Stop overthinking and speak your mind. Your blog is the perfect place to let your personality shine.

This week we asked: If you blog, how often do you incorporate stories from real life, the daily news or pop culture?

1. Often – 10%

2. Sometimes – 56%

3. Rarely – 32%

4. Never – 2%

My Thoughts: This week 34% agreed that you rarely or never incorporate timely news and events into your blogging. Why? With the plethora of information available on the Internet, why not use it to your advantage? Commenting on top headlines can make your blog more relevant, give great examples for potential clients and, sometimes, even garner you national attention. A few months ago one of my employees happened to turn on “The Today Show” as she was making breakfast. The segment that was on? Personal branding. Rather than laugh and move on, we threw together a last-minute “special” post and used it to illustrate the points we had just been blogging about (you can see it here.)

The point is that it doesn’t have to be all business all the time. As long as it’s relevant to your overall strategy and has a connection to your practice area or specialization there’s no harm in having a little fun now and then. If something strikes you…write about it!

I think this quote from Evan Schaeffer really does a great job of summing it up:

It often feels uncomfortable to provide personal details on a professionally-oriented weblogs, but you’ll gain a lot if you do. Readers are more likely to return if they feel like they know something about the weblog’s author. Think of yourself not as a reporter but as a columnist. The ability to easily provide personal details is a feature of weblogging that’s easy to use and free for the taking to anyone who recognizes its value.

Black Pearl: While it may be extreme, Russell Wetanson’s blog Popsquire (“where pop culture and law collide”), combines commentary, legal opinion, celebrity and pop culture all in one. Here’s how he got there.