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How To Blog: Finding Your Blog Voice

by Jennifer Beever

Amplify your voice with bloggingIdentifying the voice of your blog can be tricky.

What is the “voice” of a blog? It is its tone, its style, and how both of those fit its purpose.

Determining the voice of your blog requires understanding your desired audience and knowing what will interest them. For example, do you want to entertain with your blog posts? Do you want to be controversial? Do you want to train or inform your readers? All of the above?

In developing your blogging voice, follow some blogs you like and make note of the “voice” they use. Why do you like it? Could you adopt similar tone and approach?

Some of the best blogs I have seen use multiple voices, but they do so in a systematic way. A systematic approach helps readers understand what they are going to get and when. That way, a changing voice is expected and perhaps looked forward to.

One example is Spin Sucks, a blog by PR firm Arment Dietrich. Its About page claims that the blog stands for a “Fight Against Destructive Spin!” They feature PR news, tips and opinion pieces. Now the blog features guest bloggers Monday through Thursday. Every Friday includes a blog post called “Gin and Topics!” – a lighter piece about popular news items.

Another example is The Maine PR Maven blog by Nancy Marshall Communications. This blog has three themes: Monday Maine Maven features a PR or marketing maven from the state of Maine; Wednesday Witty Wisdom is informational, often including a marketing or social media tip or opinion post; and the blog’s Friday Fab Foto is a photo of a client, an employee or an event with a short description.

In this B2B Marketing Traction blog, I target first-of-the-week for how-to blog posts; mid-week for opinion pieces about topics like business strategy or marketing technology products; and end-of-the-week for my Marketing Soapbox, in which I spout off about marketing practices that drive me crazy or that I think are just wrong!

I think that most people plan what they will write about when they start their blog, but they develop their voice as they get into it. How your readers respond to your initial posts may direct your voice. It’s not easy to define or develop your blogging voice. But, when it happens, you’ll know it. All of a sudden your blog will make more sense, be easier to write, and engage your readers even more.

If you need help defining your blogging voice or getting started in blogging or social media, contact Jennifer Beever at New Incite today. We provide social media and blogging strategic plans, blog set-up and training, and blog ghost-writing.

 

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Nancy Marshall April 10, 2012 at 3:41 am

Dear Jennifer: thanks for using the Maine PR Maven blog as an example of a systematic way of structuring and defining your content. I’ve had my blog for seven years now, and it has morphed into this format over time. The first several years, I wrote about my own experiences and perspectives in PR and Marketing. But a year ago, I decided that having a standardized format would provide the structure and discipline I needed to consistently post three times a week. We have our “Monday Maine Maven,” which is someone doing something interested in PR, Marketing and Social Media in Maine; our Wednesday Witty Wisdom, which is a small nugget of advice, instruction or thought; and our Friday Fab Foto, which this week could be the snowfall in the Maine mountains on the week after Easter! We also tie the blog content in with The NMC Report, our monthly e-newsletter which contains an opening letter from me, an article from one of my employees and news releases about new clients, awards, projects and other agency happenings at Nancy Marshall Communications. Many people struggle with ideas for content so I think your service is highly relevant and needed. Thanks again, and best regards,
Nancy

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