Be Close Enough For Them To See

If there’s one thing I learned about social media, it’s that you converse to other people through your knowledge and interaction. It’s not just one or the other, but rather both things combined.

It’s not just about how you interact with people, but what you impart with them in that interaction. It’s not just about being friendly to other people in the social media circuit, but also about what you talk about in your own little corner of the social media-verse that extends how real a human you are from your end of the universe to the other.

Certainly there are lots of things to talk about out there. You’ve got personal issues, political concerns, business problems, and the likes to ramble about on a daily basis. But, again, if you’re writing for a corporate blog, it seems rather difficult to pick out topics to write about.

I’ve learned that there are ways to let people know you’re real through the content you produce in your site. Here are tips:

People don’t like braggers; so don’t be put in that category. Talking about your accomplishments is one thing, bragging about it is another. Don’t do the latter because people may start feeling annoyed and stop coming to your site altogether.

It’s not bad to share milestones you’ve achieved every once in a while, but don’t make it a habit. Also, don’t repost every little good thing that has been said about you or the company because it sounds a bit narcissistic. Posting a little thank you note addressed to the person who praised you should be enough.

Even companies have causes they believe in, so why not write about one that you or your organization supports. This will give you the opportunity to show people that the company is backed up by real people who care about other things aside from making the business grow.

Another way to express your real-ness is to give others time to shine. You surely know that you are not alone in this world, let alone in the industry you belong to. Why not give others the opportunity to show others what they’ve got. Pick a person – a customer, a colleague, or mentor – and talk about the great things they’ve accomplished. The fact that you know that there are other people out there worth giving the time of day to write about shows that you’re real enough to acknowledge that there are others out there, too.

Step away from canned content that talks about how great the company is or how amazing your products or services are. There’s more to the product that just its qualities. Try thinking about how people can relate your products to their daily lives and write about that. Show your readers that like the average man, you are interested in valuable content that they can use in their everyday lives.

This last tip I’ve picked up is actually debatable. Mixing personal stuff with the business stuff just doesn’t work for everybody. Although it’s true that writing strictly about the business can make the blog a bit dull, throwing in personal posts can be a challenging trick to pull. Some people have a tendency to share too much at times. Personally, I think that if you’re able to moderate which personal news are safe enough to share with the public through your corporate blog, then by all means do it.

Now, when it comes to writing the posts that you want to make, you don’t have to be stuck with plain, old, boring text-only blog entries. Mix it up a bit with other media like videos, music, or photos. You can either create these media yourself or borrow existing ones on the Internet. Either way, by doing this, you make things a lot more interesting and enjoyable.

You’ll find that the more you’re able to show people that you’re a real person, the easier you gain people’s trust and faster it is to strengthen your customer-provider relationship. There’s nothing wrong with being human, even if you are writing for the business. After all, without the people behind the company, where would the business be?

If you’d like to share your thoughts on this topic, I’d appreciate that. Please do so over at the comments section and lets discuss your ideas.