Whether you’re a social change advocate, conscious entrepreneur or ethical leader in a large multinational, you need to blog (or if not you personally, then at least your organisation). Not only does it add value to your readers (when done correctly), it’s also good for SEO purposes and keeps you top of mind in your areas of expertise.

But in our time-strapped lives it’s not always easy to come up with in-depth articles. So I liked this tip from publicity guru Joan Stewart (aka The Publicity Hound) on how to create a quick blog post when you don’t have time to research.

She suggested a ‘5 Things You Didn’t Know About Me’ post. It lets your readers/customers get to know you.

It’s also great for journalists to include some ‘colour’ about you. In fact it could mean the difference between us featuring you in our story instead of someone else in your field.

As I say in my media training workshops: Journalists are not interested in giving you free publicity for your product, service, book or cause: We’re interested in what you can do for our audience – what value are you offering them?

We’re looking for engaging stories – including yours (or people within your organisation). That something quirky about you which makes you stand out from the crowd is what could land you an interview on prime time TV or in a major newspaper or magazine.

Journalists don’t care if you think your product or service is better than the rest (like a mother who thinks her baby is the cutest, all business owners say that!), but we ARE interested in your unique and intriguing story.

I’ll spill first. Here’s 5 things you probably didn’t know about me:

1. I won the local shot put competition in the inter-schools athletics championship at the age of 16.

2. I enjoy the British TV school drama Waterloo Road.

3. Marianne Faithfull kissed me on the cheek and called me ‘darling’ backstage before her Sydney show around 10 years ago.

4. Having the palm of my hand tickled instantly sends me into a calm trance.

5. In the mid ’90s I was chased by riot police through fields in the UK during protests with hundreds of animal rights activists against a farm that bred kittens for vivisection.

Not many ‘professionals’ will admit to something like number 5 – some people may be put off by it – but that’s ok because it’s the ‘curly’ stuff that makes you interesting as well as authentic.

(Also, you can even do this with animals! Say you run an animal sanctuary: you could do a ‘5 things you didn’t know about pigs’ and even better if you can feature a particular animal. Edgar’s Mission in Victoria, Australia, is great at this sort of thing, bringing Polly the Pig and Timmy the Sheep out into the public eye).

Ok, it’s your turn. Write down 5 things most people don’t know about you (keep it legal!). Feel free to share it in the comments box below. In a future post, I’ll teach you how to leverage this to get media coverage.

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