This is a guest post by Karan Singhal who provides SEO services at Trafficke who is today telling us how to create a good personal brand by giving your voice to the content.
As a blogger, your job is to write useful and helpful content for your readers. You want to provide as much as possible for them, in hope that they’ll become more than just “regular” visitors.
But did you know that your voice and personal brand is the part of your content that does this?
This is a little confusing, let me explain a bit.
Your visitors came to your website looking for information by you. No matter what, if they turn to your blog for information, they are accepting that the information will be written by you. So don’t be afraid of being yourself in your content.
It builds your personal brand as a blogger and makes your content more captivating and attractive to your readers. All of this will help increase traffic, readership, backlinks, and more importantly, it will improve your internet reputation – all of the improvements you need done to your life as a blogger.
Building A Personal Brand With Voice
Your voice is you. And so is your personal brand.
If you didn’t already know, your personal brand is your reputation as a blogger, as an expert in your niche.
It’s not about how you look, it’s not about how you comb your hair, (that would be weird, lol) It’s about your knowledge in the topic you are blogging about and how you use that knowledge to effectively write helpful content.
By saying “I” in your content instead of just “you”, you are making your readers realize that a real person wrote your content. When I write for my blog, I make sure to make a joke and a smiley for good measure just to remind my visitors that I’m not a robot, that actually, I’m a person who’d like to get known as an expert.
Giving Your Content Some “Oomph” With Voice
Your visitors want information presented in a digestible way. And cold-hard content with no voice just isn’t gonna cut it. (See what I did there? No robot would talk like that. :))
The internet is a place for people to find what they’re looking for within seconds. Don’t think for a minute that your visitors have the same attention span that you do. The truth is that they may, just not when they’re looking for answers to their questions.
So your visitors have short attention spans: what does that mean? It means that you need to make your content attractive from the beginning. And what better way to do this than the most natural one? Having voice in your content helps hook your traffic and turns visitors into dedicated readers.
It also makes it more interesting. How are your readers supposed to hold down your content if they aren’t interested in it. All that information that your post gives will only come out of a reader the way it came unless you can present it in a way that makes them want more.
How?
Exactly how do you add voice to your content? Just how do you prove to your readers that you’re human? Well, here’s how:
- Make a joke – Nothing makes you look like a real person like a good-matured joke. Jokes also interest your readers and give them even more reasons to stay on your post to finish reading your content.
- Say “I” – The simplest way to put voice in your content. No robot says “I”. But a person does.
- Share your experiences – Your readers came to your blog looking for your experiences and your advice, not anyone Else’s. By providing your past experiences in your content, you’re not only making your content more personable, you are also giving your readers more of what they want and what they came to your site for in the first place.
A small guide, but I hope I’ve helped you. Bloggers often overlook their actual content, focusing on promoting rather than writing content that will promote itself. Voice is the aspect of writing that is forgotten the most, and I hope I’ve given you enough reasons not to make that mistake anymore.
Conclusion
Your voice is you. If you’re not you in your content, it won’t perform as good as you want it to, regardless of how useful the informational part of the content is. That’s why it’s important to try to be personable when you’re writing content.
Thanks for reading! Please retweet if you liked reading this article!
Top 10 Search Terms:
• your voice
Haha,
Great stuff man! So many people think that creating content is as basic as the content itself, but throwing in things like jokes, etc. is what keeps people reading your content and coming back to it!
CJ
CJ’s last blog ..Grow Your Online Income, Not Your Rear End!
hey Karan,
you make everything sound so natural and even thou it may seem quite ‘logical’ to do so, many apparently forgot such simple fact that you had mentioned.
Well yes indeed being yourself its all that matters ( one way or another ).
I remember during my younger times working online where I tried so hard to sound *professionist* and *know it all*… i mean do have knowledge to it but i tried making it sound really * cooperate like*
yes, i was doing well on my first post because i put so much effort but as the second one came, the third the fourth, i was so tired of not being just *me.
As i gradually switch back – down to earth – to who i am, the response wasn’t all that bad. infact, i got to be me and I got to relate more with my ‘readers’. =)
this shows that being just you isn’t all that bad. being you and not some hyped up internet marketer allows you to connect with your potential customers much more naturally.
thanks for this wonderful post,Karan .
keep up the good work.
Great post Karan.
This is the third time in two days that I have heard about your ‘voice’ in writing being very important. I guess it really is necessary.
I also read on menswithpens.ca about your writing voice, and how it is very important if you want to have readers that enjoy what you write. It said that you shouldn’t try to make up a writing style, you should find your own natural style and voice within your writing.
Nabeel
u know what….i was always confused whether to use I or WE….i always used I but feared that visitors might not accept my blog….but i am loving using I
The small but important tips. A personal touch is a must in a blog. If there is no personal touch, it mean that our blog is only the merely regular web site.
I like to believe I am the king of creating a personal brand. You can ask almost anyone who bbrian017 is and they will know ti’s me Brian the owner of blog engage. I always try to be consistent when it comes to creating online community profiles.
I use the same image and user name ever where I go. I also try to keep a positive attitude when I do things. I think being consistent is the key to branding success.
Great article Karan thanks so much!
Yes you are right. the reader of your content, must feel that he/she is talking to you and listening to you, instead of reading. Great stuff 🙂
I guess it depends on the type of blog you have as well. Some blogs are just product review blogs and people are merely looking for info for a particular item. For those type of traffic, I don’t think people will return again and again to read what you write.
But if you have a blog that provides content on an ongoing topic like making money online or a personal journal, then it’s a different story. That’s when I think your style of writing or your voice becomes critical to your success.
I think now more then ever it’s about personality, and that is conveyed through your writing style, from slang to punctuation, people read into how you write and make judgments about you.
Shawn,
Experience sharing is a great idea. It is especially great if your life is full awesome events.