When was the last time your clients or followers heard from YOU?

Several weeks ago, I was talking to a client about planning her LinkedIn content calendar – the original messaging she wanted to organize and share with her thousands of followers. A bit flustered by the idea of having to craft original content, she replied flippantly, “Oh, I don’t know, just share something for me, that’ll check the box, right?”

Sharing content has become easier than ever. It’s one tap or a ‘click to share’. As easy a move as it is today, it’s become a mindset, too – if we share something it counts as showing up, right? It’s like how you stay for five or ten minutes at the happy hour, lingering in the corner, and count that as networking time.

Does any of that count as showing up?

Yes – and no.

Showing up is, yes, literally showing up in a feed with a share or a comment. They scroll and see your name – box checked, right? But there’s a harder showing up – one that takes some time, planning, and thought.

So, here’s my question for you: When was the last time your clients or followers heard from YOU?

Not a link to an article someone else wrote.

Not a marketing one-pager.

Not a statistic, graphic, or meme.

YOU.

It doesn’t have to be an elaborate state of the union address or a short novel. There’s also no seasonality to it. You don’t have to wait until the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to craft your gratitude message or New Year’s Eve for your ‘Happy New Year’ note.

It just needs to be a short message, in your voice, that’s real, honest, and something different or interesting to think about.

When you take the (seemingly) longer or harder road to showing up and sharing something original from YOU, you deliver something fresh for someone else to read, digest, and use in his or her life and work.

BUT, there’s also another benefit: YOU feel differently.

You planted your flag, you put your foot on the soil, you staked your claim.

In response to this year’s Silicon Valley Bank closures, an entrepreneur I follow who is also an SVB customer, wrote an almost thousand word letter to her email newsletter list, talking about the experience of trying to navigate the bank closure news and what that meant for her company’s funding.

In a chaotic time, she could have very easily stayed quiet, shared someone else’s news story, or asked her Communications Manager to write the note. Instead, she took time – probably during a week when her time was very limited – to craft her brutally-honest thoughts and response. It was the longer and harder way to show up. I will be a customer of hers forever for that choice.

I challenge you to show up sometime soon for your clients or your followers. Write YOUR message, in YOUR voice.

I promise you that it’s a much different feeling than clicking to share – for your audience and for you.

This guest article was submitted by Meg Seitz, entrepreneur and author of You Are Something New.