The how and the why

So, just an entry to polish off the other areas I mentioned at the beginning of the ‘aims’ post: how do I intend to communicate on this platform, and what am I looking to achieve by doing so? I don’t envisage my ‘actual’ posts reading like these – they are meant more as a bit of additional context for readers to know where I’m coming from, and as such I’ll copy them across to an ‘about the blog’ section where they probably belong.

1) How do I want to communicate?

I’ve been reading blogs for several years now, initially in a haphazard way, but increasingly on the grounds that the best of them have much more practical, witty and/or incisive comment than that available in ‘old media’. Over time I’ve managed to pin down some of the respects in which these stand out over the countless millions of generics out there:

Keep things authentic

This is the golden rule of social media. The majority of corporate blogs come across as hopelessly naff for this reason; unless they’re actually communicating something helpful about their services, products or direction, more often than not they simply seem like jumping on the bandwagon for the sake of it (which, of course, is precisely what they are doing). Who wants to read something if they think the writer’s trying to game them? That could be trying to push a product, or simply a matter of a ghostwriter behind a celebrity.

Add value

Information consumes time, and time is obviously limited, therefore media is a form of transaction. The audience gives you their time, and will only do so (at least on a recurring basis) if they are getting something back out of the deal. In a concrete sense what does this mean? Providing original insight, material of some concrete utility, or simply good entertainment.

Take care with your voice

I learned this rule the hard way, and this is a problem for a huge number of novice writers out there – one they’re not even aware of. Imagine reading an article then fast forwarding 6 months. What do you remember about that article? If you’re typical you’ll retrieve very little of the actual content – perhaps a headline view, if that. Instead, most people remember how they reacted emotionally to the writer and their narrative voice; were they catty, condescending, amusing, dry or silly? I’m not going to pretend I know exactly how my ‘voice’ will develop, but there are certain principles I want to follow. I want to be clear and direct. I don’t want to attack people. This is not a karmic debt issue – I am happy to criticise ideas. It’s just that snarky is not cool. Only a few writers pull it off stylishly (in the UK AA Gill has particular presence, although my personal favourite is Lynn Barber) – the rest tend to come off poorly, more often than not seeming bitter and insecure. This is an approach I’ll carry on to comment moderation too. Thoughtfully attacking stances, actions or decisions is fine, but a peculiar quality of the internet is that a personal attack or two amongst individuals will inevitably spiral into low-grade warfare.

Maintain clarity

Vital but often overlooked. It’s no surprise that many of the world’s most successful academics (at least as far as the arts and social sciences are concerned) are those who communicate clearly, and can use this talent to broadcast their field’s finding far beyond the confines of academia. Malcolm Gladwell has pretty much made a career out of translating social science! I am a fervent believer in the principle that the author should not make his or her readers work unnecessarily.

Create evergreen content

Evergreen content is content that is ‘timeless’ – and favoured by book publishers the world over. Providing news-style material demands a frequency and regularity of posting that is intensive and time consuming, and as a strategy suffers from posts that are rapidly rendered irrelevant. Visitors derive their value as much from the freshness of the content as anything else. Conversely, evergreen content remains relevant for much longer. As things stand I am not positioned to provide content fresher than that found on the likes of TechCrunch or the general news sites. So aside from elaborating on why I’m excited by innovations that catch my eye, I’ll keep focused on trying to tease out some of the underlying dynamics – the pursuit of which keeps me curious about the world.

2) What am I looking to achieve?

Blogs are a rather special platform – on the one hand they can serve as modern day soapboxes with global reach; on another they are a form of online calling card that can offer a taster of a blogger’s thinking style, accessible to potential business partners, customers or employers. In the modern world communication has to be *so* tailored to the task at hand that there is no room to demonstrate any subtlety or nuance, and blogs can provide a great outlet for this. Savvy bloggers with established audiences have worked out other applications too, such as using blogs as a form of research tool to bounce ideas around and canvass opinions en masse. Finally, they have the added bonus of serving as a form of diary; a record of little thoughts and perspectives that might otherwise slip by. I intend to explore each of the above avenues, but ultimately this is still a field in flux and I’ve little doubt other uses will pop up over time.

Resources
Lessons in Clarity and Grace by Joseph M Williams – a classic text on written style, emphasising the ‘ethos’ of the narrative voice and writing clearly and directly. Next step is some brevity.