In case you missed this month’s issue of The 23rd…

You know where I’m finding message chaos these days?

Profiles. My. Own. Profiles.

Yes, I’d been letting the weeds grow up around my social media accounts. Finally tending those weeds as I re-engaged with a few social channels showed me specifically where my message revamp had yet to spread.

I wasn’t consistently delivering the current, focused story that I provide Message Strategy & Support for small and solo businesses and that I do this because message is the beating heart of your business. It's how you connect before you connect.

What I had out there was a little junky, a little hodgepodge, a little chaotic. (Oh, the irony.)

But also super common. So common, in fact, that I am willing to call myself out for it!

Message chaos happens three ways:

• We don’t have a coherent, focused message and voice platform (what I call your WordBrand) so instead, whatever you’re thinking on any given day is how you describe your work; to heck with consistency.
  
  Pro Tip: Message consistency is our ally!

• We do have a coherent, focused message and voice platform but it’s living on a worksheet from that seminar we went to ages ago. And even if we could find it, we wouldn’t know how to use it.

  
  Pro Tip: Our message platform is the starting point of all content!

  
  

• We forget to do an audit now and then of all the places where our message shows up, including our:

  • Website*

  • Social media profiles

  • Bios

  • Directory entries of groups and organizations we belong to

  • Openers (video and reels intros) and closers (email and post sign offs)

  • Business innards (invoices, scheduling software, other automations)

  • Packaging and signage; merch and swag

A clear, consistent message does the work for you 24/7. It tells your story when you aren’t.

A solid message platform takes some effort to create, but there is definitely an ongoing reward: an audience of people who know who you are, what you do and how it can change things for them. No chaos allowed. Let’s connect if your message is feeling a little chaotic.

*tiny, face-saving caveat: the 4.23 website is still a little weedy
as it’s a work in progress with some bigger excavations happening.

“Well Said Wednesday” is a blog by Barbara Govednik, Message Strategist, Editor and Founder of 4.23 Communication. It’s published every other Wednesday…ish.