The Fine Line With Your Online Presence

CJ,

This is a great question and I am sure you will get a lot of varying answers. The first thing you really need to ask yourself is what your intension is with the blog. Are you looking to express your inner self? Are you wanting to attract more local business? Do you want to establish yourself as an industry pioneer or expert and move into writing and/or speaking?

Now the beauty of a blog is that you could really accomplish all that by creating categories specific to each aspiration. The downside is that it will take five times as much time to do all three rather than focusing on one specific goal. Also, if your goal is to place as an industry expert, your personal expressions in another category could shoot you in the foot. So you always have to think about what you say. That's not to say that you can't put personal expression into your writing even if the focus is on recognition.

Just remember, you can always delete it... but you can never take it back.

Now on my blog, I focus mostly on articles specific to my industry. this does two things for me: 1) It helps to establish myself as an expert so I can eventually move into writing and speaking, and 2) it increases my sites content relevance to my industry which will help with SE ranking.

I have a rather dry sense of humor and not everyone gets me when I put it in writing, so I tend to not blog 'from the cuff' so I don't risk offending someone that could become a client.

I don't know if that helps any or not. Hopefully it did.

Best of luck CJ.

I recommend trying to include information that you believe in and understand, and flavor the experience with the target demographic in mind.

In your case... realize that talking about health may not be the best way to reach your target audience. There may be athletic sports or local events that attract your audience, and even information that you may initially think is counter-productive (candy bars, drinking, etc) that actually attracts a lot of eyes that if presented the right way, are ideal candidates for you.

For example.... many people think this is strange, but my poetry blog actually produces a very high number of executive marketing requests. A lot of higher education folk in corporate business read my poetry and then follow that back to my core professional business (social media, blogging, podcasting, seo, etc)

People work with people they like, but if they never get a chance to know you, they'll never know if they like you.

There are so many of us out there on the web that the only thing that makes you stand out as a different choice than that other guy down the road (online or offline) is your personality.

So even if you are blogging about "relevant business topics" you still have to have some kind of an opinion on them...unless your personality is to always be of both minds at once and not stray to one solid opinion...then you should work that into your writing.

The things about your personal life you want to share because they are VERY important to you, share. Because then others who feel that same thing is VERY important to them will connect with you. Those who like it a little will judge the overall post and those who HATE what is VERY important to you...well...you don't want to do business with them, do you? I wouldn't think so.

The best way to find an ideal client is to be unlikable (jut by being yourself) to some segment of the population. You have to have some kind of individual polarity in order to attract like-minded people.

It's not easy to convey personality through text, and a blog allows you to start a conversation with your potential clients and readers as often as you would like in order to come to a place where they have an understanding of who you are, and then make a decision on if you are someone they want to do business with.

I love what CJ said about knowing your goal going in. If you're looking for more local clients, local-interest stuff is great to have an opinion about on your blog!

Thanks for reading, Jen

Most successful entrepreneurs say do what you love and the rest will come to you. I would say be yourself on your blog. Let's face it, you have huge barriers to overcome with most of mainstream corn-fed America to begin with. What you really want to do is reach those that are reachable. I think you can do that by being the best you that you can be but make sure not to go to far over the top publicly or you might lose potential customers.

I love the woo woo's of the world because you have the ability to tap into my dreams and desires for how it could be. However, I sometimes get lost when it gets too over the top... I'm not sure if I explained that well.

Your authentic voice is powerful.

I have had the opportunity to have my writing published in a variety of places. Most of my work is "creative non-fiction" or personal essay--the kinds of things you might expect on a blog: articles and musings about topics of interest to me and about which I hope others will be interested.

Invariably, when I put my true heart and self into my words, those are the times my work seems to most resonate with my readers. By now I should no longer be surprised to hear the comments, but I am--always a little stunned and much grateful to hear that my words have touched someone, have had a positive and even profound effect.

(Nevermind that the process of writing is always more satisfying when I speak my truth :-)

If we were speaking about creative writing, I would have to agree with Leila and Jen. But we are talking business here. You are not going to sync with "everyones" personality by being yourself, and if you don't choose when and how you are going to express yourself in business, you won't be in business for long.

Some clients like working with people in polos, jeans and crocks; others like stiff collared dress shirts and penny loafers. It's the same with personality, if you are going to dress to meet your clients expectations, you better act and speak the part as well.

Look at the attorneys that dress in three piece suits during the week but dawn leather vests and chaps and ride around on Harleys on the weekend. Would you hire an attorney to represent your office if he came in wearing chaps? The same goes for their personality. These attorneys don't swear once during the week, but four letter words are their friends on the weekends when they're with their buddies.

I don't know if I made my point or not (it's a bit late), but there is a time and place to be yourself. And for most of us, our business requires a different persona.

CJ may be one of the lucky ones who gets along with everyone by being himself, but for those of us that don't have that luxury, blogging is not something you want to be yourself with when you are attaching it to your business.

That was my six cents. Hope I didn't offend.

There's a post related to this thread from awhile back that may be of interest here. http://biznik.com/forums/community-wide-general-discussion/topics/sharing-personal-beliefs-in-business

I agree with Scott B's comment above. You can have an authentic personality without letting it all hang out on the web. The key is understanding what kinds of clients you want to attract. Some target markets might want their attorneys to pull up on a Harley, wearing chaps!

"Being yourself" can be misinterpreted, too. On my very first website, I wrote about being a free spirit, traveling and relocating as I pleased. That was accurate - but some readers assumed I didn't worry about money and just moved on a whim. They figured I was a spiritual type (or a flake!).

In fact, I always had resources when I moved and usually a job was waiting. So I attracted clients who were all wrong for me.

Needless to say, I am now careful to position myself as coming from a left-brain, results-oriented perspective (even when I've had clients who were into astrology and spirituality).

That said, you have to be somewhat edgy to attract your kind of clients. Sure, be yourself - but pick the part of yourself that your target market will love.

Some people fill their blogs and sites with four letter words because their market responds. Some like to put lots of detail about their families. Me, I stick to the dog. And for some reason, I attract lots of pet-owning clients!

I agree with Scott B's comment above. You can have an authentic personality without letting it all hang out on the web. The key is understanding what kinds of clients you want to attract. Some target markets might want their attorneys to pull up on a Harley, wearing chaps!

"Being yourself" can be misinterpreted, too. On my very first website, I wrote about being a free spirit, traveling and relocating as I pleased. That was accurate - but some readers assumed I didn't worry about money and just moved on a whim. They figured I was a spiritual type (or a flake!).

In fact, I always had resources when I moved and usually a job was waiting. So I attracted clients who were all wrong for me.

Needless to say, I am now careful to position myself as coming from a left-brain, results-oriented perspective (even when I've had clients who were into astrology and spirituality).

That said, you have to be somewhat edgy to attract your kind of clients. Sure, be yourself - but pick the part of yourself that your target market will love.

Some people fill their blogs and sites with four letter words because their market responds. Some like to put lots of detail about their families. Me, I stick to the dog. And for some reason, I attract lots of pet-owning clients!

your blog should serve the purpose of what you are trying to accomplish. One idea is to share a short story or experience you had doing the job you do that involves funny people or maybe even a serious incident where you helped someone. It's important to show your experience in real life situations so people can relate to you, so long as you don't mention names of people and leave some details out. The blog should be short, no longer than a paragraph or two.

Our blog is simply a statement of style - sort of thing. People suggested to us that it would serve to get us more interest: well if that happened, so be it, but it wasn't why we did it.

We did it because we believe in what we're doing. Free help for people who have to make presentations and so on.

The rate of enquiries hasn't gone up at all. What has gone up, however, is the 'warmth' of the emails. By the time someone decides to come to us they already know our style, from the blog, and so we've already filtered out those people who were going to be put off by the way we do things etc.

In short, yes, it serves our clients - and as a by-product serves us, too.

S

Great topic!

For me, I actually operate two different blogs. One is for targeting business owners (http://shortcuts.gophergirl.net) and the other target's families. (http://going-nuts.net) Both blogs link back to a static website where clients can read more about my services.

The thing I've realized is this method makes it very easy for me to add many different articles and link them back to my website. Since I have ideas both for families and business owners, it seemed to make sense to have a blog for each. I think it would have been too conveluded to include it on 1 blog. Not all business owners have children. Not all families own businesses. However, what i've found is people that read my family blog might be a business owner and are interested in learning more about my services.

Down the road if I want to branch out to women's issues, gardening or another topic that is related to me personally.... I add another targeted blog and link back to my static business websites. It keeps my blog writing organized but at the same time I'm able to tap into different people with the same likes/interests.

But more importantly regardless of what type of blog you write make sure you write with content in mind. What I've found is if I write useful articles like how to's - it seems to generate the most traffic. (vs articles that are just my opinion)

So far it works for me.... hope it helps! Kindest regards, Kimberly

Great conversation. I especially appreciated Simon's point about the way his blogs affects the warmth of follow-up responses rather than the quantity.

It's true that by being yourself you risk having some folks go away without checking you out or hiring you. Depending on what you business you are in and how much personal interaction you have with your clients/customers, that can be a good thing.

My accountant has an office filled to the brim with toys and humorous objects - and all of them relate in some way to his message: that he is the super-hero who will defend the small business guy against the evil IRS.

Now it's important to note that he can back this up. He is VERY good, very committed to his clients' bottom line, and extremely competitive. He also doesn't take himself too seriously, so his super-hero motif is never irritating or over-weaning.

He isn't everybody's cup of tea, but he doesn't need everybody to hire him. He's quite happy with a thriving practice full of raving client-fans and a happy staff. And he wears shorts to work.

:-)