Twitter® Marketing For Dummies®

Chapter 14. Building Thought Leadership on Twitter

In This Chapter

• Discovering why you should be a thought leader

• Writing an effective Twitter bio

• Becoming a thought leader in your industry

Being a thought leader means you're recognized by others as having innovative ideas. People are interested in what you have to say. They follow your tweets, read your blog posts, and buy your books. You get invited to speak at industry events — and often get paid to do it.

Being a thought leader doesn't mean you're going to be famous. You might be vertically famous: You're the dominant name in your industry, the rock star of your niche, the one name that everyone whispers in hushed tones whenever you're at a conference. But you're just another regular person whenever you go to the store, and your spouse's friends just smile politely and say "that's nice" whenever you try to explain what you do.

In the social-media world, you call these Web celebrities cewebrities. (This term comes across better in writing — when you say "cewebrities" out loud, it sounds like baby talk.) Each industry has cewebrities and thought leaders. Take any industry (it could be the poultry production business, political polling, or carbide-tipped saw-blade manufacturing), and you can find people who have earned the respect and envy of their colleagues.

You too can become a cewebrity! It all starts on Twitter and with your blog.

Tip

Don't limit your thought leadership to just Twitter and building a blog. While you grow your leadership ...