Thought leadership daily checklist {+1 bonus weekly task}

If you want to be a thought leader, aka a trusted voice in your industry, it takes hustle. 

I promise you, the benefits of thought leadership are fantastico. This thought leadership daily checklist will help you stay on track. 

But first, a word on overstretching

I recommend you find and do what works for you. Taking on something unsustainable then flaking out on it? Not fun. 

If you have a healthy inner critic, you’ll likely blame yourself for failing a task that was unrealistic to begin with. 

Side note: my inner critic is called VB – vicious bitch. 

Having said that? 

You probably know, deep in your belly button, that you need to push yourself a little bit. But not too much. No burnout. But do a bit more than you are currently doing. 

Hence, the need for this thought leadership daily checklist. 

Thought leadership daily checklist #1 post on social

LinkedIn is your natural home of thought leadership. Its’ where all the corporate, business-y types hang out. It’s also delivering insanely good reach right now, so get on it. 

But this rule applies to any social platform. Figure out the platform where your ideal audience hangs out, and you hang out there too. 

By all means, go bonkers on all the platforms, or just focus on a few.

Anyway, post your content.

As a trusted voice in your industry, post some kind of social post every day. Your audience wants to hear from you. The algorithms tend to show your content to about 5% of your audience (at best) so posting regularly is a good way to keep up your engagement. 

Thought leadership daily checklist #2: engagement 

Seriously, don’t just share your content and nick off for a cuppa English Breakfast. Contribute on the platform. Spend 10, 15 or twenty minutes engaging with content shared by others. Reply to comments on your posts too. 

Be the kind of person who comments and shares content from others. We all love comments on our content.  

If you’re being particularly strategic you can comment on selectively chosen people’s content: 

1. your ideal clients – so they know you exist and perhaps think of you when they need you
2. people who are followed by your ideal clients – who may discover you when reading the comments 
3. people who serve your ideal clients but aren’t your competitors (eg fitness coach and nutritionist, web designer and copywriter)  
4. (if appropriate) your competitors – because we all have an abundance mindset and support each other 

Thought leadership daily checklist #3: go live 

Lives have fantastic reach. Social platforms algorithms tend to reward live streams. Live Streams get double the engagement of pre-recorded videos (Social Insider).

So, as a thought leader, going live should be part of your thing. The good thing about going live is you don’t have time to worry about flubbing your lines and recording take after take. You’re live, so you have to keep going. 

It’s a great way to get more confident on camera. Because it forces you to show up as your natural, brilliant, wonderful self. You can even go live when you are out nordic pole walking, or whatever. It’s okay to be a bit scruffy or relaxed in a livestream.

The more casual you are, the easier it is to get it done without overthinking.

Of course, going live every single day may be tricky. And rather excessive. But keep showing up regularly, at a frequency that works for you. 

Some things you can talk about when you go live: 

• launch a mini-task or challenge for the day
• share your daily plans
• explain a question you were asked that others may benefit from 
• ponder a point and ask for opinions 
• discuss a new idea you’ve learned 
• share a story from your past (lesson learned, big mistake, first job) 
• promote your new offer 
• discuss your latest blog post (or an old blog post) 
• explain a mistake you see people making 
• share what makes you mad (be prepared for argument) 

It’s a brilliant way to gain and keep followers.

Thought leadership daily checklist #4: video posts

Videos can be pre-recorded so they’re not the same as going live.

To convince you, here’s some stats on the impact of social media videos:

• Video posts on LinkedIn are shared 20 times more than other content formats (LinkedIn)
• Video posts on Instagram receive twice as much engagement as compared to other types of posts (Search Engine Journal)
• 66% of people said they’d prefer to watch a short video to learn about a product or service (Elite Content Marketer)

Your audience wants to see you and get to know you. Video is perfect for this. Because social media users tend to watch video on silent, captions are vital. 

Put the value in the video. 

You’re a trusted industry voice, so you want to share as much free helpful stuff in your videos. 

There’s a million ways to use video in your thought leadership efforts, but here’s how I do it: 

• post videos daily (Monday – Friday) 
• share a small snippet of advice 
• aim for one to three minutes in duration
• film at home with my iPhone 
• use a ring light and tripod
• send them to my VA for captioning 
• batch film five videos at once 
• repeat 

Don’t overthink it. Just share high value videos. 

I don’t get many video views. But the people who contact me (and become my clients) always say they watch my videos. So it’s not about the number of views at all. It’s about attracting the right people. 

Thought leadership daily checklist #5: upskilling, learning and reading 

When you commit to teaching others, you also commit to keeping yourself educated. What do you need to learn to stay on top of your game? 

Whether it’s a course, reading or higher education, dedicating time every day to learn more about your niche is vital. 

You don’t want to be that person who did all their learning back in 2007. We all had flip phones and wore footless tights back then. 

So your daily agenda should include learning in the form of: 

• podcast a-listening
• YouTube video a-watching
• books a-reading
• hashtags a-following 
• newsletters a-subscribing 

Thought leadership daily checklist #6: PR yourself 

PR is the absolute tits. There are thousands of blogs, podcasts, publications, radio stations, TV shows and online channels seeking people to comment. Plus, with most coverage you get, you nab a backlink to your own thought leadership hub, your website, which is good for SEO. 

So you need to be comfortable with putting yourself out there to media. That’s why it’s great to have a daily habit of exploring PR opportunities. YOu can subscribe to SourceBottle or HARO to find opportunities. Or, just get in the habit of sending a quick pitch to your favourite content producer: 

• pitch yourself as a podcast guest 
• offer a guest blog post 
• send an article to your local or trade media 
• jump on big news stories and pitch your take to TV, radio or print media 
• offer yourself for a joint Livestream or interview with fellow thought leaders 
• suggest yourself for profile ‘day in the life’ columns 
• whip up a pithy opinion piece for your trade media 

Thought leadership daily checklist #7: Google alerts 

I dunno about your industry. But in my world, things change pretty fast. So I need to follow the news. A great way to stay up to date with all that’s happening? Set up a Google alert for your niche subject. Every day, you’ll get an update from Google with all the mentions of your subject. 

How incredibly easy. And convenient. The hardest thing? Taking the time to read it. 

If you read your Google alert daily, you’ll be the first to know when things happen in your industry. Then you can share your take on your socials, or just add to the conversation in the right way. Genius. 

TL;DR — your thought leadership daily checklist

1. post on social media 
2. engage on social media, like share and comment on others’ content  
3. go live 
4. share a video
5. pitch yourself for PR opportunities 
6. upskill, learn and read
7. read your daily Google alert 

Bonus – thought leadership extra: weekly task

Write a blog! 

You want your website to be a thought leadership hub. And that means lotsa blogs.

Some nutters will tell you to publish 11 blogs per month. Sure, if you want to burnout.  Or spend thousands on copywriters. Knock yourself out. 

But if you live in the real world and have a business to run? I recommend two blogs per month. GOOD ones. 

• 1000+ words
• SEO optimised 
• chockas with personality 
• conversational tone 
• plenty of subheadings
• clever use of keywords 

“You’ll never change your life unless you change something you do daily. The secret of success is found in your daily routine.” 

John C Maxwell

If you liked this blog post then:

• Check out my epic guide to thought leadership 
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