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A great thought leader pays attention to writing ✍️ skills to connect their mind to the minds of their audiences. It is hard to convey your thoughts and validate them without clear writing. 

These six formats are fundamental to your success as a thought leader. By signing thought leadership assets with your name as lead or co-author, you have the required skin in the game to go from good to great. 

What is new: Content formats for thought leadership are continuously evolving and further redefined by the introduction of Generative AI. 

Why it matters: Thought leadership content fights for attention from audiences with shorter attention spans and by competing with a vast volume of initiatives from low to high quality. 

🎙️ A powerful talk track: Thought leaders represent their company at various stages. Aim for a solid foundation that allows you to move between formats and media with low effort. 

Build from questions you get from customers or topics that will translate into a great interview. Three to five topics per theme is a good starting point. Talk tracks are suitable as a foundation for fireside chats and interviews. 

Tailor the number of questions to the typical length of deliveries, with fewer questions for executive sessions and more questions for subject matter experts. 

📄 An exciting blog post: Blogging remains a robust format, especially for short turn-around times and for a series where episode scope and details gradually evolve. 

Experiment with different blog formats and dare to let your personality shine through. Use 800-1200 words as a baseline and evolve from there. Leverage the value of professional editors to raise the quality level. 

📑 A professional article: Articles differ from blog posts as they are longer and guided by the tone of voice of the publication and its audience. 

Be ready to write a byline article for your flagship publications or paid media. 1200-2000 words fit on two or four pages with some graphical complements. Expect developing these assets to be a team effort with multiple review rounds. 

📜 An in-depth Harvard Business Review-like article: This is the ultimate target 🎯 for thought leadership writing. This high ambition level requires clarity in strategic thinking and proof points for the points made. 

Build from a crisp visualization of your point of view. Many HBR articles build around a matrix of some sort. These pieces are similar to the article in length but written exclusively for a business-savvy audience.

📋 An executive brief: Few executives will have time to read the pillar assets behind your thought leadership. Make it easy for them to consume your point of view and guide their teams on the meatier pieces. 

Think of texts to go into a newsletter or similar. Strong headlines, 200-300 words in length, where each sentence should add to the story and increase their interest in taking action to learn more. 

📂 LinkedIn promotions: Few thought leadership assets fly without promotion posts. LinkedIn is likely your first choice for promoting thought leadership on third-party platforms. 

Similar to Executive briefs, there is more room for personal twists and links to powerful hashtags and influencers that can increase reach. 

A great thought leader writes great promotion texts for their and peers’ assets. 

Additional reading suggestions 

• Everybody Writes, 2nd edition [BOOK] – by Ann Handley
• Smart brevity [BOOK] – by Jim Vandehei, Mike Allen, Roy Schwartz
• The art of crafting talk tracks your Executives will love [BLOGPOST] – Own contribution 
• 16 expert blogging topics to position a brand as a thought leader [ARTICLE] – by Forbes Agency Council 
• From good to great: 4 quick tips for writing superb byline articles [BLOGPOST] – Kirsty Goodlett, Ketner Group
• Harvard Business Review’s guidelines for contributors [GUIDELINE] – by Harvard Business Review 
• How to write a compelling executive summary [ARTICLE] – by Geoffrey James, Inc
• How to write powerful thought leadership posts on LinkedIn [ARTICLE] – Elite Editing 

Bottom line: Thought leadership is a multichannel game, and aim to become great at writing in all six formats and be prepared to pivot as audience preferences change.