In the closing chapters of Naked Conversations, authors Robert Scoble and Shel Israel provide dos and don’ts of blogging. In chapter 10, public relations professionals are advised to enter the blogosphere as a human and not as a traditional marketer, as true bloggers and consumers can easily spot forced or contrived writing. The authors write that mass marketing has a very limited place in the blogosphere and that consumers respond better to blogs that are managed by people speaking in their own voice.

The ability to speak in your own voice is what distinguishes blogs from traditional marketing and journalism. Blogs are not peer reviewed or edited by the higher-ups within an organization. With blogs, we’re finally allowed to speak in a conversational tone, misspell a few words, and use ellipses over and over again. I’m relatively new to the blogosphere, with “Is this thing on?” being my first blog. As a newbie, finding my blog voice has been the most challenging, particularly because I’m writing for academic purposes where accuracy and logic count.

Academic brainwashing has worked a number on me. Finding a misspelled word makes me cringe. Reading prose that rambles is upsetting. While I’m getting used to links, I’m convinced this isn’t the right way to cite a source. This isn’t to say that I don’t make these mistakes. I just try really hard to not make these mistakes. What you’re reading right now is actually my second draft of this post, which I typed in Microsoft Word and pasted to my blog (sorry readers, now the blog magic is gone). At this point in life, it’s hard to shut off the “i before e except after c” voice and write as a free spirit.

To Scoble and Israel, the desire to be the perfect PR professional (or in my case health communicator) who shields her imperfections is wasted on the blogging community. In this digital communication age, people want to see that humans and not online characters are on the other end of the gadgets. In addition to speaking in your own voice, Scoble and Israel encourage bloggers to reveal their humanity by telling the truth, acknowledging mistakes, correcting mistakes, admitting when they don’t have the answer, and being transparent.

So, only after being born to a teacher who corrected every grammatical error I ever uttered, marrying a journalist, and spending semesters with Morris, Kiernan, and Twomey do they invent a form of communication where it’s okay to be human. Oh, how funny life can be. I’ll continue to search for my online voice and writing style through this blog and perhaps, a more personal blog. Maybe I’ll find the relaxed writing spirit I had as a child. Maybe I’ll lose the fear of mispelling misspelling a word and post directly into the editor.  Just maybe.