After learning some interesting facts about the inaugural addresses of early U.S.
presidents, I found myself wishing I could go back in time. Before each president uttered the first word of his speech, I would share with him some good “new-fashioned” blogging principles…

You’ll recall how I’m always describing blogs as being less formal and more conversational than other kinds of marketing materials (See Between Crafted and Cranked Out).  Well, it’s difficult to imagine anything less conversational and informal than George Washington’s two-minute inaugural address: “Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month.” (That’s just the first sentence of the address -can you believe it?)  He then goes on (and on) to say, “On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years.”  While George is to be commended for keeping it short, I imagine those two minutes must have seemed like two hours to the listeners.  The biggest irony is that Washington understood the importance of having a ghostwriter help him with his speech; unfortunately, “ghost’ James Madison hadn’t been taught any better than Washington that short, clear sentences are the hallmarks of effective speeches and effective blogs!

Decades and many presidential terms later, William Henry Harrison delivered the longest inaugural address in history.  While Harrison managed to avoid the stilted sentences of our first president, he could have used some good blog-based editing; his talk contained no fewer than 8443 words! Speaking of irony!  Harrison’s over-long inaugural ushered in the shortest presidential term in history.  Refusing to wear a coat or hat on his Big Day, Harrison caught a cold that turned into pneumonia and died thirty-one days after being sworn in.

In history’s inexorable march towards what would one day become our blogosphere, presidential inaugurals made use of the technology of the day, with James Polk’s being the first to be reported by telegraph, James Buchanan’s the first to be photographed, Harry Truman’s first to be televised, and Bill’s Clinton’s the first to be broadcast live on the Internet.

As I said, our early presidents might have been more effective at their inaugurations had they utilized best blogging practices, delivering fewer words in less formal tones. Perhaps what bloggers can learn from the early presidents is an old-fashioned respect for the power and beauty of the English language, not to mention old-fashioned respect for the dangers of winter colds!

 

A joke I remember from years ago has a man knocking at the gates of Heaven.  “Who’s there?” asks St. Peter.  “It is I”, comes the response.  In the punch line, St. Peter says, “Go away! We have too many English teachers here already!”  (Okay, I confess; my B.A. degree is in English Education, so, while many people may chuckle at this joke, I “resemble that remark”!)

 

Anyway, the point I want to make in sharing this old chestnut is that, when a blog is posted in the name of your business (or, for that matter, when you put out brochures, design your website, or do print advertising), you’re really “putting yourself out there”. In fact, with blogging, you’re putting yourself out there on the World Wide Web.  Yes, I know I always write about how a blog should be less formal than other marketing pieces, more conversational and more personal.  And granted, it may feel much more natural and conversational to simply say “It’s me!” rather than the stuffy-sounding “It is I.”

 

But, here’s the thing: You always want to be sure that poor usage and misspelled words aren’t distracting the reader and taking away from your business’ message. And, while stilted and over-formal language can be a distraction, poor grammar and misspelled and misused words can be an even worse one. Think about a great after-dinner speaker  delivering a great motivational message. If only you weren’t distracted by that stain on his tie or the popped button on her blouse!

 

Last spring at the Ivy Tech Community College graduation ceremony, I heard Indiana’s Governor Mitch Daniels express the same idea, stressing in his commencement address how important it was going to be to students’ future success for them to gain command of our English language.  He pointed out the unfortunate habit many young people have of inserting the word “like” into every sentence, and admonished graduates, as they embarked on their careers, to “lose the ‘like'”!

 

Good command of language counts in blogging.  In fact, words are a blogger’s only tool to engage readers and drive traffic to the website. Shouldn’t you sound down-to-earth, friendly and approachable, rather than stuffy or stilted or formal? By all means!  You want your customers and clients to l-o-v-e doing business with you. But be very careful not to distract the visitor’s attention with shoddy use of the English language.  The message you want to convey is that every product and service your business has to offer is a thing of quality.  In all your marketing materials, and particularly in your blog, keep the “love”, but, as the Mitch Daniels says, lose the “like”!