Last year there was a Nissan spot, where 2 guys are driving and the one exclaims to the other, “I am the man”! His buddy looks at him and says, “If you have to say you are the man, you are not, the man.”
In the upper right hand corner of Twitter, where a person’s bio is located, you will frequently see that someone will either attach 7 titles or more to their bios or..will call themselves a social media thought leader, guru, ninja, or egads… expert.
Which leads us to today’s simple post.
Some can and should let others know that they are thought leaders-it’s a short list; and for the rest, it’s up to your peers, customers and your clients to determine whether you are a thought leader. If you are, then it will happen. If you are not, eventually people will realize that too. Your work will speak for itself.
Direct Marketing Observations 
Hi Marc –
For me this isn’t even a question of whether one can back up a statement like ‘I’m a thought leader’. It’s whether saying that has any value what-so-ever. No one cares if I think I’m a thought leader… a leader has to have followers in order to be a leader so the only people that can validate leadership are the followers. The only valuable statement is someone else saying “I think X is a thought leader” and “X was really helpful” is even more useful…. thought without action is, well, blather.
Just my 2 cents. Even if you can, you shouldn’t 🙂