Finding Your Reader-friendly Blogging Tone
With the amazing amount of blogs available out there, a question raises naturally. Why do we read some blogs, and not others? Why do we follow certain bloggers and become more active in their comments section? Content, information is definitely one of the key factors, but what is information if it’s not nicely wrapped in a good delivery package?
Think of your articles as if they were products on a shelf. Are you going to pick the cheapest looking? Surely not! That’s also available for bloggers. The way you deliver your message is extremely important and finding the right tone should be a top priority on your list.
Different people have different personalities. Your own style can help you connect with some people, while pushing others away. So, basically the keyword should be: Balance.
Shifting from classic media to blogs
Over the years we’ve seen a migration of readers from classic media like newspapers to blogs. No matter how talented some journalists are, they still have writing guidelines to follow when writing an article in the paper, which means that their own tone will be moderated by the overall publication’s tone. Knowing this, many of them decided to publish additional blogs, where they could express in a more natural way.
This is the advantage that bloggers have over the classic media. We can be ourselves, 100%.
Real life examples to consider
There is obviously a reason why our websites are called personal blogs. Not only because we keep track of things we’ve done, or personal experiences, but also because creating a community around our blogs is like growing a group of friends and acquaintances.
When writing our articles we should always consider our audience, our topics, and most times get personal with our community by letting aside any corporate twaddle that could throw a cold shadow over our postings.
So, how do we do it? Imagine these three real life situations and think about how they apply in your case:
- You’re in your living room with a group of friends, having a relaxing chatter;
- You’re in a pub or at a party with a mixed group of friends and people you barely know;
- You’re in a meeting with people you’ve just met.
What tone do you choose when addressing the audience in each of the above situations?
From where I stand, I believe that the tone you’d go for in the first situation would be perfect for a family blog, or a blog you share mostly with your friends. The third situation can easily be applied to corporate blogs, where a more conservative style is necessary.
The tone for the second situation is the most difficult to find, due to the amount of unknown variables such as interests, characters or adversities. Even so, when blogging you have the advantage of your focused information, which, in most cases, tells enough about your readers’ preferences, and this is where balance comes into play.
From personal experience
Take Blogsessive for example. My posts have a personal touch. I like to talk about how I feel about what other people said, share my opinion on some blogging tips or posts, or publish blog writing tips from my own experience.
Words like “me”, “I” and “you” can be found in each of my posts because they ensure a conversational style. I use a moderate tone in my articles, but as soon as someone decides that a post deserves a comment (which is quite a big step to take), I get more personal and try to use a style that would find an echo with my commenter. Many times, before even posting my comment, I visit my reader’s blog and learn about him: who is he, what does he like, what does he talk about and how does he do it; and I would suggest that you do the same, obviously, based on the amount of time that you have at your disposal.
Hi, my name is Alex and I’m a blogger!
So, basically, finding the right tone is not that hard. It only takes a bit of time to experiment with different styles and approaches, real life situations and deciding based on the reactions.
How about you? What are you blogging about and how did you come up with your perfect tone?
Photo credits to Janet Burgess
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I think one thing many writers have struggled with is separating articles from blogs. There are many blogs out there that lack personality and they come across as very stale. Also, there are those that are using their blog as another avenue for their sales pitch which really deters readership.
I just stumbled upon this blog and have really enjoyed all the posts and tips. I want to do my best to make my blog as useful and efficient to its readers as it can be, so thanks for this one!
I blog on music ministry in churches and am fairly personal, although I try to be professionally personal.
@Eric: Indeed, over-monetizing can be really hurtful sometimes. Today, Darren Rowse posted something about this on http://www.Problogger.net.
@Ryan: Hello Ryan! I’m really glad that you have enjoyed your reading so far on Blogsessive. Looking forward to hearing more about your “blogging adventure”, since your blog’s topic is not a very “casual” once. Always good to learn from new experiences. About your tone, professionally personal, it seams the best solution considering your target.
Enjoy your stay!
Thanks for the link. i agree you have to be careful with the ads. I was referring to the actual content. I don’t like blogs where the posts are dedicated to selling their product. Blogging should be conversational not an infomercial.
thanks for the tips.
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Alex, this is definitely one of your best posts and at the same time one of the top 10 blogging tips every newbie should know about. If I had a dollar for every fresh blog I stumbled upon, that had an impersonal feel to it…
Hi, here is what I learn about a confident writer. Confident writer is ok to be in the background. They don’t necessarily have to be very enthusiast on forcing their opinion. They can have a very normal tone, without instructing or pushing, and yet it’s more influential. You put your emotion in the background, and let the idea speaks for itself.
I applied the principle to edit this post of mine. Initially i don’t get much comment, but once I edited the post, I got much comments and many people like it, becoming one of my top posts.
It took a lot of confidence to write this post. I did it wrongly in the beginning as I’m kind of forcing my idea with much emotion, and it really spoiled the message, as people getting more defensive when you’re too enthusiastic.
7 interesting (and useful) facts about my flaws
Cheers,
Robert
@Adrian: Thank you, you’re very kind!
@Robert: It’s an interesting point you make. Being overconfident can create a defensive reaction from your readers, while being too enthusiastic can, again, put your readers in a defensive position.
So, once again, we’re talking about balance. The percentages of this balance can vary from situation to situation and based on target audience, as depicted in the examples, but not limited. Thanks for your comment!