This is post 2 in the Adding a Personal Touch to Your Blog Series
2. First Person vs Third Person
While there is definitely a place for third person writing in blogging – I know that I am much more drawn bloggers who place themselves inside their posts by writing in the first person. Don’t just report on the facts – let yourself engage in them and talk about how they impact you, what you feel about them, how you discovered them and how you’ll respond to them and you will find your readers respond in a similar way.
For example – next time a story like ‘Google buys YouTube’ breaks, rather than just reporting on the sale and talking about the details of the deal (like thousands of other bloggers), tell your readers how the sale could impact you (and as a result them), talk about your own feelings about the deal etc.
3. Using ‘You’ to create a more personal Blog
In a similar way that using ‘I’ language adds a personal touch to a blog – using ‘you’ language can also draw your reader into your blogging.
Brian from Copyblogger has a great post on the importance of ‘you’ in your copywriting which says it better than I could.
“When it comes to writing engaging content, “you” is the most powerful word in the English language, because people are ultimately interested in fulfilling their own needs. It may sound harsh, but the fact is your readers won’t start to actually care about you at all until you’ve repeatedly offered them exceptional value with your blog.”
When you start using ‘you’ in your blogging and you immediately force readers to consider how what you write impacts them. This means your writing leaves the realm of ‘theory’ and becomes personal.
I think making your business blog sound personal is one of the best ways to build community and make readers feel welcome at your blog. I will be watching these posts close so I can use the tips in my own writing.
[…] Making your blog personal is important to help gain trust with your readers. Darren at ProBlogger just posted about becoming a more personal blogger. His posts always make me think… how can I become better. not just as blogging, but at building relationships and partnerships that will last a lifetime. […]
I have been thinking about posting in the third person but from my perspective. Like, if my name was Fred I would write “Fred believes this and Fred did this today”. Maybe it is from years of watching Seinfeld episodes that makes me think that’s funny.
Remember the “Jimmy” episode? Can’t remember what it’s called but it has “Jimmy” in it. :)
I would rather post in first person, I feel that it allows the blogger to connect with me on a more personal level. He feels more like we’re talking one on one.
Excellent. I never thought about the word “you” as a positive. In my opinion, it is rather off-putting. I try to use “some of us” and “we” instead of you to try and deflect the negative impact of you statements.
I never realized though, that the word “you” can be inviting and help the reader related to any given issue.
Wonderful food for thought. Thanks.
Great writing tips for blogging. Will definitely incorporate this in my next posts.
First Person Blogging is a great way to get your message across to the reader. This should go without saying, but while you get personal on a blog be careful not to expose too much of your personal identity. I have seen a number of Bloggers on the internet who have personal information all over their site and links to other information about themself.
If you want to get personal on your blog, make sure that unwanted visitors cannot get personal with you. Make sure that your online name cannot be tied to your personal information via another website or registration information. Also, make sure not to post your email address. It is easy to trace most email addresses back to real user information. Using a masked username in your email address does not mean that information cannot be traced about that account.
Wishing you safe blogging
Nice tips. I think I tend to go for first person in most of my blogging.
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Nice tips, Darren. I tried third person with one of my “experimental” blogs and didn’t like it. It felt detached.
It is good as long we use it sensibly. If we do over emphasis on “I” in general news stories, users may think otherwise. But, in opinion based stories, we should definitely stress on our opinion.
[…] First Person Blogging about You […]
[…] of the ways you can add a personal touch to your blog include writing in the first person, blogging with emotion, sharing stories using humor, talking about real life activities, using […]