Take 5 and Practice Writing

One stumbling block for people looking to improve their personal brand often come across is the fear of not having anything to say online. For whatever reason, they feel they are not interesting enough or they are afraid to put themselves and their thoughts “out there”.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are those who have no problem updating their social channels with a stream of consciousness devoid of actual thought or empathy for those people they are broadcasting to.

Take 5 and Practice Writing

In short, in our opinion, the perfect personal brand is a balance between the two.

I’ve written articles about writing in the past like How to Write a Blog Post in 30 Minutes, 5 Twitter Tips That Will Enhance Your Personal Brand and 2014 LinkedIn Buzzword List Revealed – Please Stop Using Them!

The main premise behind them is to encourage people to think before they share their thoughts online and to hone their writing skills over time.

To the people who fear they don’t have anything interesting to say we encourage them to get into the discipline of practicing their writing and really thinking about how they are expressing themselves.

In my book, Pioneers of Digital, Google’s digital marketing evangelist, Avinash Kaushik, talks about how he practiced writing his now hugely successful web analytics blog – Occam’s Razor – on his wife and colleagues before unleashing it on the world.

My purpose in life would be to write a blog post that would meet three requirements that I formed for myself. It would be something incredible, relevant and of value. I formed this mantra, and then I practised blogging for a month and a half where only my wife and my intuit employees read the blog, because I wanted to see that I could actually produce content that was incredible, relevant and of value. And it turns out I did, and I started a blog, and I was amazed that I got my first two comments.

He had a plan and although writing may come to him and others more easily than you, we all need to practice in order to be better.

So, whether it’s a 140 character update on Twitter or a 500 word post you want to share with the world on LinkedIn, take 5 minutes to really think about what you’re writing, how it might resonate with the different connections you have across social networks and what action you want people to take when they finish reading your wisdom.

Avoiding the “So what? Factor” is what you’re aiming for.

Making everything you write have a point takes practice.

Take 5 and make time.

Remember to check back in a fortnight for the next installment in our series: How to Build a Personal Branding Strategy

And don’t forget to:

Check out our book now in paperback: Introduction to Personal Branding: 10 Steps Towards a New Professional You

Subscribe to The Personal Brand Lab

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Cheers,

@MelCarson – Founder of Delightful

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