topics, formats, lengths, tone of voice, but in the end it's got to be you, otherwise it will feel like a chore. And if the choice is post or don't post - post! 😉