Simon Sinek wrote a complete book exhorting businesses to find the “why” of their existence. The same holds true for individuals. Why do you do what you do? Why do you work as an engineer? Why do you work as a graphic designer? Why are you in politics?
And the same holds true when you are writing. Know the why of your writing. I’m not talking about the larger picture, I’m talking about a particular blog post or a particular article or even a particular social media update that you’re going to write: why are you writing it?
We all have a general answer. You want to improve your search engine rankings. You want to “engage” your customers or clients. You want to publish fresh content on your website. You want to maintain visibility on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. You want to regularly reach the inbox of your email subscribers.
These are larger whys. Important, but vague, and cannot be achieved unless you know why you are writing this particular blog post or social media update.
So, the next time you sit down to write something or you take out your mobile phone to write a quick update, think of the why.
What impact do you want to make? What is new you’re going to add? How is it going to help your readers or your followers? How do you want to portray yourself through this piece of writing or this update?
Write as many whys as possible. The more whys you can figure out, the more impactful will be your writing.