• Thought leadership is all about providing useful information to your customers. There is a goldmine of information waiting to be dug up in consumer feedback and statistics. The first place to start is by conducting research of your own, slicing and dicing data sets to identify and derive insights, and sharing your results with your readers.
• People love entertainment. Provide a fresh source of humor or wit in your content, whilst including personal anecdotes or stories of how or why something happened to you or someone you know in a way that relates to everyday customers. Highlight how a certain approach, product, or insight helped you or them overcome the problem at hand. This will imprint your comments and suggestions in memory, and casual customers will be more likely to remember you. Whenever they are ready to take the plunge and are ready to buy or purchase something, your suggestions will drive their actions.
• Start small, with a blog. Refine your online presence. Use your blog, Facebook page, or LinkedIn account to showcase your knowledge. Include relevant, beneficial content everywhere you post.
• Promote your content in the right places, in the right way, while you work on building your online presence. Tweeting an update with a catchy title, using the right images, crafting the perfect script, and even knowing what the ideal length of a post all take time to perfect. However, with time, and by using the right platforms with the right crowd, you’ll slowly gain traction and your search rank will rise.
• Stay ahead of the curve. To be an influential, respected, and followed thought leader, you have to understand your industry thoroughly. See what’s happening in online circles related to yours, keep track of industry developments, read everything on the likes of Quora, Reddit, and LinkedIn groups, and also be sure to read books, articles, and online content created by other influencers.

A number of important things go into becoming a thought leader and developing your own personal brand and presence. However, the five points above are enough to get you started. Once the ball starts rolling, things will take shape and you can then address different areas of interest as the need arises.