Rationale Paper
Promoting your life, interests, and thoughts through a blog has become a major interest for most. The rationale behind blogging is due to the voracious amount of interest people have taken into other people lives. It will not be hard to gain attention to a blog. The question is, after gaining attention to the blog, what type of substance needs to be added to keep that attention.
Purpose
Blogging helps people relay the importance of a subject, their curiosity about an ideal, and their concern about an event. Of course, blogging is not regulated to those purposes, but the significance these issues. The information that is imparted will determine if that interest will be kept. There are other issues that must be decided when thinking of the purpose of a blog. Those issues would be how it will impact your job, family, and well being.
Content
Blog content is just as important as the purpose of the blog. When deciding on the content of a blog, the blogger has to take into consideration the impact it will have on specific areas of their lives. Be careful that the content that is being written is not fueled by unhappiness with a current or past employer and or employee. Most companies have rules and laws in place that will earn significant reprimands if violated concerning blog content. Find out before hand what the rules are and if the content will breach any of these rules. “The policy must, of course, contain a clear warning of the ramifications of unacceptable blogging activities. Typically, the warning will be to the effect that a failure to adhere to the policy will, depending on the circumstances, result in disciplinary measures up to and including dismissal” (Kelowna Capital News, 2006, p A20).
How will the content affect family members if they were to read the blog? There are those who blog about their family life like it is novel that they are completing daily. One could argue that the content does not have specific names in it, but if the family is reading it and know of the situation that is being written about, they can easily realize who writer is referring to. Rationalize how that content may affect family relations.
Also think about some of the provocative and inflammatory remarks being made in blogs daily. Conflict communication can be created by a couple of misplaced words. This information can be taken as it is intended, just one persons opinion, or it can be taken as a challenge of one’s personal beliefs. There are those who do not like to be challenged or for their beliefs to be disparaged. On that same note, not everyone who read other peoples thoughts and ideas are considered mentally stable. Remember that when putting information on blogs that there is not recognizable information on it that would give people basic directions on how to get to you or your family.
Design
There are a multitude of web designers that range from low to high in pricing; however, if designing a blog is something of interest to you, then there are a lot of templates out on the web to use. The design of the blog should be thought of in a manner of what would appeal to the masses. Innovative ideas and crazy approaches have been a good precursor to fantastic blog designs. If creativity is your forte, creating a blog that exhibits, balance, structure, color, and content will not be a hard endeavor. Having a blog design with a look and feel of usability is the key.
Audience
Knowing your audience is important in blogging and any other communication. There has to be a purpose that compels someone to create a blog and knowing who that message should go to is essential. Persuasion communication is what the purpose of blogs in most cases. The persuasion comes into play when trying to sway people to the bloggers way of thinking. “You'll have a much better chance to persuade your listeners when you have some information about what they already think about your topic and even what they think about you” (Total Communicator, 2004).
In other words, do not blog about turtle soup and have PETA as an advertiser or sponsor. In the same token, be aware of who the audience needs to be and send your blog link to websites that feature recipes and actively discusses food. Knowing your audience will help the blogger know what to write and what angle the writing needs to take.
Conclusion
The rationale behind making a blog that is convincing (purpose), visually appealing (design), functional usable (content), and understandable (audience), is to make an organized and consistent product that others can easily understand. A blogger needs to remember to write what is important to them and to make that content special to the reader. Taking all four of the aforementioned sections into consideration will not only achieve a connection with the reader, it will also bring readers back for more.
Reference
Employers now starting to address employee blogging issue. (2006). Kelowna Capital News,p. A20. Retrieved January 14, 2011, from Canadian Newsstand Complete. (Document ID: 1016922311).
Total Communicator (2004). Knowing Your Audience. Retrieved January 14, 2011, from Total Communicator http://totalcommunicator.com/vol2_4/knowaudience.html.
