I post a lot of poetry – and I post it everywhere. ❓ Some people ask, “Why on LinkedIn? What does that have to do with your career as a marketing writer?”
Valid question, since anything I earn from “selling” poetry goes into my philanthropic endeavors. Poetry isn’t exactly a revenue generator, on its own. It’s a soul feeder, a way of synthesizing ideas. But here’s how it has helped me in my daytime work:
➡ Poetry makes me think creatively about word use and powerful messaging. Marketing is about both.
➡Poetry demands word economy and distillation, which translates to general editing. Marketers need to be succinct.
➡Poetry often requires adhering to formats, themes or forms. When it doesn’t, it requires we create our own. If you’ve written marketing collateral, you know why this is important.
➡Poetry makes me pay attention to line breaks, visuals, layout and cadence – all critical in marketing.
➡Poetry makes me introspective. The more we know ourselves, the better we function in the workplace.
Consider what you do outside of work. Think it’s irrelevant? I’m betting in some way, you bring it back to your day job. I’m betting it makes you better at what you do.
Posted in Poetically Speaking
