A special note to a blogging friend in Scotland this morning. Joanna Young, the Confident Writing coach, has been offline for a bit during a move to a new place. Everyone on Twitter has missed Joanna’s wit and wisdom these last couple weeks and certainly welcome her back from her Twitter holiday.
For those bloggers getting started and looking for tips, ideas, inspiration and more related to writing, I really recommend checking out Joanna’s blog. Many great folks from Twitter also participate in the comments and the many writing projects that Joanna leads up. It makes for quite a bit of fun!
Welcome back Joanna, we’re glad to see you back on the Blog and on Twitter – hope the move went well!
Hi all! I just wanted to let you know that I got a chance to guest blog over at the Fresh Focus blog. Kris Rowlands let me talk about Weekend Web Work today, so head on over and check it out.
Do you blog with an authoritative or a more passive voice? By “authoritativeâ€, I mean an expert, someone with experience. I don’t know about other bloggers, but I seem to get wrapped around the axle when it comes to authoritative voice in blogging. Maybe I’m not even on point in this post – you tell me. When a post starts drifting from my intent, it usually starts sounding “wishy-washy†and doesn’t draw conclusions as I’d like.
Depending on what you’re focus or intent is for your blog, it’s important to keep your tone consistent. If you are an authority on a topic, a knowledgeable or an experienced professional, it’s important to find the right voice to present your ideas to support your brand. Writing with too authoritative a tone without having the expertise to back it up won’t bring a positive vibe to your brand.
Because I want to share experiences, ideas, and such, I often stop writing a post when I feel like I’ve lost that authoritative voice. Usually, it’s also about the point where I’ve lost direction on what I’m trying to say. I know this happens to others as much as it happens to me, but I find it really disruptive and end up closing the work and walking away for a few hours.
Being authoritative is a double-edged sword though. As easily as you can communicate your expertise, you can also annoy or alienate some folks too. There’s a balancing act to it, one that nearly every blogger works to maintain. At least if their trying to be a contributing resource to the social web and not just blog about their family photos and latest vacation.
So how do you stack up? Are you able to present your ideas as an expert without being a know-it-all? How about me? Which way does my writing usually end up?
With all the talk of “social†in the web today, I started getting really tired of the references to social networking or social media and so on. After all, isn’t networking social by its very nature? What I eventually came to recognize though is that all these tools online are just another means to extend and empower us in life. Whether for our personal or professional lives, the way we’ve adapted these tools and technologies is the important part. I’ve come to call these tools and the use of them the “social web†as it’s a culmination of the technologies and how we use them.
So past all the great site and service ideas, there is actual real-life functionality. That’s what we’re looking for in most of this, simply some way to connect easier, or communicate faster, or share ideas with more information and context. Through our use of these web 2.0 technologies we like to lump together and call “social media†or “social networks†there is something more important to each of us: how we use it.
My question, then, is how do you use the social web? Is it for work? Is it for play? Is it to connect with friends & relatives? Is it to build your brand? Do you use it to speak for yourself or your company? What’s in your social web?
What’s keeping you from taking the next step? Something more than simply being noticed I hope! If you’ve got ideas, or something to say or to share, you need to do something about it. Do you blog? Do you podcast or video blog? Are you on a social network? How are you making yourself heard on in this brave new world online?
The biggest thing for those sitting on the fence is simply to make the decision that they want more opportunity than they may have now in their lives. One way to do that is to start participating online. That can take many forms, from simply joining a social network, or building your own personally branded blog and going to town on creating content.
Whatever you choose, you can’t go wrong if you’re interested in building your brand. Don’t wait, don’t second guess yourself. You are too valuable to the world not to share your knowledge and play your part. Now is the time.
We talk a lot about social networks and social networking these days, but it’s really nothing new. Only the tools are. People have been networking with peers for decades, much longer actually, but we’ve only really called it networking for a generation or so.
While tools like social networks, micro-blogging, or podcasting utilities, and the Internet itself bring powerful new (and fun) ways to network, it still relies on people. Without people, these tools are simply high-tech toys with little purpose.
Anyway, what I’m talking about here is your personal network of peers and associates in your industry or genre. The people that you interact with, compete with, and explore opportunities with. Your personal network is an important part of your career. I didn’t fully realize this until I left a cozy but uninspiring position a couple years ago. It wasn’t until spending a bit of time out participating, networking, and interacting with folks in and out of my field that I discovered how important a personal network is.
Interestingly, my personal network is grown from my mix of social media exploration and personal branding work. Through both interests, I’ve grown a network of friends and associates that I can share ideas with, send questions to, be a support network for peers, recommend people, help solve problems, and much more.
So, I strongly recommend paying attention to your network. The people you associate with professionally and socially have a lot to offer to you in both your personal and professional life. Not only does a person need to grow that network, but to maintain it as well. After all, as in most things, it’s the quality of the network, not the ultimate size that yields the greatest results and rewards.
Also, being a helpful resource to your network, not just a consumer of it, will bring more value to you than you can imagine. As you participate in your network – your friends and associates – make sure to help them find what they’re looking for. Help them with jobs, choosing the right iPod, finding the right hotel for vacation, answering those social network questions, or whatever else comes along. Be the resource that your network needs and your network will be there for you.
