While waiting to see if I won the golf clubs I rather stupidly bid on ebay after a glass or two of wine and a pint of Cornish Rattler I read an interesting blog from GrrlScientist about the personality that blogs have. As she states we all read blogs and anyone bothering to read this one almost certainly writes one too but what sort of person writes a blog? Are their particular personality traits that make certain people more likely to write a blog? ? If so, what are those personality traits? Do you have them, too?
A team of scientists, led by psychologist Rosanna Guadagno from the University of Alabama, wondered what personality traits made some people more likely than others to write blogs. To answer these questions, Guadagno and her colleagues used the Big Five personality inventory test to measure five key personality traits in college students who write blogs.
Me – I looked at the questions and to be honest couldn’t be bothered to take the test as it kind of felt like one of those emails that you always feel disappointed of when you receive from a friend that should know better. That said it did raise the question in my head about who writes blogs and who reads them? This trail of thought particularly followed on from reading an entry on the excellent PR blog by Dan Leach who said that he was contacted by his friend who read his blog regularly but thought his most recent pieces were not up to standard.
Dan – you are clearly someone who has worked in PR for some time as I always think we are all our own harshest critics. We all, take pride in our work and one of the hardest parts of working in the PR industry is not having a tangible product to give a client and the same goes for a writing a blog I would say. What you are offering by producing a blog is an opinion, your consultancy and commentary on any specific item that takes your fancy which in the end you hope someone will find of interest but ultimately you have no control over.
The more you write, the more you find your voice and the more you learn from your mistakes, the greater success you achieve from your work. The same as with the day job – the more you produce the more you know how to work smart.
In the short few months of producing this blog, I have realised that lists rule, communication with other blogs generate traffic and just how much there is to learn from being part of the PR blog community.
To cut a long story short. Most of us write blogs because we want to and because it is a great way to reach out to out peers. I don’t care what personality my blog has to be honest as long as it continues to grow over time and that allows me reach out to interesting people I would never have normally had the chance to meet.
Oh, and by the way I did win the golf clubs although I doubt they will make much difference.
