How can I add personality to my organization’s blog posts?

Today, more and more people use social media to find information and updates and prefer a more informal style of communication.

While a single corporate voice is needed in many contexts, institutional-speak often fails to connect with targeted audiences on a personal level.

So if you want to attract readers to your institutional blog and have them coming back for more, it makes sense to add a personal voice to your posts.

Tips to help you write informal yet professional blog posts

Allow different authors to put their name, face and voice on your organization’s blog

In this era of social media, the single editorial voice is fast losing popularity.  When it comes to blog posts, uniformity in terms of style and tone is almost a thing of the past and is now giving way to individuals with strong, authentic voices. Many editors no longer shape posts submitted by staff into a string of homogenous-sounding pieces, preferring instead to forge their organization’s online identity based on the common interests of contributors. Content is still king, but the voices that convey that content are often many and distinct.

These days, posts written by staff tend to be more informal and often take on more of a conversational tone than they did a few years ago. Here at the ICT-KM Program, where everyone loves to blog, we try to keep our blog posts informative yet light by including our own experiences and opinions, wherever relevant.  Visitors can tell at a glance who wrote a particular post and what that person looks like (a thumbnail accompanying each post does the trick), all of which help put a human face on our Program.  This personal touch makes it easier for others to identify with us – something that is almost impossible to do with a nameless, faceless post. And it’s this identification that often leads to the online communication and collaboration that is vital if we are to create community.

DFID Bloggers, staff blogs from the UK Department for International Development, is a great example of an organization that uses images and other personal touches in its blog posts.

Show your personality but always be professional

It’s good to adopt an easy conversational style that reflects the way you might speak to a co-worker at the water cooler. For example, if you’re normally bubbly and funny, let that show in your writing. However, there’s such a thing as putting too much personality into your posts. A post about, say, your participation at a Knowledge Share Fair shouldn’t contain a blow by blow account of the different food you ate during the “Get to know your fellow participants” dinner and locking yourself out of your hotel room. It’s not relevant, it won’t reflect your organization’s mission, and it might come back to haunt your career.

Remember, it might be easy to remove an inappropriate post from your organization’s blog, all it takes is the click of your mouse, but your antics might have already travelled around the Internet and back again before you get round to doing it. Posts on the Internet really have the potential to outlive us, so always keep it professional.

IFAD’s social reporting blog shows how staff from the International Fund for Agricultural Development have successfully infused their personal insights into organizational updates.

Mind your language

You might know all there is to know about, for example, potato blight and the current research into its eradication, but if you want to reach as wide an audience as possible you need to choose your words carefully. Jargon and certain scientific terminology might be lost on someone outside your discipline. At all times keep your stakeholders in mind and write in a way that appeals to them.

Check out the World Bank blogs to see how readable a blog can be!

Self promotion is no promotion

It’s fine to say, for example, that you helped organize a workshop on “Using social media to help smallholder farmers”, but it’s in bad taste to blatantly promote yourself and talk about how much you contributed to the event, and how your expertise made everything possible. Don’t use every blog post to tell the world how great you are. The world has a way of recognizing greatness all on its own.

Dare to make your opinions known

Opinions are great but they need to be justified and they need to be relevant to your organization’s mission. Insightful opinions can generate discussions and help attract traffic to your blog. As much as your views are important though, always be kind when you are talking about others and be accurate in your claims.

Above all else, remember the golden rule of blogging

The greatest personality in the world can’t make up for poor content.

Photo credits: Kikkerdirt @ dreamstime.com