It’s Okay To Repeat Yourself

Sharlyn Lauby

3 Mar 2011

At a recent conference, the keynote speaker asked participants to discuss a question at their table. I was sitting next to a CEO who said, “I hate this part. Speakers are supposed to (1) tell the audience what you’re going to tell them, (2) tell them, then (3) tell them what you told them. I’m not here to discuss.”

The comment about speakers repeating themselves made me chuckle a bit because it reminded me of a recent post by Debbie Weil. Debbie was the first blogger I ever met. She was a speaker at a human resources conference I was organizing. (BTW – she’s a great speaker!) I credit Debbie for opening my eyes to the blogging world.

Needless to say, I’m a fan of her blog. And the other day, she wrote a post that I keep thinking about. You see, Debbie’s been blogging for many years. So she was pondering the question, is it OK to repeat yourself?

I think all bloggers struggle to a certain extent with the “echo chamber” – whether it’s writing about something you’ve already covered or someone else did. And for good reason. Nobody wants to read about the same small handful of topics every week. Even if you use that trendy, smart headline or tie the piece to that hip subject.

In the end, I say yes – it’s okay to repeat yourself. There are some topics that continue to be a constant source of conversation – like dress code policies. Just when we think the dust has settled for a while, some company writes a 40+ page dress code policy and gives HR pros around the world blog fodder.

And other topics – like management and leadership – have new approaches all the time. They will continue to challenge us and therefore, we’ll continue to write about them.

But I do struggle with how to share topics I’ve already written about? Topics we continue to discuss. One of the blogs I read (and I wish I could remember which one) creates posts with a series of previously published posts. Think of it as a “Top 10 HR Bartender posts on INSERT SUBJECT HERE”.

None of us wants to hear or be a broken record, but when the same topics keep presenting themselves, we shouldn’t be reluctant to put a new shine on our position. Whether you blog or not, what do you do when it’s necessary to repeat your message?

Image courtesy of miss_rogue