How to find your unique voice in the age of information overload

You’re not imagining it, but creating content is getting harder. You’re not only competing with a flood of ever-growing voices, you’re also competing with yourself. The posts you publish today could outshine the posts you plan to publish tomorrow. Plus, it’s getting harder and harder to keep an audience engaged in the long run.

One obvious reason is that they are inundated with digital information. The statistics on work email alone are staggering. A survey of US adults found that 67% feel overwhelmed by their email inboxes. Additionally, 82% miss important emails because there are too many messages in their inboxes. If people feel this way about their work emails, you can imagine how they must perceive social media and all online content combined.

So how can you carve out your unique voice from all the chatter? To make your content stand out, you need to realize that it won’t resonate with everyone. But you can make it engaging and captivating for the audience that matters. Here are some tips to help you stand out from the noise.

Determine your niche

When you hear a song, what triggers the impulse that makes you stop and listen? Most likely, it’s a unique voice. The singer sounds different, the lyrics are different, or the emotional depth of the melody is different. The song sounds different than the majority of other songs, and in a good way. You can tell it wasn’t made to fit the crowd.

Likewise, content creators should capitalize on what makes them different. To stand out as a thought leader with an audience, you need to identify what’s special about your perspective. What can you contribute to the discussion that no one else can? Typically, this contribution will be based on your experience, particularly in your industry.

In some ways, identifying your niche as a thought leader isn’t that different from branding. Yes, you might be selling spaghetti sauce on a shelf full of jars of the same competitor’s product. But there’s probably something special about your formula, recipe and story. Focus on those characteristics and emphasize how they relate to your audience’s needs and wants.

Focus on quality and relevance

Sometimes content creators focus too much on hitting certain metrics. They hear that it’s beneficial to publish at least one blog post per week. Or they try to improve poorly performing content by creating more content. But around 7.5 million blog posts are published online every day.

There’s a lot of content out there for everyone to consume, and the reality is that most people just cherry-pick and skim what’s relevant to them. Only 2% of bloggers hit the publish button on a daily basis, and for good reason. When it comes to keeping an audience interested, quality is more important than quantity.

When you’re surrounded by so much noise around you, you won’t find your unique voice if you’re simply meeting a production quota. Instead, focus on making sure the content you create is as satisfying as possible. Putting in the effort to create a piece with audience relevance means more than just filling a spot on your content calendar. When you share that carefully crafted content with your audience, you leave a lasting social media footprint that goes beyond a standard post. Thought leadership is about creating value, rather than just imitating what someone else has had success with.

Tell your story

Storytelling can be more effective than a list of statistics. There is more momentum behind this technique than simply stating hard facts. You use analogies, paint pictures, and evoke emotions. When you say something through metaphorical narratives, information often sticks in people’s minds.

Okay, so your company may be the world’s largest soft drink manufacturer. While that fact is impressive, what does it mean to an audience? Nothing substantial, really. It’s a data point you can leverage, but it doesn’t create an emotional connection. That’s why ads tell the story behind such facts by showing the why.

Maybe you’re a market leader because your product resonates with customers. Maybe it’s the memories they create when they consume your product at social gatherings and celebratory events. Stories are relatable, create an emotional connection, and make people want to know more. Telling your story also helps you highlight what makes you unique.

Creating a unique voice

The effects of information overload can be severe. It leads to analysis paralysis, limited social activities, demotivation and dissatisfaction. As a result, content creators may feel like they are pushing a boulder up a steep mountain. How do you create useful and valuable content with a twist to keep audiences interested?

It may take some time to find the answers, but you can develop a unique voice by determining your niche, focusing on relevance, and telling your story. By leveraging the differences that an audience can identify with and relate to, what you say will grab attention.