Bloggertone

We all know that our business blogs require personality in order to get our readers and our potential customers to engage with us. That engagement can be via a myriad of ways – comments on the blog, enquiries, orders, sales, tweets, facebook comments and it doesn’t matter how they respond as long as they do.  Your aim is that the readers think of you and your business as someone they know.

However, sometimes people find it difficult to reveal their personalities and interests within a business themed blog. It can be easier said that done to inject your blog with personality without becoming too personal and to combine your business message within a personal tone but here’s some tips on how to do it well:

1. Have a good quality photograph of the blogger(s) on the ‘about us’ page.
2. Don’t use too many stock photographs – take some photos of work the company is doing or even of the staff or the offices.
3. Include an occasional video blog – show yourself to your readers, let them hear your voice.
4. Write as ‘I’ rather than ‘our’.  Sometimes small businesses want to make themselves look bigger than they are, and run the risk of becoming rather impersonal. The use of the first person is friendlier and more personal. Refer to the reader as ‘you’ too.
5. If there is more than one person writing the blog, ensure that readers know who is writing each post and let each writer develop their own writing style.
6. Relate every post to your business but build in some personality too. One ‘personal business blogging style’ I like is that of Bob Poole who teaches sales.  He builds the sales messages into his personal experience. For example, if he is writing about how you can improve your customer service, he will give an example of poor customer service that he witnessed recently.
7. Reveal your opinions but keep them consistent (and steer clear of contentious topics!) . Be true to your personality and it will come across as credible and trustworthy.

Your blog is the perfect place for your business to demonstrate its personality on your website. Think of your blog as a friendly doorman (or woman) that will welcome your prospective clients.

“Image from Thinglass /Shutterstock.”