Thought Leadership: How to Remain Top of Mind in Your Industry

Do you consider yourself a thought leader?

Want to know what it takes to become a guest on a major podcast or a speaker at large events?

In this episode I go behind the scenes at Social Media Examiner with Phil Mershon.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode I interview Phil Mershon, director of events at Social Media Examiner. This show is the official third anniversary of the Social Media Marketing podcast.

Phil and I will explore how we pick the thought leaders in our industry for our conferences and podcast.

You'll discover how to become a thought leader in any industry.

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Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Thought Leadership
What thought leadership means

Phil talks about the two parts that go into being a thought leader. First, there's the "thought" element. It starts with people who have excellent forward thinking, stay on the cutting edge and push boundaries, understand deeply how things work and are able to articulate it.

And second, they must be a "leader," someone whom others listen to and follow. A thought leader does those things over time, consistently producing material that people will listen to month in and month out.

Before I started Social Media Examiner, I was called one of the leading authorities in the white paper world. To earn that, I constantly wrote articles, started a blog, did training, wrote a book, summarized industry research and had a monthly newsletter.

Establishing yourself as a thought leader is a lot of work. Even harder is maintaining it. Mari Smith is an excellent example of someone who chose to own her title of "Facebook Expert," and is having great results.

Listen to the show to discover how long Phil and I have been working together and what we did before Social Media Examiner.

How we decide who should be on the podcast and on our stages

When deciding on our content, we ask two questions: "What should people speak about?" and "Who should speak about those subjects?"

To determine what people will speak about, we look very carefully at the data, Phil explains. We study our annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report, which is based on the subjects our readers tell us they do and do not care about. It influences decisions about the kinds of speakers we need to find, which sometimes means we need to seek out experts we don't know yet.

If you want to pitch yourself to a conference or podcast, it's important to first study it. Look at the organization's typical lineup to see what kinds of things people are speaking about, and determine if you're a fit.

Not every thought leader is appropriate for every situation. We get inquires all the time from people who pitch us things that aren't appropriate.

Listen to the show to hear how booking speakers is like programming for television.

What we look for in our speakers

Phil and I share the four criteria we look for in a speaker.

1. Are they a great communicator?

We're not just looking for inspirational communicators, we are looking for people who can explain or teach at a very deep level how to use the different social media platforms.

A lot of people think they're great communicators, but a lot of people also think they're good drivers. I share how when Sally Hogshead was keynoting at Social Media Marketing World, she said "Raise your hand if you think you are a good driver." About 95% of the hands went up in the room. Then she says, "Interestingly enough, research shows that only 55% of people are good drivers, so that means that about 40% of you are kidding your...