You know what’s cooler than being a leader? Being a thought leader.

It’s an opportunity to win mindshare among an audience beyond what’s simply in front of you and your association — and the results could be a big win for your organization if you can make the leap. Warning: It requires thinking differently.

So, how do you do it? That and more in today’s Social Media Roundup:

Are You a Thought Leader?

Love the term "disruptive innovation." RT @Inc: Becoming A World-Changing Thought Leader: http://t.co/NPWOJ1WA #sachat #highered #assnchat

— Mike McRee, Ph.D. (@mikemcree) November 1, 2012

Sure, you may be busy running an association, but could you be seen as a visionary, too? Inc. poses the question to Ned Ward, the vice president of Stern & Associates, who says when a firm becomes so large that the leaders no longer have to play a major role in day-to-day activities, that might be time to reach beyond simply leading the firm. “Those people have a unique opportunity to do the thinking and the research to develop the context necessary to become seen as a thought leader, while the COO or someone else runs the business,” Ward explains. “They can spend time speaking, writing articles, and showing people that their companies know more than other companies. Not just more about their own products. More.” This has the effect of raising the organization’s profile. Think you could pull it off? (ht @mikemcree)

WordPress Takes Over

RT @frijolita: One in six websites are on one platform: wordpress http://t.co/QyTWOpNT woot woot!

— John Chen (@johnYSchen) November 1, 2012

“How do you end up being one-sixth of the internet?” In this super-interesting clip from the Wall Street Journal, Ben Rooney picks the brain of Matt Mullenweg. Nearly a decade ago he created the blogging platform WordPress, which has become so commonplace that many large companies use it to run their sites — despite the fact it started as a simple open-source blogging system. Check it out:

Mullenweg is bullish on social media, too, even though blogging is a more mature technology. “If you look on Twitter, half the links on there are going to blogs — and half the links we power,” he says in the clip. (ht @johnYSchen)

Have you ever built something so important that nearly everyone uses it? If you haven’t, is there room for your association to build something like that — beyond what you already know?