© Copyright 2012 Caroline M. Pointer
Be Personal and Friendly When Blogging Genealogy
There's a lot of buzz online right now {mainly marketing buzz} about how important it is to be personal.
Especially on our blogs. And I wholeheartedly agree.
However, it's not a new concept. Far from it. Some salespeople learn rather quickly {At least the successful ones who stick around for the long haul} being personal with their current customers and their potential customers yields better results.
But why is that?
There's a lot of buzz online right now {mainly marketing buzz} about how important it is to be personal.
Especially on our blogs. And I wholeheartedly agree.
However, it's not a new concept. Far from it. Some salespeople learn rather quickly {At least the successful ones who stick around for the long haul} being personal with their current customers and their potential customers yields better results.
But why is that?
Because humans are personal. We have always been personal.
"Good morning, Mrs. Atchafalaya! How are you today? Arthritis gettin' any better?"
"Did you hear about the flood just 2 parishes away, Remy? Landsakes, my brother-in-law - you remember him from my Gran's wake, right? Justin? Well, Justin said they'd like to never get outta there with everything they own."
"Hi! You must be new. Haven't seen you here before. My name is Adele. Welcome."
"Did you hear about the flood just 2 parishes away, Remy? Landsakes, my brother-in-law - you remember him from my Gran's wake, right? Justin? Well, Justin said they'd like to never get outta there with everything they own."
"Hi! You must be new. Haven't seen you here before. My name is Adele. Welcome."
It's human nature to find a common ground with other folks and to be personal with them.
Our ancestors did it. And we do it too ~ at least in real life we do.
But are we getting personal online? On our social networks? Are we doing it on our blogs? How about in the comments section on our blogs?
You know, the comments section of our blog where people take the time out of their busy day in their busy life to comment on what we write? Yeah. That place. I recently commented on a fairly popular blogger's recent blog post. And while the blogger responded, they didn't use my name and they didn't thank me for stopping by.
And their response was a bit condescending when my comment agreed with what they said in their blog post. {Have *no* idea where that came from. And if I had written something meant to be controversial, I would've expected a controversial response. I'm a big girl. I can handle it.}
Needless to say, since this isn't the first time I've received this particular response from this blogger, I won't comment again on one of their blog posts nor will I promote any of their blog posts. {Why would I? I mean, who else is being treated that way by them? I don't want to send traffic to a place that's not friendly.}
Besides in the comment section of a blog post, another easy way on a blog to get personal is to start with our name. Or rather, end with our name.
That's right.
End each and every blog post with our first name. And it doesn't matter if we're blogging because we're a cousin hunter, because we're representing a genealogical society, or because we're representing a genealogy related business.
In fact, it's even more important to be personal if we're blogging for a genealogical society or a genealogy related business.
People don't join groups. They like to join where people gather.
People don't do business with people they don't know.
They do business ~ whether that 'business' is cousin hunting, membership growing, or sales ~ with a face and a name. With a person.
And they like to get personal and friendly. Are you allowing them to do so?
Let's get personal, shall we?
~Caroline
Our ancestors did it. And we do it too ~ at least in real life we do.
But are we getting personal online? On our social networks? Are we doing it on our blogs? How about in the comments section on our blogs?
You know, the comments section of our blog where people take the time out of their busy day in their busy life to comment on what we write? Yeah. That place. I recently commented on a fairly popular blogger's recent blog post. And while the blogger responded, they didn't use my name and they didn't thank me for stopping by.
And their response was a bit condescending when my comment agreed with what they said in their blog post. {Have *no* idea where that came from. And if I had written something meant to be controversial, I would've expected a controversial response. I'm a big girl. I can handle it.}
Needless to say, since this isn't the first time I've received this particular response from this blogger, I won't comment again on one of their blog posts nor will I promote any of their blog posts. {Why would I? I mean, who else is being treated that way by them? I don't want to send traffic to a place that's not friendly.}
Besides in the comment section of a blog post, another easy way on a blog to get personal is to start with our name. Or rather, end with our name.
That's right.
End each and every blog post with our first name. And it doesn't matter if we're blogging because we're a cousin hunter, because we're representing a genealogical society, or because we're representing a genealogy related business.
In fact, it's even more important to be personal if we're blogging for a genealogical society or a genealogy related business.
People don't join groups. They like to join where people gather.
People don't do business with people they don't know.
They do business ~ whether that 'business' is cousin hunting, membership growing, or sales ~ with a face and a name. With a person.
And they like to get personal and friendly. Are you allowing them to do so?
Let's get personal, shall we?
~Caroline
