Jean Claude Van Brand

Okay, that's a terrible title for this post, I admit it. But it was the first thing that popped into my head after I decided what this afternoon's topic would be: branding. And before I get into that, look at me! I'm sticking to my schedule!

In this morning's lecture, we learned some tasty tips for blogging from Jeremy, who showed us the ins and outs of his blog and how we can use some of his suggestions to spice up our own blogs. One of the things that stuck out to me the most was the concept of branding. Blogs are built around brands, from the voice of the blogger to the niche and design of the blog. I've developed a voice of my own over at Stark, where I love to mix my enthusiasm for music with a healthy dose of cynicism and snark. My posts serve as a good contrast to my colleagues' posts, which are often straightforward - albeit excellent - descriptive blurbs, and I really enjoy playing that type of character in the context of the blog.

But I'm not so sure that voice is all that applicable to this blog, since the subject matter is much different and I have a significantly smaller readership. I don't want to be snarky when talking about the stuff I'm learning and doing, but then again, I don't want to be Jean Claude Van Bland. So I'm working to add a mix of humor to my narrative.

I'm thinking about a lot of other things I can change about this blog, and throughout the week as I continue to post, you'll notice some tweaks going on. I'm starting with something small - the blog roll on the right sidebar - which should enhance the community feel I'm trying to attain. Also, I'm working on responding to other posts from fellow bloggers in the class, which should help accomplish that same goal. I encourage you (whoever you may be?) to also comment here, so we can start a dialogue and not make this whole process so stuffy.

Let's get this train rolling, shall we?