Blog or Be Damned

You've been invited to subscribe to a blog, but hang on, what should you expect? What are the rules of engagement?

After all, this isn't like a mainstream newspaper you may be familiar with. Blogs, generally, aren't guided by any formal 'editorial policies'. They aren't niched to specific target demographics and they're not sustained by advertising dollars. So how do you know if a blog is for you?

Should you subscribe to my blog, you'll come to know that I'm one of those people who has a theory for just about everything. It's a congenital weakness that I have absolutely no explanation for. Although if pushed, I'm sure I could provide you with a theory as to why I have a theory for everything.

Here is my theory about what makes a good blog. Like all good theories, it is open to testing.

HOPE'S THEORY ON BLOGS

Blogs are generally written by people who:

1. Believe they are interesting (and yes, sadly, some are kidding themselves).
2. Think they have something to say (not always meaningful)
3. Have time they wish to invest in the process (often, arguably, a little too much time).

Blogging can be inspiring and interesting and provide a worthy platform for you to showcase your writing talents, your ideas and takes on life. They can also reflect a certain narcissistic attachment to the daily minutiae of life, and a desire to analyse one's thoughts on a specific issue or the day's events.

It is arguable as to whether such attachment and the predisposition to analysis is healthy. As a writer, for example, I do read the occasional blogs posted by my colleagues in their fervid attempts to promote themselves. I am always struck by the high levels of self-involvement in these blog and I imagine the writers, sucking on their lukewarm cups of coffee while seated at their desks in their pyjamas and looking like Phyllis Diller on a bad hair day, posting their latest with one mantra driving them on. That mantra is: "It's all about me."

Call me cruel, folks, but frankly YOU may not be all that interesting. Much as I'd love to share your breathless reports about how fabulous YOU is progressing on your fabulous journey through your fabulous life (or alternatively, how depressed Dora is coping with the latest miserable episode from a tawdry, little life), this is not what blogging should be about.

I for one have always imagined that any communication, blogging included, however small, should be motivated by some simple guiding principles that I consciously attempt to apply in all my daily interactions (not always successfully). I urge all bloggers to consider these:

Firstly, any communication, should be targeted at a specific audience with the process of targeting providing good boundaries for determining, for example, appropriateness of topic and style of language used. In communication strategising, audience targeting is the first step in good planning so why not apply this as a blogger. Ask yourself, who are my subscribers? What are they interested in? Apply the WIFM principle as all good marketers do. Every reader is looking for a level of engagement that delivers a personal benefit. Whether it is to make them laugh or cry, whether it is to enlighten and enthuse them, whether it's to establish a connection with them through your own life, it doesn't matter. Just spare some time to determining what your audience wants and expects from you.

Secondly, every communication, however mundane, is necessarily driven by a specific objective. "Pass thee salt", "lend me some money", "come over for coffee". Whenever we open our mouths or consign anything to paper, there is usually something we want to achieve or to get.

There are three main outcomes we can want from any communication. To:

• Inform
• Persuade
• Entertain.

These outcomes, as you can see, apply to the WIFM principle (What's In It For Me). Most people love learning new things. They respond to new points of view that might have them thinking about or doing something differently. They like to laugh! Information, persuasion and entertainment, ultimately aim to deliver something of value to your listener or reader.

Over arching it all should be the desire to impress because every communication ultimately impacts on your public and personal image. Let me say here that gushing self love is not certain to make you impress. Let me be blunt: nobody likes a wanker so err on the side of caution. Be proud of your accomplishments but sandwich the exuberant ego masturbation between a top and tail that puts your accomplishments in the perspective of your reader and what he or she may gain from your journey.

Finally, in determining if or when you should disseminate your communication, whether it is to have 'that' chat, or send out 'that' email, or even write this blog, the single, most important criteria you can apply is the ibe I learned in the very first week of my journalism degree: Is it newsworthy?

Knowing what's newsworthy is like breathing for any journalists worth their salt. A good story will get a journo's spidey senses tingling almost quicker than a rumour of a 75% off sale at David Jones will send my ESP (Extra Spending Potential) into a spin. Journalists know what makes a story newsworthy and it is based, on a variety of criteria. For example.

1. Is it timely?
2. Is it relevant to your audience?
3. Does it have a high immediate value?

(I found a more detailed description of newsworthiness at www.cybercollege.com).

Be aware though, that newsworthiness along can provide no clear guarantee as to the attractiveness of your story or material. True journalists, I'm sure, are with me in rueing the impacts of checkbook journalism and celebrity-fever on the calibre of news with a tendency today for front-pagers to be dominated by a fawning kind of populism. Opinion masquerading as news has tarnished the quality of many news reports in my view.

Still, if you haven't managed to secure a picture of Rihanna's cellulite to help sell your site, be assured that if your material is timely, relevant and valuable, you will have an audience somewhere.

Happy blogging!