How to Know if Your Online Voice is Authentic
Finding your voice as a blogger is a challenge that pays off in a loyal audience that knows what to expect from you and comes back for more and more. Hopefully your voice is not an artificial mask that you don for the sake of your audience but comes from the essence of who you are. If your blogging voice is who you really are, then you will find blogging easier and will be able to present a consistent persona across all platforms.
How can you know that your online voice is authentic? You will know when you meet your online friends in real life and they say those confirming words,
“You are just like you are on your blog!”
or
“You are exactly like I expected you to be!”
At one particular event this spring, I kept hearing those words over and over, and it affirmed to me that who I am on my blog is who I truly am. I have a clear voice, and that voice is me.
As a blogger, it was one of the greatest compliments I can receive. My voice is authentic. It is true to who I am. I am not putting on a false persona or posing as someone I am not.
It also shows me that my voice is ringing out in my writing. My work is not bland and void of personality. It sings with a flavor of Jimmie! And that is what creates loyal readers — they come back for more of that voice. The voice is who they connect with and develop loyalty to. Your search engine traffic comes for answers to their questions; they don’t care about your voice initially. But if you can get them to subscribe and come again, your voice is what makes friends with them.
And this is why when people who read your blog meet you in person, they say,
“I feel like I know you!”
Because they do know you. Your true person has been revealed in your blogging voice.
