30 Jan How to Get Personal in Your Content Marketing – Stay Real Without Damaging Your Professional Image

Finding the right balance between professional persona and authenticity makes you approachable, strengthens your brand – and ultimately attracts the right clients.

Written by Daniela Cavalletti

7 min read

Do you ever want to write about yourself and your experience (in a business blog, book or article), but worry whether it’s appropriate to publish such personal thoughts? Do you worry about it being too risky or even potentially embarrassing?

I’ve wondered about that, too.

Dropping the Mask

I write a lot about my passion of writing – about what I do for a living, my business – of course. But only doing that would get a bit stale. Not just for me as a writer, but also for you, as a reader. To stay interesting, regular content needs to remain fresh, intriguing … and surprising. One of the best ways to achieve that is to be real: to drop and discard the business-persona mask.

So I like to get personal. And write the occasional raw and fiercely unguarded blog post.

Be Real to Be Seen

Besides making for more interesting regular writing, remember that relationships are built on trust and common values. To stand out and really engage your readers – to make a connection beyond the superficial ­– you must give them a chance to get to know the real you.

People do business with people they know, like and trust. To forge that kind of connection, you need to be willing to show your potential and existing clients who you really are. Warts, beauty spots and all.

When you share only your ‘technical’ tips, you become easily interchangeable with other businesses sharing similar ‘how tos’ and techniques. Even if you add your own tone and experience to your writing, your content might get lost in the flood of similar available advice.

How will your readers get know you, if you are not ready to make yourself vulnerable by sharing with them what you stand for; how you think; what troubles and excites you?

Your personal stories, insights, and the willingness to let your reader in, will differentiate you from the countless other providers competing for the same clients’ time and attention.

Stories Connect Us: Be Yourself … and They Will Come

We are all not simply business owners or employees; we are people with stories to tell; our joys, challenges, challenges and successes. We are complex beings. That colour in our lives makes us – every one of us – unique, and potentially intriguing and exciting to others. I find people and their individual stories and views endlessly fascinating. That’s why I love travelling and a wide range of conversation topics. I find joy and unexpected lessons talking to friends, family and strangers, no matter their age (just hang out with some four-year-olds for a while and discover pure joy, honesty and some surprisingly wise words).

They all can teach me something, and show me a different way of looking at life.

How to Write about Yourself Without Damaging Your Professional Image

So how then do you find the balance between honestly sharing personal thoughts and experiences, and protecting your brand? How can you write about yourself without giving a little bit too much away? Where to draw the line between enough and too much; between raw honesty and seeming weak, troubled, or unsuccessful?

How can you find a good middle way between vulnerability and a level of ‘emotional nakedness’, and protecting your brand and business?

#1. Dinner Conversation

How much you share is ultimately up to you, and what you feel comfortable with. If you are a naturally shy person, you likely want to share less than an extroverted person who habitually wears their heat one their sleeve. Don’t force a tone or level of openness that goes utterly against your grain. But feeling a little bit challenged to write in a non-business way is natural at the beginning and something you can overcome with a simple trick.

Imagine you are talking to a group of friends and acquaintances about a topic dear to your heart at a dinner party – and write how you would talk to them. The friends in the group will allow you to feel comfortable and safe, while the acquaintances are strangers that will make you keep a little bit of a check in place.

You’ll show vulnerability and openness – some emotional nakedness ­– without baring it all.

#2. Ties That Bind

Our life experiences are broadly universal; we all have up and downs. We win, we lose; we feel happy and we are scared. These shared experiences help us bond as humans.

When you write about yourself, your life and views, start by stepping back. Observe and examine yourself. What did you learn from this experience? Why did you behave in a certain way? Which feelings were running through you?

Sharing stories that we all can relate to will fall on sympathetic ears.

#3. Give Glimpses of Your True Self

Whether you are writing a blog post, your About Us page, or your LinkedIn profile, you can add a touch of personality (that will reveal the person behind the writer) by sharing nuances of your personality that show who you are. Ask yourself the following or similar questions, ­and answer them honestly, as if you were talking to a friend of yours:

• Why do you do what you do?
• What are your values and beliefs?
• What makes you cross / unhappy / uncomfortable?
• What excites you in life?
• What scares you?
• Where is your happy place?
• What makes you feel alive and joyous?
• What topic or experience get’s your goat, and makes you step on your personal soapbox?

 
By writing about those feelings and thoughts you will enable your reader to either deeply relate to you or inspire them to explore a different point of view.

#4. Draw Your Own Lines in the Sand

Adding just the right amount of a personal touch to your business blog, website or book means finding the balance between practical business writing and telling your story.

Some of us are comfortable with baring their souls a lot more than others. And that is ok. You can either take a big jump out of your comfort zone, or only dip one toe into the unknown. It’s your story, it’s your brand; it’s your choice.

There might be some areas of your life or thinking that you are very comfortable to share, and others you feel more reluctant to explain in detail.

Once you started to write more personal pieces you will find and set your own boundaries of what feels ok to write about and what not to discuss in detail. You’ll find your own balance between sharing professional expertise and personal accounts.

You always have control over how much you share.

#5. The Different Approach to Writing a Personal Blog Post

A piece of business writing usually follows a strict structure and approach; you work to a plan. Personal posts, I find, become most powerful and real when I chuck planning overboard.

Often, a recent experience – good or bad –, some insight, or a major event trigger the urge to write something more personal. It just starts with a vague idea and I just start writing to get the rawness of it onto paper (or screen). Planning the structure too much will take away from the strength of the feeling and the immediateness of the experience.

Resist the urge to “think things through” on the first draft. Just write freely. Don’t lose what made you want to write about your theme by planning it to death and sanitising it. Once you have your main thoughts written down, then, and only then, go over your post and clean it up to shape the flow and tone, so it will make sense to the reader and is pleasant to read.

Be aware where your focus lies, and pay attention to the language you use: keep overly negative language and sentiments to a minimum to keep it from becoming a rant. If you, for example, talk about a business failure, you can either describe the facts, talk honestly about how it was difficult to go through it, and then the lessons you learned. Or you can get stuck on the hell of going through the experience and leave your reader deflated and depressed.

Always show your readers the light at the end of the tunnel to keep your professional image intact.

Staying Real Will Boost Your Professional Image

Your personal and business brands are carefully developed images. Being raw and honest about your experiences will show the real you underneath that gleaming armour. Writing authentically and truthfully about your personal experiences will shine a light on your humanity and make you relatable.

Genuine frankness like this will make you approachable, strengthen your brand – and ultimately will attract the people you’d love to have for your clients.