Reality of Doing

Signature Content

Posted on 05. Mar, 2009 by sethcaskey.

C’mon you know you’ve done it – we all have. No, I’m not talking about smoking pot, I’m talking about practicing your signature. Even if you’ve never had aspirations of signing hundreds of headshot for your adoring fans – chances are you’ve practiced creating your signature.

This is my signature, and it took me years to develop. Years? Seriously? Don’t you have anything better to do? Probably – but from very early on I knew that my signature would say a lot about who I am as a person.

Would it be all chicken-scratch and unreadable? Would it be bold and pretentious? Swooshy or block style? So many options, saying so many different thing about the person to whom it belongs. I can remember sitting in class taking up sheets and sheets of paper working on my signature. (I probably should have spent more time paying attention to what the teacher was saying, but I get bored easily.)

I tried a bunch of different options – uppercase S/lowercase S, a print-cursive hybrid, with the middle initial/without, slanted right/slanted left, you name it – I tried it. I practiced this for years until I finally found the right one for me.

So what does this have to do with social media and marketing? Well, I have been reading a lot of blogs lately – A LOT, and one thing that I see as consistent across those that I continue to read and look forward to the next post are those that contain the unique signature of the author.

There are some blogs that are very informative and full of useful & practical information – but let’s be honest – are boring. Then, there are those that go to the other end of the spectrum and are so personal that I feel awkward reading them. But the ones that are most appealing to me are those written as a full expression of who the author is. They contain interesting and useful information, but are mixed with the author’s own unique style and voice.

I’m striving to develop signature content. Content that is on one hand
practical and informative, and on the other a full expression of who I am.

This quote from Leo Babauta sums it up nicely:

With millions of blog posts out there, yours is not likely to be very unique — unless you put in your post the one thing that you know is unique — yourself.

And just like it took me sheets and sheets of paper and lots of tries to find my signature – discovering what signature content is for me is going to be messy for a while. And that’s ok.

My signature is something that I will have for the rest of my life. Figuring out what it looked and felt like was messy until it became part of who I am and now effortlessly flows out of me each time I pick up a pen. I have it figured out. And just like my signature, once I find the right rhythm and look and feel to using social media – it will be a skill that I will have for many years to come.

Social media is not going anywhere. If anything it is becoming more and more a part of mainstream life. So there’s no rush, no pressure to get it just right, right now. The key is to keep practicing. I will keep writing awkward posts, making weird videos, commenting, tweeting, wall posting, @messaging until I find a rhythm that fully expresses who I am.

How about you? How are you creating your own signature content?

Let’s talk.

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