Writing Blog Copy: Cut to the Point
As we've illustrated in the past, one of thebasic rules of webcopy is that 250-350 word pages are an ideal length. It's no surprise then, that those same user habits have been carried over to the blogsphere. Basically, a successful blog needs to post in that 200-300 words range. This way, the blogger cuts straight to the point without leaving out too many of the most important ones.
Michael Gray is calling this Blogging in a Sound Bite. He writes:
With the exception of the “search industry” most blog posts I come across are in the 200-300 word range. [...] are people only reading “sound bite” style posts because that’s what they’ve been conditioned to read or does there attention drop off on regular long posts?
[...] We know form social media that most people don’t read the story, they vote on the title and snippet, the virtual equivalent of the sound bite. Is there an advantage in sound byte style blogging? By limiting your posts to less 300 characters on average can you attract and retain a larger audience, I think so.
Indeed, this all makes perfect sense. After all, blogs are all about carrying on an organic conversation, and real people don't normally launch into lengthy orations in the same way that coporate web copy does because when they do, people stop listenting. As Mitch Joel once said:
A Blog is the glory of a personal voice - warts and all. That is why people are gravitating toward them. Deep down, we want companies to speak our language. We're tired of jargon. We're zoning out when we hear phrases like "best of breed" or "end to end solution." [...] We want more... and we're starting with a conversation that has a human voice behind it.
The point of language is communication. But when you start droning on and on just to show off how clever you are, you're really just looking foolish because people zone out and you don't get your point acrosss. So if you're engaged in the blog conversation, keep it short, sweet, and to the point.
