Expert to influence: 7 steps to building thought leaders

In today’s interconnected world, sharing information has never been easier. The experts in your field already have valuable insights to share. The challenge? Building an audience that is listening and engaged. With the right social media strategy, you can leverage your expert’s expertise, expand their reach and help build thought leaders.

Thought leadership goes beyond gaining followers; it bolsters your organisation’s credibility and unlocks opportunities for growth, impact and trailblazing excellence. You’ve got the knowledge – now it’s time to build your brand.

Find 7 steps to build your audience and establish your leader’s voices:

1. Earn trust through authenticity 

Transparency and principle are the cornerstones of building trust. Here are some tactics for your marketing team to act as a strategic partner, ensuring your expert’s authenticity is preserved and amplified while minimising their workload:

• Conduct a tone of voice workshop 
  • Schedule a Q&A session to discuss their values and motivations
  • Explore their likes, dislikes and passions to uncover unique insights that make their voice stand out
  • Create a personalised “tone of voice guide,” to serve as a reference for all posts, articles and interactions
• Create a content framework – Develop a library of content themes and templates based on their passions and expertise. 
  • Identify core topics 
  • Draft post templates that reflect their unique voice, making it easy for them to tweak and approve
• Manage their account for authentic interaction – Your marketing team can manage the expert’s LinkedIn account while maintaining their personal voice.
  • Temporarily take over account management to handle routine tasks like responding to comments, liking posts and engaging with stakeholders
  • Draft responses or posts based on their preferences and tone
  • Use this period to demonstrate the power of consistent, authentic engagement and build their confidence in maintaining this themselves
• Conduct check-ins – Ensure the expert’s brand evolves alongside their experiences with regular feedback loops.
  • Host quarterly reviews to assess how their content is resonating 
  • Present analytics and audience feedback to showcase the impact of their posts and suggest adjustments.

2. Craft a distinctive, personal brand

Professionals with strong personal brands are 10 x more likely to be perceived as credible and trustworthy, according to LinkedIn. This is critical for experts seeking to influence decision-makers and drive public discourse.

Here’s how to build a compelling personal brand that reflects your organisation’s mission and amplifies its impact:

• Utilise LinkedIn features – Newsletters, creator mode and live video enable your experts to share insights and host meaningful discussions. 
  • Example: Start a LinkedIn newsletter to update followers with thought-provoking articles
• Optimise LinkedIn profiles for credibility and clarity – Showcase policy contributions, advisory roles and published work.
  • Tactic: Use bullet points and subheadings to highlight achievements, such as “Speaker: NHS Future Health Summit.”
• Highlight leadership roles – Update profiles with their participation in committees, advisory boards and projects.
• Engage in sector-specific conversations – Encourage your experts to share insights and solutions in spaces tied to public policy, such as LinkedIn groups or trending hashtags.
  • Tactic: Add comments or posts to conversations tagged with #DigitalTransformationGov to showcase expertise and engage with decision-makers.
• Collaborative work with NGOs, local councils, or government bodies enhances credibility and reach. Sharing success stories positions your experts as results-driven leaders.

3. Build a community by giving back

Community engagement isn’t just about visibility – it’s about fostering meaningful relationships that amplify your expert’s reach and establish their credibility. Engaging actively within the right communities can position your experts as a trusted voice while delivering tangible value.

Here’s how your experts can actively participate in and contribute to community engagement:

• Join and lead LinkedIn groups – Encourage your experts to join (or create) LinkedIn groups tailored to their field, such as public sector innovation or sustainability in government.
• Collaborate on community projects – Your experts should actively engage in collaborative projects that align with their expertise.
• Host interactive events – Interactive events can make your experts more approachable and deepen relationships.
  • Tactic: Host an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session on LinkedIn about a pressing topic. Promote it across your networks and encourage attendees to participate actively.
• Share community contributions – Shine a spotlight on others within your expert’s network. Sharing the work or achievements of peers and collaborators fosters goodwill and reciprocity, which strengthens your expert’s presence in the community.
  • Tactic: Post about events, research, or achievements from other community members, tagging them to celebrate their efforts. For example, “Great insights from @JaneSmith’s recent webinar on smart city planning – here’s what we learned.”
• Create and nurture niche communities – If a relevant group doesn’t exist, help your experts create one. Building a niche community allows them to curate meaningful discussions while establishing themselves as a thought leader in their field.

4. Don’t just state facts, tell stories

Your audience is far more interested in your narrative than your fact sheet.  Stories are the most effective way to capture attention, foster connections and ensure your message is remembered. Storytelling transforms dry data into compelling narratives that resonate with audiences.

Here’s how your experts can use storytelling to amplify their message:

• Frame data around human impact – Statistics are important, but they‘re most memorable when tied to the people they affect
• Use case studies to highlight impact – Showcase the success of your initiatives through specific, real-life scenarios
• Incorporate personal stories – Authenticity and relatability grow when your experts share their own experiences or amplify the voices of those your organisation serves
• Start posts with attention-grabbing narratives – To stand out on LinkedIn, hook your audience with a relatable or emotional story before diving into the facts.

5. Liven up insights with creative formats

There are a plethora of different formats to choose from when it comes to presenting your expert’s ideas. Finding the right one is vital for achieving maximum impact, comprehension and engagement. 

Here’s how to make your expert’s content more engaging and impactful with the right creative formats:

• Transform data into Infographics – Infographics are powerful tools for simplifying complex information. Use them to break down policy impacts, survey results or legislative summaries into digestible, visually engaging formats.
  • Top Tip: Infographics are ideal for policy briefs and annual updates, helping your audience quickly grasp the key takeaways
• Use videos to tell stories – Video is one of the most engaging formats for social media and is particularly effective for humanising your expert’s work or explaining complex topics.
  • Top Tip: Even a simple animation or talking-head video can turn a dry topic into a dynamic and relatable message.
• Create slide decks for LinkedIn carousels – Carousel posts on LinkedIn are excellent for delivering multiple points in a visually appealing, step-by-step format. This works well for showcasing processes, initiatives, or research findings.
  • Top Tip: Use bold visuals and concise text for maximum engagement.
• Combine maps and graphics to show regional impact – Visualising geographic data can highlight how policies or initiatives affect different regions. Interactive maps or static graphics are particularly engaging.
  • Top Tip: Use contrasting colours and icons to make maps and data visually compelling.
• Turn key stats into visual snippets – Statistics can lose their impact in plain text. Present them as bold, branded visuals to make them pop and drive higher engagement.
  • Top Tip: The format you choose should enhance – not overshadow – the message. A graph, map, or video that clarifies a point will resonate far more than a wall of text. 

6. Keep the stream of content flowing

With so many platforms vying for attention, maintaining a consistent presence is key to expanding your expert’s reach and building their authority. Different platforms attract different audiences, so tailoring your approach for each is crucial. Whether it’s LinkedIn for professional thought leadership or Twitter for real-time updates, consistency ensures both your audience and algorithms stay engaged.

Here’s how to keep the content pipeline full and relevant:

• Create a content calendar to ensure posts are timely, relevant and aligned with key goals or events.
  • Tactic: Plan content themes around significant dates (e.g., policy launches or awareness days) 
• Batch create content for efficiency using templates and AI tools
  • Tactic: Use tools like ChatGPT to draft post ideas and Canva to create matching graphics. E.g, draft five posts highlighting key takeaways from a recent report.
• Leverage your content repository – Your in-house team likely has valuable reports, presentations or blogs that can be repurposed into shareable content.
  • Tactic: Extract key stats or insights and reformat them into graphics, short videos or carousel posts tailored to each platform.

7. Stay curious

Curiosity demonstrates that your experts are open to growth, collaboration and fresh perspectives – qualities that resonate with both professional peers and public audiences.

Here’s how your experts can channel curiosity to grow their influence and enrich their content:

• Ask questions to spark engagement – invite their audience to share opinions, insights or feedback. 
  • Pro Tip: Regularly post polls or questions on LinkedIn and share reflections based on audience responses to deepen engagement.
• Encourage your experts to seek ideas from other fields or industries to bring fresh insights to their audience. 
  • Example: “I recently attended a webinar on urban planning trends in Europe – it got me thinking about how we can adapt similar strategies for rural communities here.”
• Collaborate with peers and other thought leaders – Actively networking shows your expert’s openness to new ideas while building their professional profile.
  • Example: Join a panel discussion or co-author an article with another thought leader on shared challenges
  • Pro Tip: Tag collaborators and highlight takeaways from these interactions to showcase the value of the exchange.
• Use feedback as a learning opportunity 
  • Pro Tip: Use feedback to inspire new posts or articles, acknowledging the contributors to keep the conversation going.

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Author information

Rory, our dynamic Social Media Lead has over 8 years of dedicated B2B social experience. He excels in strategy, planning and campaign management and drives engagement by creating fresh concepts and strategies for brands.

Learn more about Rory

Emily, our content manager joined SeventhElement in 2018 and is behind the creative thinking and SEO content strategy that fuels our client projects.

Learn more about Emily