1-Minute Insight: Leveraging the Sleeper Effect to Be a Thought Leader

Being a thought leader opens up opportunities. As a thought leader, you are perceived as an authority on a subject, and this gives you a competitive advantage that reinforces your personal branding, boosts sales, and increases profitability.

In the era before social media, thought leadership was elusive. Today, the ability of a savvy social media user to amplify his or her presence means it is possible for anyone to position themselves as a thought leader.

While publishing new insightful articles on topics in your chosen area of specialization is a prerequisite for thought leadership, this is strictly speaking not necessary. It is actually possible to position yourself as a thought leader by reposting articles, by established speakers and authors, and commenting on them.

This is where the science of the sleeper effect comes in.

During the Second World War, Psychologist Carl Howland studied the impact of propaganda films on soldiers. What the study found was that while there was no noticeable change to the soldiers' attitude immediately after viewing the film, noticeable changes were identified 9 weeks later. Carl Howland concluded that this was due to the psychological effect where the source of the argument fades faster than the arguments in the…