A SIMPLE CHECKLIST TO ENSURE YOU SOUND HUMAN
You’ve written a piece about you and your business. It might be a LinkedIn post, a blog for your website, even an article for a trade magazine.
Before you hit the button to publish or submit it, how can you be sure it’s going to work as hard for you as you need it to?
How can you check that it is written in your authentic voice – and will, as a result, engage your readers’ interest?
Here’s a short list of simple tips you can use to ensure you sound human. You know, like a real person.
1 Does it feel conversational? People often think you have to be more formal, more official, when addressing an audience. It goes back to the old-fashioned misconception that you get more credibility if you express yourself like a headmaster addressing the whole school – or a chairman lecturing the board.
Actually, I’d argue the opposite is true. The less formalised your copy is, the more it’s likely to sound like you. People want to feel that you are chatting to them as an equal, rather than handing down nuggets of wisdom from a lofty perch.
Yes, you’re still sharing nuggets of wisdom. But in a way that makes them easily digestible.
2 Are your sentences and paragraphs short? Again, people often think that long, winding sentences make them sound more in control of their subject.
I always feel that it makes you look as if you couldn’t decide what your actual point is.
Listen to any actual conversation and you’ll hear people speaking in short sentences.
I’m not suggesting micro-sentences, by the way. Not that short. That can become wearing to read. Very quickly.
But keep your paragraphs short. It can be really off-putting to the eye – and much harder to read – if you’re confronted by great big slabs of copy.
3 How’s your spelling and grammar? You want to sound human. And, yes, to err is human. But that doesn’t mean people will forgive you for simple and obvious mistakes in your copy.
It’s not just copywriters who’ll spot that you don’t know your you’re from your your, or your their from your there. Or they’re.
It’s surprising – and, I have to say, gratifying – to meet so many people whose job is not to produce perfect words but who still notice, and mark you down, if your spelling and grammar are not on point.
Ideally, find someone like that to run their eye over your copy. At the very least, use the spellchecker that comes with most online writing tools these days.
4 How does it sound? This is one of my favourites. When you’ve finished writing, read your words out loud. Imagine you’re someone listening to them for the first time – how do they come across?
And if you stumble across a phrase or sentence and have to go back for another try, it may be a sign that you should rewrite it. You don’t want your reader to trip up in the same place.
If you have the time, record the words and play them back to yourself so you can really concentrate on listening rather than reading.
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Writing a piece of compelling content can help you to connect quickly and memorably with your audience.
Follow these tips and you’ll go a long way to making that all-important great first impression.