Yesterday, Robby Slaughter and I were discussing blogs and blogging strategy. He mentioned how surprised he was my blog didn’t have more of my personality. I wasn’t offended, (maybe it was because I was half way through my second Margarita) but I did wonder, how much personality should the Roundpeg blog have?
This is a challenge for any small business owner writing a blog as part of their marketing and social media strategy; where is the balance point between company and personal messages. And while there are many people who claim to be experts, there are no firm rules.
Some of the blogs I read most Kyle Lacy, Louis Gray, and Seth Godin, each let pieces of who they are come through, in different ways. Kyle is at is best when he “rants”. His funny, razor sharp wit is exactly the same in person or in print. Through his blog, we know know a lot about what he thinks, but not as much about what he does. In contrast, Louis Gray, shares a little less of his personality in his informative blog, written primarily for early adopters, technology geeks, RSS addicts and Mac freaks. He does warn however, the blog may occasionally contain some TiVo, media, sports and politics…) To get to “know” Louis Gray you have to add him to your follow list on FriendFeed or Twitter. There you will see photos of his twins, and little pieces of his sense of humor bleed through.
Seth Godin writes smart, funny, insightful posts every single day. I read almost all of them. I read his books, and have watched his video interviews, but I don’t know Seth Godin. He rarely uses personal examples. This isn’t a negative, I really like his blog, but I don’t feel I know him.
Kyle and Robby have solved the problem by creating two blogs. Each has the personal blogs and the business ones: Brandswag and Slaughter Development. I tried this appraoch, I do have a blog called More Than a Few Words, but it was exhausting trying to write good content for both. So I just gave up, and moved a little bit of the personal stuff to Roundpeg.
So who is right? I don’t know, but I am pretty sure my readers wil ltell me if I have made right choices, with their comments, repeat visits and links.