Blogging Freedom Is a Mixed Blessing: Guest Post by Brad Shorr

Blogging is about the freest kind of business writing I can think of, and that’s the main reason I enjoy it so much. Freedom, however, can be a mixed blessing.

Here’s a rundown of what for me are the positive and negative freedoms of writing a business blog. Your list is probably different, but that’s one of great attractions of blogging – there’s room for everybody,

Bad freedoms

1. Freedom to be careless

Blogging offers no built-in controls for scrupulous editing, other than those woefully insufficient spellcheckers. Some bloggers, I know, relish their grammatical lapses and misspellings, but for business writing of any kind, including blogs, I still believe in putting one’s best foot forward. I must admit, though, I’m a poor proofreader and often don’t take the time I should to edit.

2. Freedom to rant

It’s tempting to rip into companies and people when you’re blogging on a topic you’re passionate about. But words can come back to haunt you, and on the Internet, they cannot be erased. The times I went overboard are the posts I look back on with regret … usually. How do you feel about rants? Some bloggers love them and know how to pull it off. I don’t.

3. Freedom to be reckless

Professional journalists sometimes sneer at bloggers for failing to properly check facts before reporting news. I must confess, I see a lot of that and have been guilty of it myself. Checking facts is laborious, time consuming work. It’s very tempting to blow it off when you’re in a hurry to knock out those daily posts.

Good freedoms

1. Freedom to be conversational

Conventional business writing is formal, stiff, impersonal, laced with jargon, calculated, and ultimately, unpersuasive. Blog writing can be just the opposite – informal, loose, personal, plainspoken, and unrehearsed. What a refreshing change for business writers and readers alike! Blogging takes the experience of face to face conversation, so vital to business relationships, and makes it accessible to people continents apart. That is very, very cool.

2. Freedom to be incomplete

Joanna Young, proprietor of this blog, has taught me how blog writing is the art of asking questions, of engaging readers in conversation. Part of this mysterious art is leaving thoughts unpolished and unfinished. As someone who was trained to write thoroughly, practiced in writing stuff like case studies for print media and internal marketing studies, incompleteness is a frightening concept. But as I continue to blog, I’m learning to like not needing all the answers. Gives a person more time to thing about more important things, like questions – don’t you think?

3. Freedom to experiment

Most forms of business writing have been around for a long time, and as a result, have their own set of rules and conventions. Not that these rules are necessarily bad, but they do limit one’s ability to apply new techniques and innovate. The rules for blogging are still being written, and if we’re lucky, they may never be written at all. A day doesn’t go by where I don’t see a blogger tackling an old topic in a new way, trying a new way to use images, defying expectations, asking questions I’ve never considered, promoting conversation with a new technique – on and on. This type of writing freedom keeps you fresh, keeps your imagination active and searching for better ways to engage customers. Come to think of it, this might be the best reason of all for companies to have a blog in the first place!

What does your list of blogging freedoms look like? What’s at the top of your list, both good and bad?

Let me introduce you to Brad - although I think a lot of you will know him.

Brad Shorr is a sales and marketing consultant who lives near Chicago, Illinois. His company, Word Sell, Inc., provides strategic consulting, sales training and coaching, and business blog and other online marketing services. His blog explores issues of interest to small and mid-size business - sometimes quite seriously, but often with a touch of humor.

Brad’s a long-standing reader, commenter, supporter and friend of Confident Writing. He has written two other popular posts here:

9 Steps to Clear Business Writing and

Leap Before You Write That Letter of Apology.

He’s also a great blogging friend, and the best person I could think of to host a conversation here when I’m away on holiday. Thanks Brad!

Joanna Young, The Confident Writing Coach
Because our words count

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Related posts:

1. Leap Before You Write That Letter Of Apology – Guest Post By Brad Shorr
2. Scrambled Toast – My Blog Laboratory: Guest Post by Brad Shorr
3. 9 Steps to Clear Business Writing: by Brad Shorr

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