Normally, Well Said Wednesday is an every-other-week blog. But I'm publishing today as a holiday bonus for you, and to illustrate what the content advice I'm always rattling on about looks like in real life. Things like:
You Are the Best Writer For Your Business
No one knows your WordBrand(TM) as well as you. It's the combination of your core messages, the tone of your content, the verbal/written experience of working with you, the direction your content leads readers. A talented freelancer will mimic it adeptly, but you've got to give them the right direction.
Writing for your business is just like any other practice. Your ability will deepen and improve the more you do it. Your message sharpens and clears. Your voice gains the authenticity of confidence. (Remember this when we talk about haikus below.)
Planning Keeps Your Writing on Purpose
Staying in contact with your clients, prospects and people who should be prospects is less about constant messaging and more about focused messaging delivered consistently.
For me, it looks like this: At the end of the week, a Friday Inspiration quote is posted on the 4.23 Facebook page (right about the time your drive and energy are flagging.) This blog comes out every other Wednesday. The 23rd is my monthly newsletter.
Sticking to a set content schedule gets people into a groove of hearing from you. And it delivers the subtle message that you're someone who can be counted on not to flake; that you know how to stick to a schedule.
If you're curious about editorial planning. I'm piloting a new Content Calendar Build Workshop in January. It's a hands-on, get-the-guidance, do-the-work session to build your content calendar for the first three months of 2018. Details are here. A few seats are still open.
Haiku
What does haiku have to do with writing for your business? Nothing. Everything.
A few years ago, I wrote a handful of work-related haikus for National Poetry Month. It was a lark and I posted them randomly that month. For me, it was a fun exercise in keeping my writing skills sharp by trying out a completely different format. For the business, it was the ultimate non-boring social post. For my clients and prospects, it was a signifier that 4.23 seriously believes in words, but doesn't believe words always have to be so serious.
Clear on my whys -- for me, the business and my audience -- the haikus grew to the entire month of April then to this year's expansion: 12 Days Before Christmas Holiday Haikus. They are rolling out on the Facebook page right now. (Although, subscribers of The 23rd will get the whole batch, and a few bonus haikus, on the 15th!)
That expansion didn't happen by accident. It happened by planning. I built the Holiday Haikus into my content calendar when I was planning back in October. Then wrote, designed and scheduled them just like any other piece of content.
And that, friends of 4.23, is how you tie together Writing, Planning and Haiku! Your gift for reading this far? A preview of Thursday's Holiday Haiku:
