Finding Your Blogging Voice: 7 Tips
One of the greatest things you can do for your business is to start a blog. Even if it’s just as a creative outlet for those of us in creative fields, a blog can mean open communication and meaningful dialogue with your community and, ideally, your target audience. But a blog is much more than beautiful photos for sharable content. If you’re truly interested in creating a valuable space for yourself and your readers, the key is, hands down, to have great content. This means finding your blog voice and remaining true to it. Your readers don’t want heavily manufactured posts that read like brochures. They want to get to know you and your work to be able to connect on a more personal level. If you’re an artist, it not only means showcasing your pieces, but also possibly discussing your inspiration behind them. If you’re in a more traditional field, it might mean sharing a more relatable side of that. Whichever path you’re on, the important thing is to hone in on that voice and keep it consistent. Here are a few things I’ve learned in the process about finding my blog voice. I hope it will serve you, too.
Be authentic – First and foremost, be you. Nobody wants to read a blog that sounds like corporate speak or like it’s written by an abstract concept of a company. It should reflect who you are and sound like you. Otherwise, it just comes off as sterile. And that’s definitely not what blogging is about.
Share your personal side – Don’t be afraid to show your more personal side. The more you share, the easier it will be to connect with your readers. This doesn’t necessarily mean sharing every single personal detail about your life. But it does mean letting people in and allowing them to get to know you and what you stand for and how that relates to your business.
Write what you know – If you’re a great home cook and love to share recipes, blog it. If you’re a whiz at makeup application and know how to make it stay on all day, write about that. The idea is to be passionate and knowledgeable about your writing because that will undoubtedly come through and draw in more readership.
Showcase what makes you unique – Blogging is not the time to blend in and sound like everyone else. This is the time to show off what really makes you you. Be bold and honest about your likes and interests. Be truthful and authentic, sharing it with your readers for their benefit. If you’re a fearless fashionista who can rock a major cateye and know a thing or two about precise eyeliner application, don’t be afraid to share your tutorial. That’s what will keep them coming back (and sharing).
Write as if you’re talking to a friend – Sometimes it helps to picture the person you’re writing for and think about what she or he would want to read about – as well as how you’d say it to them. To make it more real and relatable, think about a friend who would be interested in your topic and write as if you’re writing to them.
Offer a solution – Now, as personal as blogging is, you also have to keep in mind that people will come to your blog to find a solution to their problem. So once you figure out your voice and what you want to blog about, think about how you can help people find solutions to their challenges. If you know how to keep a lipstick from bleeding out the edges, write a step-by-step guide, don’t just post a photo about how great it looks.
Write something you’d want to read yourself – Finally, the most important rule about finding your blog voice is to write something you’d want to read yourself. If even you are bored with it, nobody else will want to read it, no matter how thoroughly you’ve researched and redacted it. Be useful, be practical, be precise, and be authentic. But, above all, don’t be dull. If you’re true to you and what you love and know, you’ll avoid that situation and keep a consistent blog voice.
Above all, just be true to yourself. Don’t try to sound like anyone else. If you do that, everything else will fall into place.
