Thanks to guest blogger, Jocelyn Paige Kelly
Did you know that if you used your strengths to plan out your blog posts that you’d be inviting your audience to get to know you better?
It’s true. Not only that, but it’s an authentic way to connect with your target market while keeping your blog consistent thematically.
By catering to your strengths, you help people discover what’s important to you as well understand your values. The content that you write comes from a personal perspective even if it isn’t personally revealing. It’s a great way to extend an olive branch of vulnerability while maintaining a healthy set of boundaries.
Here are 5 benefits of writing posts based around your strengths. You will:
1. Find your posts are easier to write and topics come up more readily.
2. Struggle less with subject matter that engages your audience.
3. Discover that people identify with you more.
4. Begin to attract the right people for your product or service.
5. Naturally begin to be more authentic and heart-centered in your writing.
Below are two strong examples of people who have created a blog (and a business) using their top strengths to guide them:
1. Amanda Oaks with Kindness Over Matter
The theme of every blog centers around kindness – a strength that blogger and graphic designer, Amanda Oaks, clearly has. Her loyal followers also contribute to the blog itself adding to a strong sense of community that resonates with her strength.
2. Carol Adamski with Gratitude Habitat
By playing to her top strength of gratitude, Carol Adamski engages her market through blog posts with titles that capture her readers’ interests. Her interaction with people is based on common values centered around gratitude and people are drawn to her as a result.
Two Ways to Find Your Strengths
If you’re unsure about what your strengths are, there are two tests I’d recommend to assist you.
1. VIA Strengths is a free online test that gives you your top 5 strengths and explains what they mean.
2. Strengthfinders requires you to first purchase the book before taking their test. Then, it will also give you your top five strengths.
The difference between these two tests is that VIA Strengths’ results tend to cater more readily to those who are right-brained while Strengthfinders speaks to those who are more left-brained.
For my blog, I use a combination of my top strength from each test. According to VIA Strengths, my top strength is creativity and most, if not all, of my posts cater to creativity in some way or another.
My top strength in Strengthfinders is individualization, the ability to appreciate what’s unique about everything. How do I use this strength? I do interviews. Interviews are a great way to demonstrate how much I appreciate people’s individuality and it engages my market quite well.
So, what strengths connect you with your market? How has this changed the way you look at your blog posts? Please share your thoughts in the comment section because I’d love to hear from you.
About guest blogger, Jocelyn Paige Kelly: Jocelyn is a certified creativity coach whose passion and joy is in helping people realize their creative life. Her short stories and poems have been published in various literary journals. For creative inspiration and ideas on how to improve your creativity and health, visit her blog. You may email Jocelyn at jocelyn@realizingyourcreativelife.com
