Ideally, the content you generate isn't just a way of promoting your ideas, your business, and your work. It can actually change the nature of your industry. That requires setting a higher bar, but when you do, the content you produce as a thought leader can help raise the value of ideas and the spread of information in general within your space.
In other words, if you're really an effective thought leader, you aren't just slavishly self-promoting—just as your business aims to do with its products, you're helping your audience solve a problem or fill a need with your ideas.
The underlying premise of "thought leadership" itself, after all, is that the CEO got to where they are by collecting knowledge and skills, and developing the aptitude to oversee a company. That's why most people don't really want to hear from a marketing manager about what's happening in the company.
While CEOs need to take the reins and establish an authentic voice on social media and elsewhere, companies still need to devote a portion of their overall content marketing plan on their leaders' messaging. They shouldn't be identical—readers can tell in an instant when they're being fed canned messages—but they should inform one another.
Give us a shout to learn more about how to use content marketing to boost your architecture, design, or real estate company.