Business Development 2.0
First Person or Third Person?
When referring to yourself in writing, what are the rules regarding third person or first person?
I visited Chris Brogan’s site to see how one of the most successful blogger, social media guru, expert marketer, etc. writes and organizes his website. One thing I noticed is that most of his site is written in a third person, like the About page. It’s HIS site, yet he is referring to himself in the third person. Perhaps he had somebody write it for him, but I doubt it. My site is written in first person because not long ago I was in a conversation with my friend – whom I very much respect as a consultant – and he told me how he thinks that we should write about ourselves in the first person. He says it’s more personal and I agree.
What do you think?
Is there a certain level of professionalism maintained by referring to yourself in the third person? I’d really like to hear your comments.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Scott Smeester on February 3, 2010 at 11:13 am, and is filed under Random Thoughts. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 7 months ago
I think it depends entirely on the content, the audience, and what you want the target audience to do. If you are marketing your own business it is more professional and more acceptable to a larger number of people if content speaking about the products and services is in third person such as ads, white papers, website content except for more social media type content such as a blog.
In the blog, in certain emails, first person would be acceptable, maybe as a method of relationship building and personalization or simply trying to seem more approachable, friendly.
So I would simply ask myself:
What is this content for?
Who is this content for?
How would I feel reading this type of content elsewhere in first or third person….would it feel stilted or feel self-aggrandizing or bragging?
about 7 months ago
I believe the best approach is what matters to the reader and the anticipated result you seek from your online personality/business. I’m with you, Scott, first person has served me well whether it my monthly column I wrote for a trade magazine or on a blog or whatever. Corporate speak has and continues to change as social media and online visibility become even more mainstream for businesses.