Writing Prompt: Who are the Thought Leaders of Emerging Trends?

Week #1 – Nuts and bolts of emerging trends

Having discussed a good definition of emerging trends and listing reasons why it makes sense to follow them, we now turn our attention to the thought leaders of emerging trends. Everyone has their preferred thought leaders in any given industry. I know I have my favorites in writing. Today, your job is to determine who are the thought leaders of emerging trends and describe why you feel those leaders are worth following.

Creative Idea Gal’s Thoughts

The term “thought leader” is new to me. I discovered it while amplifying my presence on LinkedIn. Having been a member of LinkedIn for years but not really doing much with my membership until fairly recently, I’ve begun experimenting with my profile and status updates. The more I did things, the more LinkedIn recommended things to me, including blog posts that were considered influential. Those blog posts came from thought leaders who provided compelling content. The term stuck with me and I started to understand why these people were called thought leaders.

Thought leaders share information and opinions that give us pause and make us think. Everyone has an opinion of who they think are the best thought leaders in a given industry. I have a few favorites who do a great job of coming up with emerging trends. Now it’s your turn to think of your preferred thought leaders.

Tips on How to Spark Creativity in Writing

• Tip #3 – Peruse hashtags on Twitter

If you are not using Twitter yet, now may be a good time to try it out. Twitter is an interesting social media tool that lets people have 140-character conversations with other users from around the world. Celebrities often use Twitter, too, much to the amazement and enjoyment of pop culture-obsessed  fans.

Even if you don’t fully understand or agree with the functionality of Twitter, one huge benefit is its hashtags, which have grown in popularity and importance in the last two years. Once a quirky way of identifying topics, hashtags are now respected, copied, and religiously tracked. Writers are one group of people who can benefit greatly from watching, following, and researching Twitter hashtags. You’ll learn a lot of new and interesting things that are sure to jumpstart some fresh writing.

Emerging Trends on Twitter

Here is a sampling of yesterday’s emerging trends based on Twitter hashtags:

• #Azelle Rodney (related: news story about unarmed man shot to death in London in 2005)
• #nhs65 (Health service organization from Britain celebrates its 65th birthday)
• #GMADragons (music band Imagine Dragons from Las Vegas performs on Good Morning America)
• #Sinai (related: news story about military attack at Egypt’s Sinai peninsula)

Writing Prompt 078

Prompt: Determine who are the thought leaders of emerging trends.

• Step 1: Pick an industry that you like. Anything. Fashion, science, politics, etc. Do some basic Internet search on that industry.
• Step 2: See if you can spot emerging trends within your research. You may start to see some names more than once.
• Step 3: Determine who are the thought leaders of emerging trends. Describe your reasons for following certain thought leaders.

Please be sure to leave comments about this writing prompt. We want to hear from you!

About the Author

Amanda M. Socci is the creator of this unique 10-month training program providing writing prompts to nonfiction writers. Amanda is a diehard creative and an aspiring book author, currently blogging a book on faith, A Slice of Faith, on a community website. Visit Amanda’s blog. Follow Amanda on her journey to book publication. Like A Slice of Faith on Facebook.