Blogging 201 – Learn to tell a story

photo credit: The Story Lady

One of the things that I think most bloggers who have surpassed the ‘Blogging 101’ stage (e.g. those bloggers who have set up their basic blog, written a few entries, and started promoting their blog posts on social networking sites) tend to forget that the underlying reason why blogs have become so successful is because they have become the canvas in which the writer can paint with broad brush strokes a complete picture of his/herself. That’s what we call storytelling. And the sad part is, most of the time people forget to tell their story.

Whenever I give a talk about social media or blogging (as I did recently at the Senior Communicators and PR Roundtable, an event where both Rebecca Bollwitt and I spoke) I always give a couple of key tips. The one that always sticks in all of my talks is – learn to tell your story – why is it that you write? What compels you? What drives your business? How can you contribute to other’s growth and understanding?

Learning to tell your story will help you grow your blog in ways you may never have imagined. You have a story to tell, you just have to practise how to create the narrative.