Personal Stories on Your Business Blogs: the fine line

James Chartrand writes a great post on Copyblogger about Why You Need to Transform Your Website Into a Story. He says,

"Effective web writers are moving away from bland, factual information. Readers won’t settle for that anymore.

It isn’t interesting. It isn’t compelling.

Facts don’t stir emotions and encourage people to take action. Facts don’t sell until people look to rationalize the buying decision they’ve made at an emotional level."

I agree. People do business with people, not companies.

So when I left on vacation I wrote a post in which I expressed gratitude, shared some personal information, and explained I would be re-publishing an important series about better business blog writing.

But I got a critical email from a reader who thought this was inappropriate. Here's what happened:

On Thanksgiving day I wrote a post to thank readers for continually motivating me to research and write relevant posts they can use for writing better blog posts. I was feeling gushy, and excited because I was leaving for a week's holiday with my favorite person, whom I call The Hubby, to play tennis and relax in Puerto Vallarta.

I was so excited I posted a picture of us from last year's trip. We looked happy and fit and I was proud to share our picture with readers.

However, reader emailed to say it was inappropriate to:

1. Tell readers I was going to re-publish previous posts while on vacation, instead of writing fresh content or just not writing anything at all
2. Put a personal photo on my business blog that would have been more suited for Facebook or a social networking site.

We exchanged a couple of emails about this with me basically defending my preference to occasionally share personal information with readers, and also defending my practice of republishing content that is evergreen - that is, always valuable and pertinent to writing better business blog posts.

To this reader, I lost credibility because of the personal photo and republishing material. Like most things in life, it's not so much what you do as the way that you do it. Perhaps I should have just skipped the photo. Perhaps I could have rewritten or repurposed the posts to create new posts.

Perhaps you readers would agree with him and tell me so, or perhaps it was just fine the way I did it. It matters to me, as long as I am being honest and focusing on what my readers want.

I want to keep you readers coming back here to read quality posts about writing good content that markets your businesses. And I believe that to do that, my writing has to be peppered with a little personality and personal information.

Hope you got something out of this story. My desire isn't to get you to side with me, only to make you think about how to use your own stories on your own blogs, and how to do it better than I probably do.

 P.S. Here's a photo from my vacation! Hah!

Comments

[Lisa @ Serah's]

That's a very interesting email to receive. When I posted personal information on my business blog people felt closer to me and didn't feel it was inappropriate. I actually prefer to know that the person who's blog I'm reading is human like the rest of us. I come to your blog for advice on my blog as if I was taking an online course in college. When I was in college, my professors shared personal information all the time and I was relieved that it was always just about business or a professional image/relationship.

Thanks for sharing your personal story.

[Denise Wakeman]

You can't please all of the people all of the time. Across the board, most professionals who use a blog for their business also share personal tidbits to help "humanize" them. And in my book, it's a good idea to rerun good content...remembering that everyday someone new lands on your blog and they may have never seen that previous post and probably wouldn't even know to look for it.

Feedback is always good to get, and the people who don't like what you write will unsubscribe anyway.

Blog on!

[Mitch]

You know, I have three blogs now, and one is specifically dedicated to my business. And yet, before I had the other two blogs, I talked about some things that weren't only about business because, after all, it was my blog. I pay for it, I pay for the space, so I can basically say whatever I want to say whenever I want to say it.

Even with business, one does networking from time to time, and networking, in essence, is an opportunity to show something more about yourself than just highlighting your business. People like to deal with someone they feel comfortable with, someone they know something about.

So, you go on being you, and write whatever you want to write about on your blog. If one reader doesn't like it, tough to be them. You wouldn't want to work with someone like that in the first place.

[Hyla Weimann]

In my humble opinion, most people like to get to know their business contacts on a personal level too. If someone they look up to shares personal details occasionally, it makes them dsfeel important. It reminds that the writer also has a personal life outside of their business commitments, and that they don't mind giving their readers a glimps into their lives.

People will rather do business with someone they know on all levels, than a complete stranger, and when they do not know little snippets of the writer, they don't feel connected.

Please, don't let one dissatisfied reader get to you. If they don't like it, they are free to stop reading, or unsubscribe.

This is, of course, my personal opinion and may not count for much....lol

[Louise Fletcher]

I don't see why this person had such a problem with a personal photo (love the one of your vacation btw, although am jealous of you now).

My favorite bloggers combine something of their personal life with their business blogging. If I wanted all business, I could look at their static website.

[Patsi aka The Blog Squad]

Lisa, Denise, Mitch, Hyla, and Louise: thank you all for your support and encouragement. I also hope I can count on you to tell me when I'm off-base, too ego-centric, or gone off the deep end, as well.

As you mention, it's my blog. But you're my readers and it won't work without you. I'm just as capable of getting too much into myself as the next guy...

Thanks so much for stopping by!

[Susan Henderson]

Reading this post really got my hackles up. Just when it is finally starting to dawn on folks that the human factor and connection is the best way to do business on the web, this guy tries to throw a cold, wet blanket on your warm, sparkling personality coming through in your posts.

I get so much more out of reading and learning from business bloggers who share a bit about themselves and let me know, like and trust the genuine person behind the words.

Keep on sharing yourself and I will keep on reading.

[Shayne Packer]

I have many of the same concerns with my business blog. It's where my wife and I teach grandparents about cool technology to help them connect with their grandchildren. My feeling is that personalizing your biz blog can be a good thing. And, as you said, the way you do it is important. We try to weave a few personal tidbits or stories about us and our grandkids. But not too often, and not exclusively in one post. Each post has to satisfy and instruct your readers.

Thanks, Patsi, for an interesting discussion. BTW, I enjoyed your blogging podcast.