I have the distinct pleasure of speaking at the American Independent Writers conference today and I’m super psyched. AIW is truly one of my favorite groups to present to. I spoke on a panel last year to this great group of writers on the topic of writing for online audiences and will be speaking on the topic of finding your voice today.
When you start to write, particularly when blogging, its important to think about the tone of your writing. When I started blogging, I considered my audience which was (and still is) professionals who want to learn more about using social media within their business or organization. Prior to blogging, my writing background consisted primarily of technical writing and documentation. So my writing started out very formal and corporate, sadly, almost “white paper-ish” and eventually I was bored with my own writing.
Blogging should be personal and genuine. And even if you are blogging about business tips or company news, it should come from the heart.
Sick of my own corporate blather, I changed my tone. I started to write more like myself. Interestingly, I started writing exactly the way that I speak and it worked for me…and more importantly for my readers. I found that the more that I injected my own opinions, talked about my own experiences and connected with my audience, the more readers I attracted and the quality of the conversation improved.
Some of us have, what I will call “BIG” personalities. And the challenge for me became balancing and sometimes filtering my own personality a bit. While my sarcastic wit and strong opinions work sometimes, they don’t work all of the time. So, to date, I do temper my writing just a bit. But I recently had a great conversation with a branding colleague who encouraged me to put more of my personality out there, so you may start to see more of “me” shortly.
One note on “putting yourself out there”. If you are very opinionated, its likely that there are folks out there who don’t share your opinion and want to tell you about it. I wrote a helpful post a few weeks ago about dealing with negative comments that might be helpful.
If you write for a corporate entity or organization and are more constrained to towing the “company line”, I would still suggest trying to find your own voice. And more importantly, avoid using the sole voice of the director. For some of you this will be a challenge to overcome, but with some frank discussions with upper management and marketing, you may be able to make your case. Ask if this single “voice” of the company is speaking to everyone – investors, staff, customers, constituents. Your colleagues may find that the tone is too corporate and is not truly connecting with your audience. Consider encouraging multiple staffers to blog. Everyone’s voice is different and while you may not connect with a customer, someone else might.
Most importantly, experiment and see what works for you. Don’t rush it – take baby steps. Eventually you will find your true online voice.
