How to Add That Personal Touch to Your Blog Articles
Do you sometimes wonder if you’re over sharing about personal experiences on your blog?
Would a few guidelines on being personal with blog articles help?
Today, I want to dive right into our topic, which is how to add a personal touch to blog articles. Last week, I took some time to talk about blog articles and what worked and what didn’t. It got me thinking about the personal touch, because I’ve always valued it in the blog articles I read and write.
For any of my long time readers, you may be rolling your eyes thinking, how many articles can one woman write about this subject? I know, I know. If you can hang in there with me, it will be worth it. While I’ve talked about getting personal before today, I wanted to take a deeper look into this whole idea of getting personal with business.
Our Blogs are a Place of Business
For many of us, we don’t post blog articles out of a social need, but rather a need to sell or promote our business. So adding any personal touch to an article needs to be done tastefully. It’s not just about putting ourselves out there. It is about our business.
So, how do we do that? How do we make our reader feel as though we are people and not just a computer? At the same time, how do we keep things professional and get people to try whatever we are selling.
I’ve always given an illustration about how to get personal and for some of my readers that makes sense. However, my readers that are more black and white thinkers are probably really annoyed at my illustration and I can understand why.
An Illustration Doesn’t Provide Guidelines
So, let’s put down some hard and fast guidelines. The first thing to remember whenever you’re using a blog as marketing is that it’s not about you and it’s all about you. Ok, my black and white thinkers, before you roll your eyes again, let me explain.
Our blogs are about our readers and their needs. That is why it isn’t about you. It is about you because there are exceptions to this way of marketing.
I found these exceptions in an article by Pace Smith on Copyblogger and I thought they applied perfectly. Here are 3 guidelines for writing blog articles with a personal touch and my own spin.
- Connecting with Your Readers
One of the best ways to get personal with your readers is to talk about yourself. You want to keep it simple. Our readers don’t need to know about our first grade teachers unless it ties in with our content and that’s the 1st point. Talk about yourself in a way that ties it in with your fantastic content. - Establishing Your Expertise
We want our readers to know that we are experts and that they can trust us. In order to do this well, we have to be able to communicate our expertise without bragging. Smith had a simple, yet great example,For example, if you share, “I helped a client fix her hacked website today! Now everything is safe and back to normal,” that can help future clients feel safe enough to ask you for help with their websites, as long as it comes from your heart.”
- Story Time
Starting out with a personal story is another great way to again add that personal touch. However, just like with connecting, personal stories work best when you tie it in to stellar content.
These 3 ways will help you check in with personal touches on your blog articles that are still appropriate for businesses. Remember, even when you are getting personal, it’s not about you; it’s about your readers. If you have any questions about getting personal with blogging, please let me know in the comment section below.
Have a wonderful week everyone!
Short and sweet – love it! I’m completely in line with your thoughts here. You have to understand that your readers are ALWAYS asking, “WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?!” And if you aren’t address that all-important question, you’re probably missing the mark. 🙂
Brooke,
Beautifully put, thank you so much for sharing.