Take a stand and build a brand

Want to build your personal brand? Adopt content-based marketing. Simply put, it's about publishing articles, posts and blogs to advance a point of view or share your specialized perspective on technology, emerging business models or social trends. When done properly and consistently, it shapes you as a subject matter expert and thought leader.

Let's talk about the mechanics of writing a modern message.

Develop an outline

Step one is to create a blueprint of your message. This forces you to plumb the depths of your thinking and outline a fully fleshed message.

I use a product called Mind Manager when I outline a piece. It's a tree-branch-leaf approach to organize your thinking.  Here's an example.

 

My "mindmap" guides me through the writing process. It keeps me out of the swamp and ensures that I focus on themes that underpin the big idea. It may require 2-3 days of development, but it saves time and reduces frustration when I face the bull that is the sheet of paper with no writing on it.

Be succinct

Legend has it that someone once asked Abraham Lincoln how long a man's legs should be. "Long enough to reach the ground," was his reply. Similarly, your writing should be long enough to convey your big idea—without fluff or filler.

Writing that meanders or is stretched to meet a prescribed word count dilutes your message and fatigues the reader. I realize I'm up against prevailing wisdom on how long LinkedIn or blog posts should be based on measurements that purport to show opening and sharing metrics. But speaking as a consumer, I find writing that is brief and to the point to be more interesting and engaging.

Keep articles to 1,200-2,000 words unless the publisher requires otherwise. Blog posts should be 400-750 words. And LinkedIn posts should top out at 400 words. While there are exceptions to the rule, if you blow through the word count, ask yourself if you're trying to cover too much ground. It may be better to spin additional material into a new piece.

Make it personal

Write in the first person using "I," "me" and "we." These are your thoughts, and you should own them. The first-person narrative gives your writing credibility, and it conveys that these are your ideas and points of view.

In the same vein, try to write using the active voice. At the risk of sounding like your high school English teacher, the subject of the sentence should perform the action. Instead of "attention must be paid," say "we must pay attention." Rather than "my first assignment will always be remembered," say "I will always remember my first assignment."

You will produce succinct and direct communication when you adopt this approach.

Find a good editor

Good editing produces good writing. While it's possible to edit your own work, you probably won't do so with a dispassionate eye. An editor will catch grammatical and spelling errors, spot hackneyed phrases and remove redundancies, the kind of stuff you might overlook.

A good editor will also help you maintain a consistent voice and develop your personality across your catalog. Your voice should become familiar to your audience as it projects your personality.

A final thought: don't agonize over every word or phrase when you write. Let the words tumble off your frontal lobe and on to the paper. Clean-up is a part of the editing process and you will probably go through several--even many--drafts before your work is ready for prime time.

And remember that writing is a muscle. The more you write, the easier and better your writing becomes.

So, go ahead and join the chorus.