5 Ways to Get Your Reader to Give a Damn

One of the beautiful benefits of being a person who lives in the social world is that the world is your oyster when it comes to speaking your mind.

You have the opportunity to share your stories, your ideas, your insights, your musings. You can influence and you can inspire. When you know stuff… important stuff… it is as much your job as any other person in your industry to help clients give a damn about what is important! If not you, then who? (I will tell you… either nobody or your competitor). I pick you.

You have only two places to share your ideas that are in your control. Just two:

1. your website (blog)
2. your email marketing platform (Mailchimp, ConstantContact, AWeber, others)

That is it. Every other platform is owned, controlled, curated, algorithmed, designed by a business. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, wherever you guest blog… these are not your real estate. They are great channels to reach new and existing audiences. But you do not own these.

It is time to stop putting so much effort into curating the content of others. I wish I could shout this at you! (so let’s try an all-caps rant)

IT IS TIME TO USE YOUR PLATFORMS TO GET YOUR MESSAGE DIRECTLY TO THOSE WHO ADORE YOU.

If you are doing it right, you are using your blog and your email marketing tool as the primary places to say your truth.

Then you use your platforms to share your own content.

Deeply, convincingly.

The ONLY way to get great at sharing your truth deeply and convincingly, in both the art of writing and the mechanics of using your own platforms, is to practice.

Start by practicing telling yourself the truth – are you holding back sharing your other truths because you are afraid, lazy, unplanned, unsure, disorganized? It does not matter what your reason is, as long as you honour it and figure out a plan to move past it.

If you are not sharing YOUR truth, someone else is getting the ear of your fans telling theirs. 

Stuck for ideas to inspire?

5 Ways to Get Your Business Reader to Give A Damn

1. Tell them a personal story. When you share from your soul, your audience gravitates towards your message in the most genuine way. As human beings who care about each other. (note: find a tone that sounds like you, from funny to outrageous to thoughtful).
2. Give an insight to how you do your business. When you offer a special look into how you operate, you give others hope and a set of tools that spark them to try to achieve what you can achieve. (hint: this generosity also be used to be a sampler of how you can help them for fee as well)
3. Give bite-sized quick tips. Like you, your audience might be stuck. Searching for “How To” articles remains the highest ranking search term in most categories. The fastest way to get unstuck is to take one simple action. What simple actions can you offer that will inspire small but great change?
4. Get back to basics and remind them why you do what you do. It is easy to assume, especially if you have been in business for awhile, that everyone knows why you do what you do. They don’t. Or they have forgotten. Your grassroots story inspires.
5. Be direct. Be bold. Some people are simply inspired when confidently directed by someone else. So if you happen to be an expert, boldly and directly tell people what to do… and why. Building trust often comes from the ‘why it matters’. Find your assertive tone and go for it!

Tip: the biggest benefit of inspiring others is actually that you make yourself give a damn. When you inspire others, you inspire yourself back ten times more when you realize how much you have to offer.