Bloggers Need To Engage Not Preach

There are some places on the web, and usually the more popular ones, that leave me feeling somewhat uncomfortable. Some heavyweight thinking about why they do that eventually led me to conclude there’s far too much pontification and preaching going on.

The people I know run their own businesses.  Most are consultants.  They know about communicating with people, and know it isn’t with pontification and preaching.  They aren’t going to waste their time being preached at.

The other thing is most of the stuff written by grown ups reads far too much like college dissertations.  These might be grammatically correct, and might explain in detail every argument – but reading them is hard work.

The really engaging stuff is written by a small number of highly regarded individuals.  One of those is Chris Brogan.  In his post What Makes a Story Work he explains his own golden rules for publishing.

In the article Chris paints the background to his rules – the why and hows.  As always the best way to understand is visit the post from the link, above.

You’ll want to visit the real thing when you’ve understood his golden rules:

• Let them feel smart and included. Stories where we are introduced as “part of the group” or “in the know” help us get over our initial discomfort.
• Give them a solid map. The only time readers shouldn’t know where they’re going is if they’re reading a mystery (or a Chuck Palahniuk novel). The rest of the time, start people off with a sense of where you’re going, how you’re going to get there, and tips on how they’ll know they’re done.
• Reward them. If you’re producing material that’s longer in form, give your audience some kind of reward. This might be a checklist that lets them run off and do something with their partial knowledge. It might be some kind of acknowledgment that they’ve reached a next step. Whatever the case, if you’re challenging your readers, reward them. (Works in video games; works in other media.)
• Respect their time. Brevity, friends. I point it out all the time. If you can say something with fewer words, do it. Okay?
• Write about them, not you. Or, if you have to write about you (memoirs or biographies come to mind), give them something they can do to make meaning of what you’ve shared. One reason I loved WINNING by Jack Welch was that I felt I could use the stories as a better perspective of how corporations work. Make sure your media empowers your audience instead of toots your own horn. It’s how you make superheroes.

I’ll be embedding them in my own thinking from now on.

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