The nature of my day job requires me to look over the reports of the company’s employees. They are involved in dealing with clients directly and sending them e-mail reports on a regular basis. One of the most important elements that we look at is the presence (or absence) of a personal touch in the e-mails. It is our belief that each e-mail should be personalized to suit every individual.
This got me thinking about the personal touch in blogs. There are so many kinds of blogs out there today but I do believe that the personal touch is one common element. Whether you are talking about a niche blog, a company blog, or a personal blog, people seem to be looking for traces of the human factor.
The question, though, is how personal should you be in your blogs? More so, what does having a personal touch mean? I am sure that different people would have different points of view when it comes to the degree of personalization. From my point of view, the base line would be to write as if you were directly speaking to your readers. Take note of the use of personal pronouns – I, you, we, etc. These are small words but they carry much deeper meanings.
Compare the use of these words to generic terms such as people, one, person, and the like. These words strictly convey the same idea and meaning but the effect is that the writing as a whole becomes a bit standoffish.
Originally posted on November 5, 2008 @ 1:47 am
