Being a Thought Leader in Your Creative Community
Being a thought leader in a creative community is someone who posts new ideas and galvanizes the community towards a better future. You cannot claim yourself to be a thought leader, of course, it is a moniker that others must give to you, but you can be a thought leader in how you act and what you do for your community, especially if your creative community is underrepresented.
Before, being a thought leader meant going through traditional channels. It means getting published in magazines and publishers. It meant being peer-reviewed, and it meant speaking at conferences and other similar events. Now, you can be a thought leader from your bedroom. Influencers come from anywhere in the world because they can set up their own platform and grow a community themselves. This means small and niche communities can now gather together and share ideas together, becoming a more nuanced and representative entity.
Before you can gain the title of thought leader from your peers, you need to follow these steps:
Creating a Personal Brand
Whether you operate under your given name, a nickname or a company name doesn’t matter, what does matter is that you build up your personal brand. In many cases, this is simply working on your career in your industry and making a name for yourself that way, but you don’t necessarily need to be working in your community to be a thought leader. In fact, many creative communities lack traditional career models to operate in, meaning if you want to make money doing what you love you will have to become an entrepreneur.
Defining Your Niche
Niches are wonderful things because they allow individuals to make a mark and gain an audience. Writing for the industry at large or starting a lifestyle magazine means you are trying to gain all kinds of readers, yes, but it also means that you will be competing against the biggest magazines or companies out there, who have the resources and the reputation. When you cater to a niche (the more specific, the better), you offer something new and unique. Having 500 dedicated readers can do wonders for any personal brand, rather than fighting for even a hit to your website.
Working in a niche also allows you to bring more representation to the table. If you write specifically about black female artists in the Brooklyn, or if you focus on animation techniques in cartoons, or any other hyper-specific niche, you will find that you are automatically offering something new that will interest readers. Those who write and research about these niches can even find that their readers are willing to sponsor them, in the form of subscriptions or other crowd-funding methods.
Start a Website
Before you can grow a community in your niche, you must first have an online presence. The sharing of information is precisely what has made the Internet so successful, after all, and it is where you will have your platform. To set yourself apart from a vast majority of the internet, however, you need to put an emphasis on quality, unique pieces.
In terms of cost, websites can be as expensive or as cheap as you need them to be. If you don’t have the capacity or budget to invest any money, there are beautiful themes and easy-to-use platforms out there that allow you to create your website for free. For beginners, these free websites are exactly what you need to start out.
Interview Others
If you want to grow a community, you need to engage your community. Writing your own opinions and your own research is great to start with, but interviewing others in your community can help bring everyone together. It can also help you gain exposure. Interview other creatives or project leaders and not only will you provide more value to your readers, but you can also collaborate with your new friends.
The tighter a community is, the better because that is when information and ideas flow and change and visibility can be made.
Grow Your Community
Other methods to grow your community will include traditional digital and traditional marketing methods. Social media is a great way to stay in touch and produce consistent content to your community, even when there is no new blog content. It is also how you can have conversations and engage, nurturing your relationship with those who follow you. Thought leaders know that their ideas are not dogma, but instead, something that should be challenged and expanded upon at every opportunity.
Host Events
Grow your community enough, and you can even start hosting events. These events are designed specifically to help each other learn, network, and even collaborate. They can start off as small as need be, and can be a simple meet up in a café in a meet and greet. As you grow bigger and become more reputable across larger niches, you will find that you can even host conferences.
To host a successful event, no matter big or small, however, you must remember branding. When people go to events, they want it to feel organized and useful, and branding can help accomplish this. For instance, at a café meet-and-greet, you can print off a few sheets so you can collect everyone’s information, and at the top have your logo printed. For larger events, you can have custom lanyards for guests and speakers alike from this company, as well as goodie bags and custom decorations to pull the event together.
Being a thought leader is posting new and innovative ideas, but in some creative niches being a thought leader will automatically put you in the position to be an industry leader. Take up the mantel with care, because the more professional, organized, and inclusive you are, the better you can make your community. Bring people together to celebrate art, creation, and the world, and in turn, you can turn your passion into a successful career that improves the representation and visibility of artists everywhere.
Before you can gain the title of thought leader from your peers, you need to follow these steps:
Creating a Personal Brand
Whether you operate under your given name, a nickname or a company name doesn’t matter, what does matter is that you build up your personal brand. In many cases, this is simply working on your career in your industry and making a name for yourself that way, but you don’t necessarily need to be working in your community to be a thought leader. In fact, many creative communities lack traditional career models to operate in, meaning if you want to make money doing what you love you will have to become an entrepreneur.
Defining Your Niche
Niches are wonderful things because they allow individuals to make a mark and gain an audience. Writing for the industry at large or starting a lifestyle magazine means you are trying to gain all kinds of readers, yes, but it also means that you will be competing against the biggest magazines or companies out there, who have the resources and the reputation. When you cater to a niche (the more specific, the better), you offer something new and unique. Having 500 dedicated readers can do wonders for any personal brand, rather than fighting for even a hit to your website.
Working in a niche also allows you to bring more representation to the table. If you write specifically about black female artists in the Brooklyn, or if you focus on animation techniques in cartoons, or any other hyper-specific niche, you will find that you are automatically offering something new that will interest readers. Those who write and research about these niches can even find that their readers are willing to sponsor them, in the form of subscriptions or other crowd-funding methods.
Start a Website
Before you can grow a community in your niche, you must first have an online presence. The sharing of information is precisely what has made the Internet so successful, after all, and it is where you will have your platform. To set yourself apart from a vast majority of the internet, however, you need to put an emphasis on quality, unique pieces.
In terms of cost, websites can be as expensive or as cheap as you need them to be. If you don’t have the capacity or budget to invest any money, there are beautiful themes and easy-to-use platforms out there that allow you to create your website for free. For beginners, these free websites are exactly what you need to start out.
Interview Others
If you want to grow a community, you need to engage your community. Writing your own opinions and your own research is great to start with, but interviewing others in your community can help bring everyone together. It can also help you gain exposure. Interview other creatives or project leaders and not only will you provide more value to your readers, but you can also collaborate with your new friends.
The tighter a community is, the better because that is when information and ideas flow and change and visibility can be made.
Grow Your Community
Other methods to grow your community will include traditional digital and traditional marketing methods. Social media is a great way to stay in touch and produce consistent content to your community, even when there is no new blog content. It is also how you can have conversations and engage, nurturing your relationship with those who follow you. Thought leaders know that their ideas are not dogma, but instead, something that should be challenged and expanded upon at every opportunity.
Host Events
Grow your community enough, and you can even start hosting events. These events are designed specifically to help each other learn, network, and even collaborate. They can start off as small as need be, and can be a simple meet up in a café in a meet and greet. As you grow bigger and become more reputable across larger niches, you will find that you can even host conferences.
To host a successful event, no matter big or small, however, you must remember branding. When people go to events, they want it to feel organized and useful, and branding can help accomplish this. For instance, at a café meet-and-greet, you can print off a few sheets so you can collect everyone’s information, and at the top have your logo printed. For larger events, you can have custom lanyards for guests and speakers alike from this company, as well as goodie bags and custom decorations to pull the event together.
Being a thought leader is posting new and innovative ideas, but in some creative niches being a thought leader will automatically put you in the position to be an industry leader. Take up the mantel with care, because the more professional, organized, and inclusive you are, the better you can make your community. Bring people together to celebrate art, creation, and the world, and in turn, you can turn your passion into a successful career that improves the representation and visibility of artists everywhere.
