Recently on TechCrunch, an announcement from LinkedIn declared that the social business site is designing a circle of key influential thought leaders that LinkedIn account users can follow. Similar to Twitter, LinkedIn will allow users to follow the posts of these influential people without the limit of a 140 characters. If there was anything that LinkedIn took from their breakup with Twitter (besides that old jersey) is some social media marketing sense.
LinkedIn's new feature will host 150 of the most influential people on LinkedIn including President Obama, Mitt Romney, Deepak Chopra and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson. These members of LinkedIn's "influential thought leader" group are predetermined by the social site and all conversations and profiles that interact with the group will be strictly a professional business related nature.
While there is a feature that allows you to discover your thought leader eligibility, LinkedIn is going to determine who is and isn't worthy to be a followed member.
My thought on the matter is what determines someone's eligibility? While it seems obvious to follow the President as a thought leader, is it the position or the person that makes a person a thought leader? I've met some people over time that reflected the leadership worthy of a multi-billion dollar corporation and they are entry level applicants.
I feel that LinkedIn has the right idea to create a group of thought leaders similar to the Illuminati but it seems that the thought leaders are wealthy and aristocratic at best. Does owning a company make someone influential? What are the key components of LinkedIn's strategy that defines a thought leader?
I propose that LinkedIn should monitor the activity of all users and choose based on the thoughts proposed by the user. A thought leader should be someone that not only produces good ideas but is willing to put them into action to better the community. Perhaps LinkedIn will have a "thought leader of the month/year" and reward the user with a title or access to the digital locker room of this golf club. What do you think? Do you have what it takes to be a thought leader?