Wednesday, September 8, 2010

My Voice Post

Here are four tips to make you seem “friendly” over the internet (examples from Erinwdesign’s blog “Living in Los Angeles without a Car”, LILAWAC!):
  1. Don’t be afraid to share your calluses with the world. Erin(for short) did this in two ways that instilled trust in her readers as she confided in us with personal information. “I am ashamed…I have been coveting other bikes lately.” “I am ashamed” makes Erin seem like a victim and get the sympathy of her readers, but at the same time a sense of trust has developed, since she appears to be letting her readers in on a little personal secret of hers. The ellipsis inserts a break in the sentence, which increases the reader’s anticipation of her secret,since the reader wants to know why she is ashamed.
  2. Later in the same “The Urban Machine: Handlebar Tape” post,Erin shares detailed information with her audience that people don’t tell just anyone, because they don’t want to bejudged or evoke a bad response. Clearly,Erin didn’t care. “The callouses (sic) developing on the palms of my hands…” Erinlets her readers know that she is open and wants her readers to get to know heron a personal level. (Calluses isspelled wrong in Erin’s post, but that lets us know that she isn’t perfect andI don’t judge because I am one of the worst spellers ever.) Sharing personalinformation with your audience (information that you would only tell your best friend) is key to developing that strong fanbase.
  3. Buy a bike and name it Ruby. I had so much fun and evenchuckled a few times after reading about Ruby. You would think Ruby was a red bike, but surprise surprise, Ruby is blue as shown in the picture. Not red,but blue, which is odd in my eyes. I am sure she has a reason for naming herbike Ruby. I just wish she explained because now I’m curious. Ruby is not just any normal bike, but is the love of Erin’s life. Why else would Erin bothertaking a picture of her bike? (Craigslist? But she would never sell her bestfriend!) It is nice of Erin to introduceus visually to Ruby, which helped to spice up her blog and break up the endlessstream of black on the page. Erinexplains that “buying Ruby was an easy decision, one ride and I decided I HADto have this bike, it was THE ONE.” Capitalization screams drama and excitement, letting her audience knowhow special Ruby is to her. When Erincalled Ruby “THE ONE”, I sensed the love between her and her bike and how inErin’s eyes, Ruby is priceless. When you reach a point when you care whatyour bike thinks of you and feel that you are cheating by looking at anotherinanimate object; the bike has transformed into its human form. Her passion about being car-free just jumps off the page, but not in an overwhelming way,since she explains her adventures with Ruby in “A car when you need it”.
  4. Anyway, I wanted to share with you how I make [zip-cars]work: I have to ride my bike up to UCLA, then stuff it in the back of the carand drive it away. I guess I could also park the bike nearby... but I would spend the entire day worried about whether or not it would be there when I gotback. So behold, Ruby getting a ride in a Honda Insight.
    Would anyone worry about something they didn’t care about? Of course not. this further emphasizes my point that Ruby is human, since Erin spends all her time with Ruby. Erin comes off as a down-to-earth person just trying to make a difference, which is a hard thing to convey overwriting. I feel like if we met we wouldbe friends, because I also talk to inanimate objects, like my splendid stuffed animals. My advice for you is if you want to be relatable, make inanimate objects appear human.
  5. Who cares about formatting? Insert a picture in the middle of the page! Make your blog appear more informal and close your eyes and randomly insert a picture into the text. Walla, from a visual perspective, itlooks like you don’t care about the display of your blog and that your main focus is the written word. (Now you appear tobe super deep and a real artist, evenif it wasn’t your intention.) I trulybelieve that Erin did not have a clue on how to format her blog, but it doesn’t matter because her uncaring nature to take the effort to figure it out showshow insignificant appearance is to her.  
  6. Channel Yoda and teachyour fellow Jedi! If you are going to use language that is specific to yourfield of study, please place a link to what it means so that your audience hasa clue to what you are talking about. Ifit’s not common knowledge, attach a link. I have no knowledge about bikes or why there is tape on the bike etc, soit was nice that Erin attached a link to what “MKS half clips” are or the bikestore “Palms cycle”. Your reader willadmire you because you just taught them something new.
Above all, BE TRUE TO YOURSELF and your blog will ROCK!

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