Read My LinkedIn Content About LinkedIn Content!

A topic I’ve returned to a few times is how (or if) to fuse art and business writing. Particularly in the age of AI, when everyone wants humanity and authenticity from the humans they follow, that has to mean infusing personal life and beliefs into business writing. But people are on LinkedIn to learn, not to read about your personal life and beliefs. So, like… now what?

My instinct is that the next step is to focus on good topics when writing. Put parts of yourself into a subject that’s helpful for someone else. Include a story or detail that’s true to you, but spend most of the article talking about the thing that the reader came here for. And your humanity and authenticity will shine through in your enthusiasm for the subject.

That suggests that the trap people fall into is writing about themselves, and just including a few helpful tips in an article that is largely self-centered. “Check me out as I write 1,200 words about myself! Oh, but I’ll throw a marketing or cybersecurity tip in there at the end and pretend the article is actually about that.”

But then what happens when I have to write about myself? For instance, when I’m sharing news?

Last week, I wrote a post about being listed as one of 10 finalists in the Women in Content Marketing Awards’ Pivot category. And first: I’m not even a little bit embarrassed that I’m talking about that again.

But writing the post sharing the news for LinkedIn was embarrassingly hard to write. I had gotten into a good rhythm with this newsletter, focusing on things I had learned recently that others could find helpful too. This news, however, isn’t particularly helpful for anybody. I’m very proud of it and wanted to let my network know, but it’s not like you’re going to be able to apply the fact that I’m a WICMA finalist to your next marketing strategy.

That’s where the professional learning platform that is LinkedIn meets the social media platform that is LinkedIn. Nobody quite knows what to do with it.

I ended up going the route of being fully personal on that post, sharing what it means to me and why I’m so gratified to be a finalist. I figured, if nobody is going to professionally develop with some marketing tip from it, I should pull more from my artist background than my business background.

But it was a struggle because no one knows how to post personal stuff here. LinkedIn is the first (and, to my knowledge, only) place where the professional and the personal intertwine in this way.

We’ve all heard jokes about the people who post stuff like “I just got married/had my first child/got divorced, and here’s what it taught me about B2B sales.” But we can both cringe at that (and we should, those posts are weird) but also have empathy. The personal and the professional have never been so inseparable, and we’re all just out here trying to help other people and also ourselves.

That combo, I think, is where we find the path forward. Just like articles should be about helpful topics with humanity sprinkled in rather than the other way around, our writing should be helping others while also serving ourselves. Otherwise, LinkedIn doesn’t make sense.

Serving yourself can mean anything you need it to. Maybe it’s just practicing writing on a regular basis. Maybe you can get sponsored and earn money somehow. Maybe it’s working towards being a respected figure in your field. Maybe you just want to stay in touch with folks you’ve worked with. Define value for yourself. Just know it and use it as your guiding star. Don’t work for free. Pick topics others care about. Make them interesting and fun with personal details. Make it work for what you want in the end.

And hey, maybe that is a good marketing tip in the end. Pick topics your audience cares about, write with your brand voice, and always direct the audience towards your end goal. Have I been on LinkedIn too much, or are the personal and professional actually that similar, after all?

Storytelling Tip I Love

Say less. This tip is primarily for dialogue, but it also can apply across the board. But let’s start with dialogue.

Conversations are rapid fire. People typically say one or two sentences, and then the next person has a chance to talk. (If you regularly say more than two sentences before letting the next person speak, I have bad news about how people feel when talking to you…)

But writers want to make sure their story is clear, so they let their characters speak whole paragraphs to each other. That’s not real life. We cut each other off all the time. Nobody really does a Shakespearian soliloquy or monologue in ordinary conversation.

Anything you can cut from dialogue should be cut. Anything that can be conveyed in action should be cut. Any way you can simplify how people speak, you should do it. Make sure your characters say less. It’ll still probably be more than you need.

And honestly, your prose can probably say less, too. Don’t beat someone over the head with your point. Assume your audience is smart and gets it so you can get out of the scene.

Meal Prep Idea

I may be cheating a little bit calling this a meal prep idea, but since the high holy days just passed, I want to share Tori Avey’s apples and honey challah.

I make this every year for Rosh Hashanah, and multiple times throughout the year, one of my colleagues will bring it up and ask when I’m baking it again.

This challah is sweet but not too sweet. It includes sugary apples but could also easily accommodate butter, jam, or even deli meats if you want to turn it into a sandwich. (Hey, maybe it is kinda meal prep, after all!)

Highly recommend kneading with a stand mixer if you can. With all that honey, the dough is super sticky right and kneading it when you need to be using your hands for other things as well is maddening. Stand mixers fix that and make the process so much easier with equally delicious results.