Calgary Web Designer Jenn Armour | Info Architecture + User Centric Web Design + Online Marketing + Social Media + Ideas

Integrating the personal with the professional voice- blogging

// February 4th, 2009 // Ramblings

Blogging is time consuming. Being primarily a developer/designer and scripter i found that writing about what i was doing or working on took time, time, time. Time which i needed to devote to the activities that I thought paid the bills. It wasn’t that blogging, facebooking, or twittering weren’t things i wanted to participate in, i just couldn’t find enough hours in my day. I didn’t make time. I was missing out hugely.

I have always been a writer of sorts. Words, books, sentences, how words form together to create feelings have, for a long time, inspired me. I web read voraciously on a variety of topics and I love idea’s, learning and communicating. Began diary writing in grade 10 and have, for the most part been doing it for the past 12 years. I write and publish free verse as a creative outlet.

What i discovered is that i was afraid to blog as a professional. What gives me the right? What gives me credibility? I wasn’t seeing that i have a great deal to offer and contribute to the online space from a professional standpoint. The point was that i was being selfish which was the exact opposite of what i was trying say about user-centric design. Its

As I started to look at my blogging resistance I also discovered that I just wasn’t sure how to effectively write as a professional with a personal tone. Blog in a way that could be authentic, helpful and professional at the same time. I had to recognize that I didn’t know how to merge the personal with the professional. I just needed to jump in, keep sharing, learning and write daily. It became clear to me that my online voice should not be different than my real voice. Since i made that leap publishing and writing online has become much easier. It has become fun!

Over the past two years I haven’t written every day but I have gotten over some of my blogging fears. I continue to read articles and comment on other blogs in order to become more active. A player instead of a fan who just builds sites to make money.

Resources
Finding your Blogging Voice – Seattle 20
Finding Your Blogging – Voice – Blog Flux
The 4 Steps to Finding your Voice by S.Covey
Find your voice