If you missed Part 1 of this series you can find it here.
Developing Your Voice
Having a voice doesn’t just mean being good at talking or writing. Developing your voice means having your own point of view about a topic which makes you distinctive and able to stand out in the crowded world of online DJs and podcasters. You might even come across as a little opinionated or controversial. I bet you can think of one or two of your fellow DJs who fit this description but this is also what makes them memorable.
There is a lot of noise on the Internet, and one of the biggest challenges that music fans face is sifting through all of that noise in order to find the type of DJs, music, shows and content that are interesting to them. Actually, one of the things that makes blogging such a great opportunity for online DJs – the fact that there are virtually no barriers to entry and that it is easy to start a blog – means that there are a lot of not-so-great DJ blogs online.
Having a strong and consistent point of view will make your writing more compelling than most of the other DJ blogs. You may already have an idea of how you want to go about building an audience for your blog, or you may need to take some time to think about your approach to your DJ career, what makes you unique and how you can bring this out in your writing.
The voice of your blog should be a good fit for the kind of online DJ you are, including things like the music your play and your performance style.
Of course, in order to have a strong voice, you also need to know who you’re speaking to.
Know Your Audience
You need to think about this factor from a couple of different perspectives. Firstly, have a think about your current listeners. On average, how old are they? Where do they live? What kind of music do they like, and how often do they listen to your shows? Are there any demographic clues that you can derive from your listener data that might help you come up with a picture of your typical audience member?
In addition, you should also give some thought to the people you want to to try and attract to listen to your shows. Who is your ideal audience? Maybe you’re looking to just grow your following with more individuals similar to your current followers. Or maybe you’re looking to branch out into new markets and reach a new group of listeners.
Relate to Your Audience
Be personal. Now, personal doesn’t necessarily mean unprofessional or overly-familiar. In fact, it probably shouldn’t mean those things. “Personal” means that when you’re writing to your audience through your blog, you should speak to them as you would if you were having a face-to-face conversation or indeed in the same way you talk during your online shows (if you do). It is important to remember that your audience is made up of individual people, not a demographic group or statistic.
Try to appeal to them as individuals, not as a market group. This means that your blog posts should be looking to make some type of connection with them, with the exact nature of the emotional appeal depending on what you’re writing about in that post. It might mean writing your posts from a first-person perspective, but not necessarily so. You need to develop your writing style over time and above all make sure it is a style you are comfortable with yourself.
There are always ways to make your writing personal. Show that you understand the issues your audience members are facing. Use your blog posts to demonstrate to your audience that you understand those issues and that your music and shows have something to say to them.
You might be best for any number of reasons: you might play the best music, perhaps you play exclusive tracks or you have great guest DJs. Use your key selling proposition to relate more to your audience.
Now you have an understanding of how you need to think about your audience, in Part 3 of this series we will look at how you can provide value to the readers of your blog.