Beyond evangelizing ourselves as writers

Posted on 14. Jul, 2010 by Melanie in Business

So, hey there. Looks like I took the month of June off. Yeah. I meant to do that.

In any case, I’m back! So let’s get to it.

What Whitney said

In my last post, I talked about attending the 2010 STC Summit. Since then, I’ve been wanting to respond to one specific session I sat in on.

I didn’t intend to listen to Whitney Hess’s presentation. But its title—Evangelizing Yourself—intrigued me, so I ducked in.

I was glad I did. Whitney gave an upbeat, invigorating talk. It didn’t so much encourage us to evangelize ourselves, actually; it encouraged us to promote ourselves, so we could promote the principles we believe in. Projecting a public persona, for Whitney, is just a means to that end.

How to become a public person? Share your message by blogging, writing, and speaking. Build a network, both online and in person. Be confident.

Awesome points, all. But Whitney’s a UX Designer. And there were three points I wanted to tack onto her excellent talk, to tailor it for writers like us.

1. Make friends with designers

Selling the value of good writing to your typical busy, cash-strapped entrepreneur can be tough. Unless that entrepreneur is a designer (or other creative type).

Designers love to code and design websites. All too often, they’re asked to provide content. Most designers hate this—it’s just not their thing. They understand the value of good writing, but they know it takes lots of time and work to create.

As a result, designers are some of the strongest advocates for us as writers.

Make an effort to understand designers. The more you know about your designer friends—their strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes—the more insight you have into the whole process of website creation. And as a web writer, that can only help you.

Plus, designers with lots of clients would probably love to team up with you—so THEY don’t get asked to write the copy.

2. Read—and comment on—others’ blogs

There’s a knowledgeable, supportive cadre of writers online. Whether you’re a tech writer, content strategist, web writer, copywriter, editor, trainer, or some wacky combination of everything, you can find people who share your passion. They’ll provide awesome links on Twitter, give you tips on running your freelance business, and alert you to the types of clients you should avoid.

Reading these experts’ blogs is a great way to keep up with what’s going on in your field. Commenting on them makes you part of the community.

And on a related note…

3. Collaborate, don’t compete

You may have noticed that, in that last section, I used words like “community” and “share.” For writers, content strategists, and other web nerds, our industry is, by its nature, NOT competitive. It’s more collaborative.

We have folks like Kristina Halvorson basically begging us to enter her field, content strategy. Steve Krug and Ginny Redish write and speak about making websites simpler and more usable. Meetups are springing up in cities around the world. Everywhere you look online, folks are sharing their knowledge—not hoarding it.

If you try to enter this crazy new world with an adversarial, “me vs. them” attitude, you won’t do well.

So, that’s what I got.

Have you seen Whitney’s talk? What points would you add?

Tags: Business, Writing