Yes, once again I am talking about doing what it takes to make your site stand out and connect with your target audiences. And even better, create the kind of content that is different enough and edgy enough to make readers send their friends and colleagues to read it for themselves – or email/share your site links.

All too often we get scared when it comes to doing something cool with our site content. The pressure to be polite, politically correct, grammatically correct, and really, kinda boring … is very strong.

But …

If your target audience is not corporate, if being PC doesn’t serve you, and if people really appreciate a genuine, authentic voice on your site, then why not do it?

We talked to a client today who has a product that is very “retro” … which is one way of saying it hasn’t changed or been upgraded in decades. And the customers really like it that way. So the new owners have no intention of changing its essence, and our job is to represent that authentically through their new website.

Fun job!!

So I would encourage you – if that is the position you are in, not to get hooked up on making everything so vanilla and inoffensive that no-one really wants to read your content (cos why would they?)

ciao for now

Karen

When you are creating a website you want people to come back to over and over again … and a site you want people to recommend to others, it is important that it has depth and  flavour.

The interwebs are full of vanilla sites that are little more than online brochures, they have no depth, no personality – no real reason for people to want to come back again.

Talking to a client today, I was suggesting that to really build loyal followers and increase visitors to their site, it needs to have more personality, and more insider information than something as relatively flavourless as a wikipedia page.

Sure wiki is a great resource, but how often do you refer to the same wikipedia page more than once?

No personality resides there, and you really don’t expect much in the way of fresh information to be added on a regular basis.

For your site to really draw the traffic, make sure it is fresh and flavourful, with plenty of zing to it!

(Next post, how to add some zing.)

Enjoy!

Karen

What does that mean in practice? Well basically, that there is no such thing as the “general public” – so don’t try to write for them.

As a speaker, the best advice is to speak directly “to” someone in your audience. It is not possible to connect with every single person, but the more you are able to focus your message, the more effective it will be.

The nasty, bland, politically correct ‘corporatespeak’ that we as web content professionals are steering clients away from is the exact opposite of this.

If you try to speak to a really broad audience, not offend everyone, include everyone … you simply end up with content that no-one really identifies or connects with. And that really really doesn’t work.

Individual stories are the ones that connect and resonate – don’t try and “universalise” your story – you risk taking the humanity and the passion out of it.

If you keep it personal, not only people with similar stories will relate to you, other people will connect to your authenticity and learn from it in some way – perhaps be inspired by your experiences, perhaps learn from your mistakes – whatever. Keep it real, and it will work so much better than generalised blurb that connects with no-one.

There are plenty of brilliant examples on the web of people with inspiring, incredible stories … and of course, the plethora of “mommy bloggers” is an example of how people telling their very personal stories can generate a significant audience of readers who are interested to follow what is happening in their lives on a daily basis.

If you are not already following her blog, or her twitter feed,  check out www.dooce.com – a very personal blog that now provides a full time income for its author.

Whenever someone asks me why the personal content gets such a large following, I liken it to why soap operas are so successful (even though they are not the best examples of cinematic art). It’s because we all like an insight into the minutiae of other people’s lives. Helps us feel better about our own, and often distracts us from our own – it’s called escapism.

No matter what the psychology behind it, it works.

So keep it personal, keep it real, keep it authentic.

Ciao for now,

Karen