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(NOTE: This is part of a series of postings where I published the results of my survey on people’s comfort zones regarding the overlap of professional and personal information online. More about this survey. Overview of numerical responses.)

SURVEY QUESTION 9:Here’s what might make you quit reading a weblog that interests you mainly for business reasons:

The big news here is that a significant majority of respondents (60%) report that they would not stop reading a business/professional blog simply because it occasionally offers personal anecdotes, disclosures, or mentions. The only reason these people would stop reading would be a noticeable decline in the quality or quantity of postings on business/professional topics. (Many of the 22% who replied “other” expressed a similar view, just in different terms.)

Therefore, as long as you keep supplying mostly business-related content, occasionally acknowledging other aspects of your interests, personality, or life probably won’t work against you. In fact, looking at the survey results as a whole, being all business, all the time might damage your relationship with your weblog audience.

CAVEATS: All of this depends, of course, on whether survey respondents are being honest – and if you consider informal, self-selected surveys of any use at all.

Here are the responses for this question, and my observations about them…

Of the 176 respondents:

• 106 (60%) said: I don’t care about the personal disclosures either way. I’d only stop reading if the amount and quality of the business-related information declined. (This includes one response from the “other” field for this question which began, ” I usually don’t care about the personal disclosures either way…”
• 38 (22%) said: Other
• 19 (11%) said: If personal topics start appearing more than once a week
• 9 (5%) said:I prefer to know the person behind the blog and would stop reading if the blogger never mentioned anything personal
• 3 (2%) said: If personal topics start appearing more than once a month.
• 1 (1%) said: Any disclosure of any personal information, no matter how rare or minor.

WRITE-IN “OTHER” RESPONSES

Some people’s reactions didn’t fit the categories I offered. In all, 38 people (22%) responded “other,” and explained their perspective. That’s too many to accommodate comfortably in my blog layout, so I’ve compiled those responses into a pdf file.

Download these responses now.

Here are a few example “other” responses:

• If the writer started espousing positions that thought were a) silly and/or trivial b) common knowledge put forth as original thought or c) boring and unengaging.
• I’d like to choose both of the last two. Nothing personal feels too cold but it also matters to me that they stick on-topic.
• I think that if I can identify with the blogger on business, I can also identify with a blogger on personal items (even though we may disagree on items). I think that the tone of a blog is a major part of the draw … it is a virtual relationship, if you will. I would unsubscribe if the topics were no longer relevant to me on a personal or professional level.
• If the person’s personal information reveals an active bias against one (or more) of the areas for which I actively campaign. To clarify: Disagreeing with me is one thing; actively campaigning against the issues I hold dear would tend to encourage be to quit reading that weblog.

AMY’S OBSERVATIONS:

• Relevance is still key. As the “other” responses throughout this survey indicate, the online audience mostly cares about relevance. If you wish to disclose anything personal in a business context, find a way to work those mentions in naturally with your primary topics. Usually that’s not too much of a stretch – life and work often resonate on many levels. Just don’t make it a main theme of your blog – unless your blog is intended to be equally (or mostly) personal.
• It helps to stay positive and engaging. Several respondents noted that they are repelled more by negativity (flaming, trolling, complaining, bickering, intolerance, inflexibility, etc.) than by occasional personal mentions or topics. Also, several respondents noted that they dislike being bored – so keep it interesting.
• Your audience probably cares about your relationship with them Even though business/professional topics might be the basis of that relationship, “monotone” relationships quickly get boring. The results of this survey overall, and especially to this question, indicate to me that if you’re all business, all the time, with no hints about any other aspects of your life, personality, or interests, you content will probably be less engaging for many regular readers. They might have a difficult time building a relationship with you in the first place. Sounding human is probably one of the best ways to support your business or career online.

PREVIOUS: Survey Questions 7 & 8: Would YOU Disclose Personal Info?
Index to the survey results.
Overview of numerical results.
About this survey.