“The voice of a writer is usually easier to hear in first person,” says William Cane in Write Like the Masters. Why? “Third person narratives so often mimic the ‘beige voice’ of an objective reporter,” Cane explains, whereas “with first person, it’s usually easier to be intimate, unique, and quirky.”

Certainly “intimate” and “unique” are qualities freelance blog content writers want to display in SEO marketing blogs, which tend to be most effective when they are at their most conversational and most personal.

Blogger John Haydon runs a bootcamp about “narrative voice”, and recommends using second person (“you” and “your”) in corporate blogging for business to provide useful information to readers and give those readers the feeling that the author is speaking directly to them.  Haydon’s colleague Nedra, on the other hand, suggests

• First person for a personal statements and opinions
• Second person for a how-to’s
• Third person for news

As a corporate blogging trainer, I recommend a mix of narrative voices, so regular readers of the company blog can find variety. Even a professional ghost blogger, I explain, can write in “I” format when sharing a personal experience that brings out some important aspect of the client company’s products, services, or corporate culture.  First person writing doesn’t mean filling pages with the word “I”, points out blogger gamergirl.com, because” that would allow creativity to lapse.” Brenda Hill of WOW-womenonwriting.com agrees, saying that “we can successfully write in either first or third person…It all depends on the story you want to tell.”

Forrester’s Top 15 Corporate Blogs list is full of companies whose blogs allow readers to identify with the business in personal, unique, and even quirky ways. To stay personal, we Indianapolis blog writers need to show readers we’re talking very specifically to them. At the same time, blogging for business will be at its best when it’s colorful, filled with the company’s special brand of energy and passion. 

If I had to boil down business blogging assistance to one line of advice, that might be “Don’t be beige in your blog!”

“Keep your bullet points symmetrical,” advises fellow blog content writer Brian Clark. One way to do that, Clark explains, is to keep all bullet points in a group the same approximate length. That’s easier on online readers’ eyes, he adds.

That bullet points in general are a good fit for blogs is actually something I stress in corporate blogging training sessions.  By most accounts, search engines like bullet points.  Even more important, I’ve found over the years as professional ghost blogger, bullet points keep everyone on track, especially the writer.

It’s interesting that, just the other day, I was helping a student team at Ivy Tech learning lab put together a Power Point presentation on the subject of effective studying for tests. I noticed that their textbook recommends that students organize their notes using bullet points.

Clark offers a second bullet point-related tip that can relate to corporate blogging for business. “Practice parallelism,” Clark says, meaning that each bullet point should begin with the same part of speech and should maintain the same grammatical form.

This “honey-do” list in a blog by Cypress Media is a good example of Clark’s two rules (All the bullet points are one short line long, and all begin with a “command” verb):

• Take out the garbage
• Feed the dog
• Drop off dry cleaning
• Wash the car
• Buy stamps

Cypress’ Catherine Hibbard explains that using numbers in place of bullet points would imply an order of importance; with bullet points, all items have equal value. Like Clark, Hibbard recommends beginning each bullet with an action word where that’s appropriate, but in all cases making tenses and verbs consistent.

There’s no doubt bullet points are of business blogging help, but be careful not to overuse the technique.  I remind Indianapolis blog writers that SEO marketing blogs need to be conversational and personal in tone.  Truth is, we don’t tend to converse in bullet points!

Going back to that Ivy Tech textbook recommendation about organizing material, it seems to me that bullet points’ highest and best use is as organizers. That means the bullet points can be good tools for freelance blog writers whether those bullet points find their way into the finished blog posts or not!

As someone who offers business blog writing services, here’s how I’d sum up the subject of bullet points:  By all means, practice symmetry and parallelism, but consider also practicing restraint!