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Authenticity On The Path To Professional Blogging

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By Jayme Soulati–“The Bean”

Authenticity is at risk. There is too much pressure as a professional blogger to monetize, engage, develop a brand, be a leader with unique content, and utilize digital marketing for lead generation and search marketing. When you’re making the climb from newbie blogger to professional, there are many bloggers ahead of you to follow and heed their examples.

It’s not hard to see that all the tools of the trade to create the largest professional brand are right there for the plucking; but, at what expense?

Are you risking your own identity as a professional by changing it up too fast or too much? How do you feel as a blogger when you sit down to write?
These are questions that need asking on your path because there’s one thing about blogging I want to instill with you:

  • Genuine and authentic persona as a blogger are traits that will always be critical to success; always.
  • If or when you become mechanical about the journey, it’s time to take a break.
  • If or when you put more strength on analytics to tell you what to write and determine your success, it’s time to re-visit your original goals.
  • If or when you lose focus of your personality and are writing without verve, think about your core.

I have always written content from my circles of inspiration; rarely if ever have I written content based on analytics or key words. Perhaps that’s short-sighted; perhaps not.

I realize there are solid reasons to write more content based on how people come to visit; however, I also realize that’s not the goal of my writing, either. Even if I was to put up a ton of posts oriented to message mapping, for example, people would probably get tired of seeing the same thing, and I would get pretty bored with it, too.

When you write, be sure to keep your personality in the story. It doesn’t have to be written in the first person to do that; it has to have your spirited delivery.

The thing about analytics I’ve always pondered is whether it would pirate authenticity. We know Google continues to adjust its algorithm to wreak havoc on everyone’s crazy-ometer. If you depend on analytics every day to determine what to write, then you’re risking authenticity. That’s my view, any takers?

The Happy Friday Series: The Happiness Crusade

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Arminda_Lindsay.jpgOn the AllArminda blog, Arminda Lindsay wrote a post Oct. 23, 2013 sharing this story below about launching her happiness crusade. I extrapolate that blog post right her and make Arminda the subject of this Happy Friday Series. P.S. You can also find her writings at YumVeg.com where vegan food and cooking are her delight.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Arminda IRL at ConvergeSouth where I had the opportunity to keynote the content marketing track of that conference. During that time, she permitted me the opportunity to corral her into doing a Soulati Media On The Street (below).

(What I love about this post is that I get to combine my two faves into one — The Happy Friday Series and Soulati Media On The Street!)

Since our face-to-face, we’ve had a session during which we spoke about the journey from personal to professional blogger, and she’s received some homework to rocket launch her goals. I love this woman’s heart and spirit, watch and listen:

Arminda Lindsay Says:

On February 13, 2012, I started a 21-day “dopamine challenge” titled Creating Positive. Many of you joined me in that initiative (and it’s not too late to get started) because happiness is year-round and a lifetime journey. While there have been many changes in my life since I first penned that post, one thing is for sure: my heart is still full of gratitude. It’s so full that I keep writing out more and more.

My list is growing and I’m filling up notebooks. Pages and pages of things for which I’m grateful and/or that make me smile and bring me happiness. My list is very personal and unique to my life, as is your list. This is the reason I can pick up one of my notebooks and open to any page and start reading through my list and immediately begin to smile as I am instantly transported to another day, place, and moment in time that ignited a spark of joy in my heart.

Shawn Achor (whose TED Talk inspired me to start my own challenge) writes in his book The Happiness Advantage that

“. . . our attitudes and behaviors don’t only infect the people we interact with directly — like our colleagues, friends, and families — but that each individual’s influence actually appears to extend to people within three degrees. So when you. . . make positive changes in your own life, you are unconsciously shaping the behavior of an incredible number of people. . . . [T]here are nearly 1,000 people within three degrees of most of us. This is a true ripple effect — by trying to make ourselves happier and more successful, we actually have the ability to improve the lives of 1,000 people around us” (p201).

That’s empowering. To me, at least. And I love that by embracing the life I live I have the potential within me to positively impact the lives of thousands of other people. Thousands.

I can’t wait for happiness to find me like some elusive carrot forever dangling at the end of its proverbial stick. You will never reach it if that’s your aim. Your “I’ll be happy when _________ ” will forever evade you.

“Waiting to be happy limits our brain’s potential for success, whereas cultivating positive brains makes us more motivated, efficient, resilient, creative, and productive, which drives performance upward” (Achor 4).

Motivation? Efficiency? Resilience? Creativity? Productivity? Yes, please!

Happiness is now. Happiness is your choice. Happiness is within you.

Come on my happiness crusade and create positive in your life today, tomorrow and always! Will you join me?

Target Buyer Persona When Writing

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mona-lisa-cubs-soulati.jpgWhen you invest in digital marketing school via HubSpot, as I have, what you’re told out of the gate is to know your buyer persona. Now that I understand that phrase better, it makes perfect sense. Quite simply, you need to understand the characteristics and demographic of the person most likely to hire your services.

Define Buyer Persona

What’s not as simple as defining buyer persona is writing to meet those criteria every day. To get there, you have to take a hard, introspective look:

What is your purpose writing blog posts every day, three times weekly or once per week?

If, when you look at a blank screen and see only obligation and weariness, then perhaps your spark for blogging has dimmed.

Instead of looking inward at only you, think about your audience. But, first, think about your business goals.

Bloggers have two paths to take when taking up the virtual pen:

  • Be a personal blogger and write to share about families, travel, school, emotion, etc.
  • Become a professional blogger where content is king and drives your business ROI.

It’s not easy making the leap. When a blogger writes solid and educational content with genuine authority on a highly consistent basis, that’s when things begin to happen.

Write For An Unknown Audience

How do you get there from here? You put yourself in the shoes of your buyer, reader, customer, prospect. What sorts of writing do you think your unknown audience wants from you?

You need to be developing #RockHot content every day; it’s imperative to ensure you’re climbing the rungs of the never-ending ladder.
Each of us who has been blogging more than three years consistently and has a goal to optimize a blog for monetization (the elusive), knows there’s a steep learning curve to the next plateau. To differentiate, it’s up to you to deliver content oriented to the reader you have never met.

The content you craft has to answer the question, “Does this blog post entice a total stranger to pay attention to my writing?”
Let’s get back to the buyer persona thing for a minute. In my view, keeping my target audience top of mind when blogging is a challenge. I have an incredible community built over time who are at varying stages of business success, who are personal friends, who are bloggers, who are business owners, and who are not likely to hire my services.

Here’s the rub…for all the people you know in your community, there are five handfuls of people you don’t know. It is these lurkers and occasional readers whom you want to lure back every day you post content.

If you’ve determined the characteristics and demographics of that occasional reader and defined your buyer persona, then perhaps the content you craft for your blog can be tailored to that group of people.

Switching gears to write for the buyer is a challenge for me.

Everything I read, every conversation I have, and each time I listen provides blog fodder for me. Because I want to teach and share my passion and enthusiasm for what I do, writing content to earn new business is where I struggle.

I’m working on it; trying to make the total leap to being a solidly successful business blogger who is regarded for authoritative content. Right now, the rocky path I’m on is exactly right. No one said a learning curve is without a detour, and I need to keep reminding myself that it’s OK to stay true to your school.

What about you…any hot tips to share about why you blog and how you regard your audience?