Earlier this week I asked if you wanted to increase your website traffic and generate sales leads, then I gave you my top three reasons for why you should be blogging for your business, in this post I’m going to give you some practical tips on how to find your online voice.
- Write about what you know or about what you love – Follow this one simple tip to ensure you write great copy rather than just actually copying copy! If you know, or are passionate about your subject, you’ll be able to write with confidence and you’ll find your voice more easily.I’ve always been a fairly confident public speaker… Yes, I was a nerd on the school debating team! Over recent years I’ve been asked to guest on several podcasts and speak at business events and forums. I’ve also developed and run my own workshops on social media and content marketing. I’ve always found my public speaking voice comes fairly easily to me, as long as I know or love my subject.
In a previous life, I was cabin crew for the “World’s Favourite Airline”, but I also spent six months a year training BA cabin crew, pilots and third party airlines, safety and emergency procedures. The only time I’ve been under confident about standing up in front of an audience is on the occasion I was asked to train a group of cabin crew from Qatar airlines on the 747. The aircraft they flew was a completely different fit out to the one I was used to training, I got the aircraft manual thrown at me about half an hour before the group arrived, and was told I was running the course. I bumbled my way through the day and can honestly say it was an absolute disaster, because I was trying to pull the wool over their eyes… they knew more than I did! - Tell a story – Did you see what I did in that last paragraph? I told you a wee story about myself to illustrate a point. In the middle ages, the travelling storytellers, or troubadours, were honoured guests at the royal courts. I still remember the joy of “Jackanory” as a child, story time in front of the TV. Book at Bedtime is a long running BBC Radio 4 programme, loved and listened to by many since 1949… What can I say? The power of a story is a wonderful thing.
- Be yourself – You don’t need to use “Thesaurus” to discover long words, write how you would speak. I use a lot of exclamation marks! And the ellipsis… These are my grammatical hands. I use my hands when I speak and punctuation (often incorrectly) when I blog. Mr C tells me I use exclamation marks too often, I can’t help it!
- Make ‘Em Laugh – Display your humour and have fun… Don’t worry if not every member of your audience understands your dry, acerbic wit, they might move on. Remember you’re building a tribe of followers who want to read what you write, you’re not necessarily creating for the masses.
- Practice makes perfect – Creating great blog content that is original and has your personality stamped all over it might not happen overnight. You’ll have moments of awkwardness, but don’t give up. Like most things the more you do it, the easier it gets.
