To Bare or Not to Bare: What Should You Reveal in Your Blog?

The holiday season has come and gone, and with it I've seen a few holiday-themed posts. While most weren't religious, every so often one wanders into church. In the midst of all this religiosity, I went onto JCME's blog a while ago and found a thought-provoking post on neutral language and how much of your own beliefs to reveal on your blog.

The quandary is this: revealing personal info is often a good move on a blog. It humanizes you and lets your audience relate to you. Reveal too much, however--or reveal the wrong things--and it could backfire. Here are my thoughts on how to get personal on a business blog.

Religious references: Few and far between. Talking about your religion on your blog is a tricky issue. Many religious people feel that their religion is so much a part of who they are, they can't not talk about it. And if your audience shares your religious beliefs, it can be a good way to show them you're one of their own.

However, on a business-related blog, religious talk can do more harm than good. It limits your audience; for every person it appeals to, there's sure to be someone who feels repelled. Most non-religious people I talk to who read business blogs say that an occasional religious reference won't always drive them away from a blog they like, but if it happens too often or it's too obviously preachy, it might. Unless your blog is aimed specifically at a religion-in-business niche, it's usually best to stay away from the topic.

Politics: Avoid like the plague. Religion can be an excluding topic, but politics can be even worse. Especially in America at this point in history, politics is increasingly polarized--more and more people identify with the extremes on either side, and neither side is talking rationally to the other. It's easy to fall into the habit of seeing those with opposing views as "the other" and assuming that your readers, being sensible people, share your views. But that's a dangerous assumption.

Make a blanket statement against a certain political topic, and you risk offending a lot of people--that's obvious. But even subtle jabs at certain political situations can be more incendiary than you'd think. Unless your blogging persona is provocative and you're writing to a political niche, it's best to stay away from all mention of politics.

Personal interests: Keep 'em relevant. I have plenty of interests outside business writing, but my audience isn't coming here to read about those. Still, I think mentioning your outside interests can humanize you--and advertise your niche knowledge to potential clients. That's why I link to my other blogs and don't make them a state secret. Still, I know the audience for this blog doesn't necessarily share my outside interests--and I don't write about those things here.

But you can talk about outside interests on your business blog. The key is to make the post relate to your regular topic in a creative way. There are a couple of great examples of this at Copyblogger: posts on what improvisational acting and jazz can teach us about blogging. These types of posts allow you to write about your outside passions in a way that keeps your business-blog audience interested.

Details of your personal life: Don't give away the farm. There are a few bloggers I've really come to "know" since I came on the scene, and I don't mind if occasionally they mention their personal lives on their blogs. But some writers take it a little far. I started reading SEO blogs a while back for a client project, and some of those folks talk incessantly about their personal lives. I had no idea so many SEO's were so into their cats.

My feeling is this: yes, talking about personal details can allow your readers to identify with you. If you occasionally talk about your kids, your spouse, your pets, or other things going on in your life, you'll seem more human and less like a business-talking robot. And some blogs, like Freelance Parent, are specifically aimed at a niche that spans business and personal life.

But this can be tricky, because some personal details can make you look less hireable. If you're going through a messy divorce or a difficult home purchase, for example, potential clients might assume you have too many distractions going on to focus on their projects. Talk about how much rum-spiked egg nog you drank at the Christmas party or how much you can't stand your brother in law, and you'll probably wind up hurting your professional reputation. And you always take the risk of boring your readers instead of intriguing them. Not everyone finds your cat, your two-year-old, or your irritable-bowel syndrome as fascinating as you do. If your blog isn't aimed at a niche that includes these topics, it's best to talk about these issues sparingly.

Bloggers walk a fine line when it comes to revealing personal information. And the position of the line can change depending on your niche, your persona, and your audience. Of course you want to be yourself on your blog, but to be successful you need to consider what your readers want to read about--not just what you want to write about.