It's No Joke. It's Personal Now.
Mar
30
Written by:
2011/03/30 08:38 AM
That’s right, I’m getting serious. This is personal. It’s between you and me. Well in fact it’s about our relationship. More to the point it’s about the relationship you as a blogger has with your readers and community. Is it personal?
Of the millions of blogs out there how many do you feel that you have a connection with. Of the bloggers that you follow, how many of them do you connect with? How many of your readers do you connect with?
I’m not talking about connecting on Twitter, or Facebook. Neither am I talking about comments and replies. I’m talking about the personal connection you have through your blog with your readers.
Readers are primary
One thing I have realised in the small time I’ve been blogging is that readers are the most important aspect of any blog. Most importantly are loyal readers. Readers who keep coming back.
But being humans we love that personal touch. We want to be part of the community. We want to be loved, and we desire to love.
Having realised this my aim was to build up a community of personal friends and followers and not just try and amass a larger robotic once off readership.
Having a large following is great, but having a personal loyal following is better.
Making it personal
Isn’t it great to read a blog that almost seems directly related to you. Almost as if it was written personally with you in mind.
This is what I mean when I say that you and I have to make our blog post more personal. We have to appeal to real people. Get them involved. Connect with our readers. Engage with each other.
So then how does one do all this personal stuff. Here are a few points to consider.
- Write about your personal experiences - People love to read about personal experience. One thing about personal experiences is that they cannot be refuted. But don’t over exaggerate them. Keep it real, keep to the truth.
- Write with a specific person in mind - If you write with one person in mind then you have no option but to make it personal. Don’t write for people in general. But with a single person in mind. But a word of caution. Don’t mention them by name, that’s too personal!
- Use personal pronouns – Making a small change to your writing style can improve your post so dramatically. Use personal pronouns, like “I”,”we”, “us”, “you”, “your”. This small change will personalise your blog post and direct it to the reader. Instead of writing “how to write a personal blog post”, write “how you can write a person blog post for your blog”
- Write naturally – Write the way you speak. Use the language you are comfortable with. Don’t use words you never use in your home or daily conversation. This is what makes it personal. You are just showing off a bit of your own character.
- Write posts that your readers need – A post will become naturally personal if it answers a need or a question of mine. So write to that end. But how do you know what your readers need. Well you and I need to engage with them more. Get to know your reader more. This takes time and effort
So how can you make your blog posts more personal? Perhaps you are already doing that. Do you have any more tips that we can use? Let us know about anything that has worked for you.
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