Never Fear the “I” in Blogging for Business

Blogging for business has many aspects. Corporate and professional practitioner blogs are part promo, part advertising, part bulletin, part tutorial, and part mission statement, but the bottom line is that blog content writing is just that – writing.

This week, I‘m building my Say It For You blog posts around the wisdom in Brandon Royal’s The Little Red Writing Book. While it’s true that blog content writing can’t be approached in the same manner as, say, magazine article writing or peer-review academic writing or novel writing, when it comes right down to it, good blogging is based on good writing.

“‘Often personal examples go hand in hand with the use of the personal pronoun “I”,” explains Royal. “Do not be afraid to use this pronoun; it’s personal and specific. Readers appreciate knowing how a situation relates to the writer in terms of his or her personal experience.”

As a corporate blogging trainer, I think that statement about being personal is especially truly when it comes to the content in SEO marketing blogs.

To demonstrate that you understand the problems the online searcher is dealing with, it can be highly effective to relate how you personally went through the same failure stages. To the extent you can truthfully say, “I know how frustrating the problem is, and that’s why I’m devoted to solving that problem through my business or profession,” that gives your blog content writing “I” power. Next best to the business owner or professional relating an “I” experience which drives their passion, is anecdotes and testimonials (other people saying “I”).

At first blush, this “I” advice may sound like a contradiction of a principle I’m always emphasizing to newbie Indiana business bloggers, which is that their blogs aren’t meant to be all about them and their companies – it's meant to be about those searchers who need what they do, what they have, and what they know. But truly, there’s no contradiction. Personalizing examples, as Brandon Royal puts it, simply makes them more memorable.

Never fear the “I” in blogging for business – so long as it’s for the purpose of personalizing the information you want to convey to your readers!