The Blog as Dinner Table Conversation

I come from a family of 6 girls. When we sat around the dinner table, we had to raise our hands if we wanted to say something — not because we were repressed, but because we were almost irrepressible!

After a day of school and play, we were all busting with news, feelings, opinions and plans.

What a clever dad. His unwritten rules prevented chaos. They also gave Lesley, the comparatively shy one, her chance to talk.

• Rule 1: Take turns.
• Rule 2: Don’t be mean.
• Rule 3: Listen to others.
• Rule 4: Don’t hog more than your share of the time available.

Unrolling The Conversation Online

You can see where I’m going with this…

All copywriting is part of a conversation, especially on a blog. Even if you never get a single response, you are still speaking to readers. Smart copywriters are always, always aware of the effect they’re having on readers.

Strangely, Dad’s 4 simple rules for talking to my daughters work rather well on a corporate or marketing blog.

Rule 1: Take turns.

That’s what Michel is doing right here and now, inviting more guest contributors while he’s extra busy. Guest contributions are also a great idea for other reasons: a change of voice, new perspectives, alternative ideas, a sense of community.

Try it too when you are suffering from Blog Guilt. (“Oh no, I forgot to write a blog entry!”)

Rule 2: Don’t be mean.

Strong opinions are great. But if the overall tone of a marketing blog is mean-spirited and negative, many readers will be turned off. Aim for a positive, upbeat general tone. That means your occasional negative posting will be all the more powerful, and provoke debate.

Rule 3: Listen to others.

That’s one of the glories of the blog: other people can post comments. The big bonus: you can listen! Getting feedback is one of the prime goals of many marketing and corporate blogs.

For example, they learn what customers really think about a product. Then they can choose whether to incorporate some of those ideas when redeveloping.

But how do you get more than the standard 1% of your readers actively involved?

Try actually inviting them. Make it clear that you don’t know it all, or you may be wrong, or you need more information. Or take an unpopular stance. Or pick a topic that’s hot this very minute on the Web 2.0 circuit. Then ask for feedback because you really need it, not as a gimmick.

Reading other blogs — and quoting them — is also listening to others.

Other people are a primary source for your blog content. Bloggers self-sealed in a world of their own are rare. A non-listening blogger is barely a blogger at all.

Rule 4: Don’t hog more than your share of the time available.

Time is a big issue for blog-readers. They’re certainly not twiddling their thumbs, waiting for your next posting. Heaps are fiendishly busy at work, and yours is certainly not the only blog they read. (My friend Mary checks over 100 RSS feeds daily.)

Blog entries can be any length: long is fine, provided there’s no burble. However, to save your readers time, write a headline that’s concentrated, interesting, and long enough to be unique. Then get to the point in the first sentence.

That’s only courteous. Readers can instantly recognise whether they have already read the post, and whether they want to.

Where did you first learn about communication?

I could say that everything I know about communication, I learned around the family dinner table.

I know you’re into lifelong learning, or you wouldn’t be reading this. But I wonder whether you also acquired some fundamental rules of communication early in life… And if so, what were those rules?

And where did you learn them?