Are you kind of a geek? A jock? A wordie or a foodie? A techie, or a Trekkie? How much time do you spend thinking about, reading up on, or participating in your passion?
Does that show up in your blog?
It should. There are a couple different takes on why, but they all lead to the same place. The key to successful business blogging is authenticity, requiring nothing less than your heart and soul. There needs to be genuine appreciation and interest in your subject when you blog. Why? Because that’s what makes you worth reading.
Otherwise, isn’t the news enough? Your blog is your personal take on a thing. It’s your stage. Be you.
Ahead-of-the-curve marketing guy Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuck, his louder, coarser doppleganger, come from the “life’s too short to be boring” camp. And while that sometimes reads as pretty freakin’ idealistic when you’re trying to pay the bills, it still makes a ton of sense. It’s inspirational, and the blogging world needs that. Hell, the regular world needs that. They’re inspired people, writing about sharing inspired ideas.
Super-Friendly Chris Brogan is all about the relationship. His blog is full of great marketing advice, but it’s put out there in an entirely conversational and personable way. That’s who he is. It’s hugely palatable for a bunch of people. In a way, super unfriendly Naomi Dunford does the same. She’s all about the relationship, too, but it’s highly selective. Her writing, and consequently, her business, is only going to appeal to a certain type of person. And that’s the way she wants it. Her voice puts her there.
I read an interesting post on this same subject yesterday by Lisa Barone about ghost blogging (the discussion in the comments is well worth reading, too). I feel like she really got to the heart of the matter with this part…
In some respects, blogs and tweets are just content. And there’s nothing wrong with hiring someone to produce content for you or to help you push it out. Without that glorious fact, I wouldn’t have a job. However, realize that if you outsource your blogs, your tweets, and your online persona to generic ghostwriters, that you’re doing yourself quite an injustice. You’re missing out on what these types of content can really provide.
That’s a razor thin line for me to walk, but I’m going to anyway (because I’m not generic, and I’m confident I can prove my point). My take is that, as a business, you can’t outsource all of your social content, or even most of it.
But if they’re genuine about the subject, do the research, and care about the client, copywriters can successfully create a portion of that content. As a copywriter, that’s what I do. I pride myself on it.
I just can’t write your portion of it. That’s how marketing through social media differentiates itself from advertising. You’re invovled. There’s no “social” to it if you’re not.
On Star Trek, the show always (usually? I’m not a trekkie, so don’t ding me on the hardcore particulars) started with an entry from the captain’s log. Now, there were plenty of other reports coming out of the Enterprise. Back at Federation HQ, they had a whole slew of data and information and personal takes coming from the rest of the ship’s crew, I’m sure of it. But only the captain wrote the captain’s log.
Your content is like the information coming from the Enterprise. You’re the capitan, so fill out the log. If you can’t write, get an editor. Contribute. The Federation’s waiting.
