Our Mental Attitude Carries Through Our Written Word
- Image via Wikipedia
Well, I keep blogging wrong. The key is to keep at it until you get good at communicating your thoughts and ideas or you give up. One of the two.
On my way to the office this morning, I decided to ask an old friend of mine what he thought of my latest blog post. He’s a professional writer and is an Admin for Fark.com. I called him from my iPhone while driving.
“Can you do me a favor and tell me how bad last night’s blog post was?”
“Sure.”
“Thanks, man.”
“If you are going to go off and use profanity, you should just use profanity. Don’t block out the words. People like a good train wreck. They want to see it.”
“Yeah. I really can’t use profanity. It’s too polarizing and people get the picture anyway.”
“You know, when I’m reading blogs, I only read for two reasons. One, if they are entertaining and two, if they are informative. Your blog post is neither. It was another blog post about nothing.”
“Yeah I know. I tried to save it at the end by pointing out what I should have done instead.”
“Yeah. You should have put the valuable information at the top and not make people have to read through all that other stuff first. I get it. You can do whatever you want. Why should anybody care? Besides it seems like you made the same blog post, two posts in a row.”
You know what? My buddy of twenty years is absolutely correct. I’ve found that people will only care about me if I care about them first. When we write for ourselves, write lengthy self-absorbed diatribes or rants and don’t recognize that people who don’t know us won’t care what random thoughts are floating through our heads, we’ll lose our readers in less than two paragraphs. (I’m being generous there.) Our blogs posts need to have personal relevance to our readers. They either need to see a part of themselves in our stories and relate to us or we have to write something that is meaningful to them. Don’t waste your reader’s time. They are just one click away from bouncing off our blogs at any time.
The first paragraph should hook the reader. Give people a reason to read further. Creating compelling content that grabs the reader’s interest in the first paragraph is critical. We have to give people a reason to keep coming back to our blog to read future posts. This is how we build our audience. Make your blog posts meaningful to your readers. Spark an idea, be a catalyst for conversation, provoke an emotional response or help to solve a problem. This is what creates value for our readers.
After I hung up the phone with my friend, I thought about what I would write this evening. I formulated a logical and structured plan in my head. Unfortunately, I just got home after working a 15 hour day. That plan seems to have gone out the window. It’s tough to work a long day, come home and write a thoughtful blog post. Blogging regularly requires commitment and endurance.
To capture and maintain attention, we really can’t write for ourselves. Good writing is focused on the reader. We have to write for our audience. Human beings who don’t know us will be reading our written word. To get people interested in us, we have to be interested in them first. We have to give people a reason to care.
Our mental attitude carries through our written word. Our written voice is wrapped around our internal thoughts, so when we write about ourselves for ourselves or out of ego, that’s the unwritten subtext that we are communicating and there’s no hiding it.
Write for your audience.
Write for your audience.
Write for your audience.
Or write for yourself and understand why your blog stats aren’t increasing over time. It’s a personal choice.
Take Aways From This Blog Post
- Most people will be interested in blog posts that are either entertaining or informative
- Spark an idea, be a catalyst for conversation, provoke an emotional response or help to solve a problem
- Your first paragraph should hook your reader’s attention
- Don’t write lengthy self-absorbed diatribes
- Blogging regularly requires commitment and endurance
- Keep in mind that human beings are reading your post and that you’re writing for them because they are reading for themselves
- Connect with your audience in a way that’s meaningful to them
- Give people a reason to keep coming back
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I Don’t Need To Write a Title
- Image by shanlung via Flickr
You know, I often hesitate to write blog posts on my own blog because I feel as though it should be a serious business blog. The problem is, I don’t want to write from a serious business perspective. I’m involved in marketing all day, every day, and when it comes right down to it, I don’t need to monetize my blog. When I write, unless I’m being directly paid for my words, I don’t want to have write in a serious business tone.
Another thing… I don’t feel like I need to prove how smart I am by writing a blog or sharing what I know. I think I’ve done that plenty on Twitter. Sometimes I just want to write because it feels good. For the sheer joy of transferring thoughts to words. Making the intangible tangible by publishing it publicly and in front of an audience.
I know what to do. I know that there should be some thought preceding a blog post. I should write something insightful or personally relevant to my audience. I also know that I should be offering some kind of critical analysis about social media, branding, online communication, or marketing through digital communication channels.
The truth is, I’m not getting paid to write this. I’m probably never going to make a dime off of my blog. Because of this, I’ve always hesitated to write posts. When I write under my own name and without writing for hire, I like to speak my mind and write in my own voice.
I have spent a good share of every day for the last ten years writing. I have nothing to prove. I almost started another secret blog that wasn’t attached to my real name (you may know this as a “personal brand“). Then I thought, that’s probably among the dumbest ideas I’ve ever had. So, this. This thing here. This is *my* blog.
I don’t have to labor over the editing. I don’t have to set this post aside for half a day and come back, re-read it and tighten the copy half a dozen times over. I can just write and post.
So, I am laying claim to my own digital space here on the internets. (And you have no idea how much time I’ve spent learning how to write just to turn around and break every single rule in the English language to develop my own personal and unique style of online communication.)
Now that I’ve removed all mental boundaries and restrictions from my own writing, I’m guessing that I will be posting a lot more. Sometimes about establishing an internet presence. Sometimes about business. Sometimes about social media marketing. But mostly, I think I’ll be writing more about whatever random thoughts are crossing my mind, just like I do on Twitter but in long-form.
One of the things we’ve all heard over and over again is that our blog isn’t about us. It’s about you. Or our community. Or some other bull **** like that. If your blog is about your audience, you are either a masochist or an internet marketer looking to drive traffic to feed your affiliate click-throughs and/or self-promote.
Honestly. **** that. If I’m writing for you and not for me, you’ll have to pay me. That’s transparency.
I’ve always said that good writing is manipulative. Well on this blog, all you’re going to get is bad writing. My writing.
Goodness. This is no way to write a blog post. I’m sure that I will come to my senses by morning.
I will post this however for anyone looking for to glean something useful from my ramblings. You really should have a purpose behind what ever it is that you are posting. Stream of consciousness or personal revelations are not going to help your business. It’s useful to think about what you want to say and construct your blog posts using some kind of a logical hierarchy. Every blog post that we write tells the world a story about who we are. Are we credible? Are we moral? Are we articulate, thoughtful or intelligent?
When you’ve completed your post, go back and re-read it. Make sure that your post communicates your purpose precisely and using as few words as possible. The more direct your communication, the greater the impact your post will have on your readers.
Editing is key. Tighten it up. Re-read. Step-away. Tighten it up some more. Then ask yourself, “Is this what I want to communicate about my subject and is this post telling a story about me that I want the world to know?” Your online presentation is tied to your reputation, which is a major part of your personal brand.
If you are observant, you’ll notice I did absolutely none of those things here. I hoped that helped.
With all that said, when I read this blog post tomorrow, it will probably drive me crazy and I’ll end up editing it anyway.
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How To Write a Blog Post The Completely Wrong Way
- Image by The Next Web via Flickr
I had promised myself that no matter what, I would start blogging again. I told myself that I would write at least one blog post a week and publish it on Mondays. No. Matter. What. So here it is Monday, it’s 7:30 PM and I have no blog post. I don’t even have a topic in mind for a blog post.
So just to say that I did it, I’m going to write a blog post the completely wrong way. I’m not going to pick out a topic in advance. I’m not going to write it and let it sit for a few hours and then labor to tighten it up with some miraculous editing. Instead, I’m just going to write for the sake of writing.
I actually do a lot more writing than people probably suspect. (And I don’t mean my microblog on Twitter or my smart-ass comments on Facebook.) I spend most of my day writing. So why I don’t write articles for my own blog, I’ll never know. I wish this blog post had some kind of lesson in it. (It won’t.) I wish that I had a story to tell. (I don’t.)
A good share of the blogs I used to read are about social media. How to use it. How to measure it. I’m not going to write a blog about social media. There’s only so much I can read about a tool, or a set of tools. I’ve pretty much run my course with Mashable, Techcrunch, and all the personal blogs about using social media to build community, extend reach, create value, and engage an audience. I definitely don’t want to read posts on metrics, excel spreadsheets, buckets of key words or monitoring brands.
In fact, I’m breaking a massive rule right now, aren’t I? I’m making my blog posts all about me and what I want. (If you follow a good share of the A-list social media blogs, our own blogs aren’t supposed to be about us. Our blogs are supposed to be all about our readers.)
At the risk of receiving a strongly worded letter from Chris Brogan and being censured by the National Association of Social Media Professionals, I’m writing a blog post about absolutely nothing. What I’d really like to do is use social media for meeting women with questionable moral values, cracking open a beer, and watching the movie 300 on Blu-ray…
But this I will tell you! It’s Monday and I *have* written a blog post!
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I Drank The Google Kool-Aid but I’m Not Buzzed
I’m not sure why but I’m bothered by Buzz. I don’t like it, I don’t want it. But I have it. Sure I don’t have to use it. I think maybe it’s because for the first time, Google has forced a web tool on me. I’ve been using Gmail since 2004. If I love Gmail, and I do, I’m forced to have Buzz. I’m about 10 minutes away from re-installing MS Office so I can use Gmail as a relay for Outlook again. You know what I like? Choice. That’s what got me using Google web tools in the first place. Today is the first day, I’ve ever viewed Google in the same light as I viewed Microsoft in the mid-nineties.
I like to use my Google tools for productivity. I’m not sure how productive Buzz is going to be. I was hoping that Buzz would combine Wave‘s collaboration strength with Gmail. Instead what I got was an additional service with no perceived value or use. 10 minutes into it, I’m already over Buzz. I don’t think Google does social well unless you consider collaborative tools to be social media.
So rather than to integrate some of Wave’s collaborative strength with Gmail, instead what we got was, “Dear Facebook, you took the FriendFeed team so we just went ahead and built our own FriendFeed. How do you like them apples?” I liked it better when Google did Google really well. Now it seems that Google wants to do Facebook, FriendFeed, Twitter, and Apple really well.
Am I being too cranky here? After using Buzz, does anyone really think it’s a competitor to Facebook, Twitter, or FourSquare?
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