3 Reasons to Include Yourself in Content
The holidays are coming up fast, and for most people, that means a lot of time with family. Shopping, decorating, cooking, wrapping, and attending concerts and events can make it hard to find time to focus on work.
The good news is, you don’t have to keep your personal life completely out of your content. In fact, in many cases, it helps to say something about what’s going on in the rest of your life.
This isn’t appropriate for everything, of course. You wouldn’t mention your family or pets in a white paper or technical guide.
But for blogs, newsletters, social media posts, and videos, including something small about yourself is often a benefit. Here are three reasons why this helps.
Makes You Relatable
I’ve written before about the importance of understanding your audience and having empathy for them, but this goes both ways. They want you to know them, but they also want to know you.
Sharing a little about your life here or there makes you relatable. It also shows that you’re a person, not some bot creating posts or drafting video scripts.
For example, if I tell you that I’m not getting a Christmas tree this year because I’m worried about what my cats will do to it, you can probably relate to that. Even if you don’t have cats, you might have a dog who causes Christmas havoc, or perhaps you did in the past. Or you might have friends in that situation.
This makes a connection. Suddenly the reader can imagine having an actual conversation with you, and that keeps them interested to learn more.
Shows You’re Not Perfect
Another way you can share something about your life is by talking about a mistake you made.
This may sound like it would backfire, but it really can help. No one likes being taught or lectured to by a know-it-all, someone who seems so perfect that they’re unattainable. It makes you feel like you’ll never be good enough because you know that you’d make mistakes.
On the other hand, if you talk about a mistake you made and how you got past it, this is encouraging. It not only makes you more real to your readers but also gives them an example of resilience.
They realize that you may have gotten far, but it hasn’t been completely smooth sailing, and that gives them the confidence to keep going.
One caveat. Don’t share a mistake you’ve made unless you can talk about what you learned from it or how you’ve fixed things. Sharing complete disasters is not the goal.
More Engaging for the Reader
Finally, it’s simply more interesting for your readers to find a little personality in what they’re reading.
Providing facts and figures is important, but they’re not what people usually remember. They’re more interested in stories and anecdotes, and you can provide those even if you’re talking about something technical.
For example, I’m going to be helping some people learn how to use the video conference equipment Zoom soon. One of the important things is using the mute option for the microphone, both to avoid anything embarrassing coming through and in some cases to prevent feedback.
Instead of just saying that, though, I’ll likely share something personal. In this case, it would be that I’ve been on Zoom meetings with coworkers where they haven’t muted themselves, and I’ve heard them having other conversations on their cell phones. Other times it’s their kids arguing in the background or someone doing dishes right by the microphone. None of that is helpful to a business call, so it’s best to put yourself on mute if you’re not talking.
Those types of personal examples are more engaging and will help the reader remember what you’re writing about.
Find a Balance
The key is to find a balance since only talking about yourself would be off-putting to your readers.
A good approach is to focus on the reader 95% of the time, and then for the other 5%, consider if it makes sense to share something of your experience. This may also depend on what kind of writing you’re doing, since those in self-help or coaching fields may want to share more personal examples. But it’s a starting point, and you can find what works best for you.
Have you had an experience of this, where you’ve been more interested in content because it’s personal, or you’ve used a personal example that helped someone else? Please share in the comments.
Have a good holiday season, and if you have a Christmas tree, I hope it remains undisturbed by cats or anything else!