The Many Faces Of A Blogger

I am ready to bet that the title alone of this article gets you all. How dare I call a blogger as multi faced? That’s a question that many of the newbies might be wording in their minds right after getting a clear idea of why one (business or individual) should blog. Those of you moderately familiar might possibly be scratching your heads over this in some confusion and the experts may have a pretty good idea of what I mean here. No, this does not refer to varying topics and niches that a blog or a writer might deal with.

I am talking about something a little bit more complex. But let’s take the topics for starters. You start working on a medical piece: telling your readers about smoking and its hazards. You have the topic’s crux ironed down: good enough. Now you decide how you approach that topic. Do you take an aggressive approach and slam down smoking, persuading your readers how unacceptable a habit it is? Do you instead go amiably and present your data on why smoking is harmful and try to convince your readers into making a decision? Those are just two of the different kinds of faces I’m talking about here. And this is how you construct a perspective. You do not just give out an opinion. You present it in a certain manner and this is how you create content of value.

The Critic

Often the most recognizable and the most easily distinguished face of a blogger available online. This type goes onto the crux of what a post or a trend is and then seeks to talk about it. Now that talking about it is built upon a certain bias about the topic. The critic may or may not approve of that aspect and he will analytically dissect that product or element based on that opinion. There are shades of critics who do factor in the other side of the bias too but the majority of the content is spent in convincing the readers as to why product X is good or bad.

  • Language: Witty and quick
  • Article length: May vary
  • Response: The comments section varies with praises or drier comebacks depending upon the blog.

The Analyst

keep-calm-and-let-the-analyst-handle-itBecause I did talk about the analysing an element in my previous paragraph, this one is focussed on the blogger who spends the entire blog post elaborating upon the many features or sides of an elements described within the post. Note such a blogger may also take the numerical approach to list down the elements he wishes to elaborate or explain about a certain product. What you can expect out of this guy’s posts is a lot of information and depending upon the calibre of the blogger, you will get very useful information. Though at times he will be a bit technical and hard to read too but he can greatly vary the style across making it being readable and then fun to read.

  • Language: Mostly formal
  • Article length: Expect longer posts than the Critic
  • Response: Varies topic by topic

The Promoter

Now this is a little different from your Critic or the Analyst because he does not go into the depth of his positive bias for a product or a topic and he does not indulge in explaining or elaborating the topic as much as an analyst would. This blogger is more focussed upon getting the word out about a certain trend through his blogging channels and so the tone of the blog is more positive and upbeat as the Promoter pulls all the stops in convincing the reader that this product is a must buy and a must have.

  • Language: Informal and persuasive
  • Article Length: Usually shorter posts
  • Response: Depending upon the reach and niche, it can generate a good amount of response

There are a lot more

Your blogging personas and faces definitely do not stop here. In fact this is the bare beginning upon which the discipline of blogging rests. Your personas can mix and vary between these three and they can even divide and expand upon any one of these personas alone. Each of these faces can be used for different purposes and each of them has their own importance in the SEO construct.

Simplistically, the age of static blogging is more or less over and your writing quality is gauged by how much you yourself put out in your post. It’s not really a matter if that self is not the real you but the people prefer reading posts in which it looks as if a real person is simply talking to them, rather than another encyclopaedia article.

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Moosa Hemani

Moosa Hemani (@mmhemani) is a blogger who usually write about SEO and Digital Marketing related topics on his blog and on other giant marketing blogs on the internet. He also co-authored a link building book with Venchito Tampon which can be found here.