Recently, while reading another blogger's tips for blogging
and increasing readership,
the author's post and the readers' comments
made me begin to think about blogging's big picture.
Please, grab a cup of coffee, glass of tea, or
join me as I have a Coca-Cola,
as we think about
how
we blog.
My virtual blog friends on the internet are a distinct group of friends with no overlap with my reality friends with whom I meet for lunch, to play bridge, to discuss books with at my monthly book club, or to worship with at my church.
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| April 1 Book Club Meeting |
No, my virtual blog friends, we do not sit around a table face to face, laughing, talking, eating, sharing stories about our lives, shared interests, personal heartbreaks, world tragedies, children's milestones, new jobs, etc... We do not see one another's facial expressions, eye movements, wild hand gestures, and contorted body languages. We do not hear our regional accents, lilting voices, strained sentences, calm even-toned phrases, excited gurgling sounds, and business-as-usual explanations.
Instead, we blog without benefit of 93% of how we communicate...non-verbally.
Research indicates varying percentages for non-verbal communication, but 93% is frequently cited.
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| My Backyard Park Bench |
We blog sitting all alone, soundless, sightless communication with our readers.
Without the non-verbal clues, or a shared history, or a common goal, communication is harder. Sometimes even with shared histories or common goals, the written word is not read in the same tone as it was written.
As a former school district administrator, I wrote group emails to hundreds/thousands of people who had a built-in set of shared goals and interests. Not so in the blogging
world. Our audience is extremely diverse with no pre-set common interests.
Our followers become our followers because they are the ones who have a common interest with us, discovered by some quirk of connecting.
As bloggers, we take on extremely hard writing assignments because we share with the whole world our writing. Yes, with the whole world. With no non-verbal communication.
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| Source: Blogger Audience |
I still get excited when I see some of the countries where my readers and followers live. I've had to look some of the places up on Google Map because I had no clue where the places are.
None of our readers can see our facial expressions. Most of them have different interests. None of our readers can hear our voice inflection. Only some of them know our personal regional expressions. Some of them do not speak our language as their first language and do not always understand our idioms. And let's not forget, British English is not American English is not Australian English.
Are you beginning to sense it is a miracle anyone understands us, much less follows us?
YIKES! As I write this, I
am conscious of all this even more than ever before! Pretty scary for all of us who
try to express ourselves and who hope to find others with common interests.
Considering all this, how do we blog successfully?
Not how do we blog technically.
Not how do we blog commercially.
I believe if we blog in the following ways, then we will blog successfully.
1. With passion...we blog about what moves us, what gives us joy, what excites us!
2. With knowledge...we blog about what experiences we've had, what skills we've developed, what information we've learned.
3. With personal style...we blog using our personal voices/way with words, showing our creations, displaying our way of doing things.
4. With integrity...we blog true to our inner convictions, true to full-disclosure, true to copyright.
5. With commitment...we blog regularly, read other blogs, make comments.
6. With compassion...we blog with kind words, with overlooking grammatical errors in other blogs, with encouraging other bloggers, with awareness how we read a blogger's words may not be how she wrote them. (Remember voice inflection, facial expressions are missing.)
7. With improvement goals ...we blog with goals to review grammatical rules in our own writing, to research data we use, to analyze other successful blogs, to learn new skills in technology and photography.
8. With self-fulfillment...we blog for internal satisfaction, not for external recognition; for meeting our own goals, not for comparing ourselves to others.
9. With enjoyment...we blog happily learning something new we wanted to know, laughing out loud at a humorous post, peacefully contemplating a well-written poetic post, sighing over beautiful photographs that linger in our memories.
What would you add to this list of how we blog successfully?
❦
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Pretty exciting news for me here...
I am thrilled that Botanic Bleu's French Country Kitchen was
featured on August 12, 2013 at
If you love touring homes, Blogger Homes is the site for you.
Home Tours all the time, everyday.
All styles and ranging from modest one-bedroom to luxury homes.
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More exciting news...
My Give-Away launches in the next post,
August 18, 2013
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Closes midnight (CDT), September 2, 2013
Be sure to enter all the different ways.
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Please join me at these inspiring sites...
MONDAY
TUESDAY
