Stop Throwing Jelly at Your Readers
As a guest speaker and trainer I have perfected my method of verbal delivery over the years, but the very first time I was asked to speak at a business training seminar I was a complete nervous wreck. My whole mind had gone in to panic, but not over my delivering subject, it was more over the actual delivery of my words and how I was going to engage with my audience in the most productive way.
So I had the training schedule which my client wanted me to work around, and in this schedule was a fifteen minute coffee break one hour in to the seminar. My thoughts and concerns were whether I could keep the audience with me, would they find me so boring that they would make a run for it during this break, leaving me with hardly any audience left.
My nerves were getting the better of me by this point and I would do anything to cling on to even the smallest amount of reassurance. So I purchased a new book called The Jelly Effect. This book was all about effective communication and learning the method of being able to communicate in a way in which the audience not only stays to listen to what you have to say, but they actually take more of it in and therefore your communication become effective in a much more productive way.
By the time I came to creating my own blog I thought back to this book because a lot of its values would help me to engage with my audience online. Before I discuss the methods of The Jelly effect and how I use them within my blog I just want to ask you something…Have you ever gone in to discussion with someone only to find half way through your conversation they are looking at you with a very blank and vague expression on their face?
Well this is the Jelly effect, it is all about how you can fall in to the trap of throwing far too much information at your audience and not getting to the point soon enough. I see bloggers doing this almost every day by bulking their blog posts with too much information and not enough relevancy of what I want to learn or what I thought I would be reading about when reading the post title. Bulking your blog posts with mind numbing content is a direct ticket the blog failure, so to save you from producing such content, I have created a list of what I have learnt from this book and from my own years of blogging, to help you and your blog become an online success.
- Read & learn more – It is a fact that the more we read and learn about our subject and audience, the better writers we will become. Learn how to become a better writer by reading similar blogs to your own, and learn more about your audience by reading the comments to a particular blog post.
- Don’t beat around the bush – If you have some interesting industry news to tell your readers…well tell them then and stop bulking your content with irrelevant content. A typical example of a writer beating around the bush is one who is writing for the search engines instead of their readers; do not fall in to this trap.
- It’s not about you it’s about me – The last thing I want to read on a blog is a post all about you and your achievements, whether that is your turnover, awards nomination, new member of staff etc. I want to read and learn more about this industry and how I can improve myself, whether that be through a list of relevant tools & tutorials, industry news, and even inspiration.
- Don’t lose your passion – This is something I have been told time and time again after delivering a training course or speech, I am very passionate about what I do and people are drawn in by that passion. If you lose your passion for what you are blogging about, this will come across in your posts.
- Keep it real – When I read your blog I do not want to feel like the writer is talking at me, I want to feel like you are talking to me and therefore you are able to capture my imagination and I am able to engage in much more discussion from your blog post because I will feel like talking back to you. Asking questions & opinions is a clever technique to use when trying to bring your writing to life.
Only a short list but a relevant one, and each point can either make or break your blog depending on whether you choose to act upon them or simple ignore.
The methods above will enable you to engage with your audience and make your message stick, rather than your message being thrown at people and basically falling away because none of it has been taken in by your reader. Although I purchased The Jelly Effect to help me with my public speaking, its methods have helped me with how I communicate as a blogger and I would recommend it to anyone.
photo credit: horizontal.integration
Michelle Kirkbride, the editor of Kaplang has many years of experience as a web developer & consultant. She currently lives in Yorkshire, UK with her two beautiful children and loving partner. She spends far too much time at her computer and is currently addicted to her work & blogging. You can connect with her on twitter or visit her blog.
I’ll take notes for that! Thanks!
Nice post, Michelle!
I made use of your first point when I became interested in developing my own writing (screenwriting specifically) — I became a story analyst in Hollywood so I could learn from what others were doing both right and wrong and take from it what ever experience I could.
With that experience I’ve gained a wide range of knowledge by picking up on what others had tried and started a blog (click my name) to help others with what I’d learned about writing a screenplay that will have a better chance at catching the eyes of Hollywood producers.
By the way — I love the design of Kaplang!
In terms of blogging, it’s also given me an awesome vantage about how to catch the readers attention and more importantly, as you’ve illustrated, keep it!
Your last point of keeping it real is something every blogger needs to be reminded of from time to time — at least I do. It’s easy to forget that you’re not just writing when your readers don’t engage right away, but it’s important to remember you’re starting a conversation with every post.
Hi Chris
Thanks for your comment about my post and blog :) I also think point five is the most important to follow.
classic :)
I totally get what you are referring to – I call this the knowledge dump. It’s when people think that they’ve got to give you every piece of information they can think of without ever taking a moment to connect them.
Thanks for holding back the jelly in this post. :)
Yup… vanity blogging is a pain.
That said, there’s a fine line to be trodden between just technical stuff with no personality and bombarding the readers with personality/life-story but with no ‘meat’ content.
Sometimes it’s easier said than done….
Simon
Excellent post! Passion is an important factor and helps an individual stay focused. Keeping the energy up is difficult but with passion it becomes a lot easier.
I am totally agree with your advice.
I do find that when writing posts aimed at teaching techniques, strategies or software usage,that it is very easy to have more info than readers can possibly digest in one read. That’s when I break the post up into a series of articles, rather than try to cram it all into one sitting.
Sometimes you have to share details to really help people accomplish what they are after. I often use these types of posts as foundation articles, ones that I refer to in shorter posts that I write later. So as a general rule I agree that keeping your posts short, engaging and to the point is the best way to go.
K.I.S.S. your readers. Keep It Short and Simple!