Should a Professional Blog Be Funny?

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For decades, marketers and advertisers have realized the value of humor in branded content. Indeed, one needs only to consider the vast array of funny commercials down the years to understand that humor can be a powerful advertising tool.

However, there’s a big difference between a 30-second commercial and a full-length blog post. What’s more, consumers have different expectations regarding blogs than they do other forms of marketing and advertising.

Given all that, today we’ll tackle the question: should professional blogs be funny? 

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Twitter Gets Twee.tt, Not Twe.et, Forgets About Twi.tt Though

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If there’s one thing that never gets old, even not after almost 4 years which is more than an eternity online, Ev and Co. continue to provide us with food for the never-ending story of making fun of the name.

Of course I had to dig out the original logo and name twatter twttr for this occasion and after last year’s Twitter Can’t Get Tweet Because Too Many Tweets Out There, today bring us another winner. Once more Techcrunch brings the story: Twitter has registered the ‘shorturl’ Twee.tt. According to Techcrunch’s Erik Schonfeld plans for the domain have not been disclosed yet:

To be clear, just because it owns the Twee.tt URL doesn’t mean that Twitter is planning on doing anything with it. Twitter owns many domains which it is just sitting on, preventing others from acquiring, or reserving for future use. Twitter also owns twitter.tt and someone applied for twe.tt on March 27, 2010. None of the .tt domains are yet live. [source]

Of course there was no way that I could miss out on this awesome opportunity to make fun of the name. Once more.
I wonder if they could register twt.tr. No, I will not register fran.ky!

Does Blogging Give You a Stiff Neck?

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Repetitive strain injuries are perhaps common for folks whose work involves staying in front of a computer screen for extended periods of time, among other health concerns. My most recent injury would be a stiff neck. Perhaps if you blog (or design, or write code) for a living, you would know what I mean.

The other day, I woke up feeling heavy and disoriented. And I couldn’t move my head much. I knew it was one of those bad days because I don’t remember getting into bed the previous night. That usually happens when I fall asleep too tired. What’s worse was that I had a stiff neck. And it was probably work related!

So why should I relate getting a stiff neck with blogging? Well, people who spend all day or all night doing work on blogs–which may include writing, managing, or doing back-end fixes–are likely to be prone to this. Here are some scenarios:

  1. I fall asleep on my keyboard. This usually results in me (or my keyboard) spewing out indecipherable garbage. It’s even worse if I was in the middle of an IM conversation or if it’s an email and the send button gets pressed as my head hits the keyboard.
  2. I may not hit my head on the keyboard or desk, but I could just doze off, with my head unsupported.
  3. I’m too tired to get into my usual comfortable sleeping position after a long night’s work, so I just plop into bed and fall asleep.
  4. I’m too preoccupied and focused with what I’m currently working on that I’m no longer minding my posture.
  5. Or maybe I’m taking photos to blog about, and the sheer weight of my dSLR + Speedlite + superzoom lens hanging from the neck strap is killing my neck and back.

In all these cases, it’s a matter of improper posture or positioning. I guess this is one disadvantage when you work just next door to your bedroom. The risk could even be higher during those times you decide to bring your laptop to bed to do some late readings, or maybe to save up on airconditioning costs.

I could try some of Ryan’s tips for bloggers. But the best solution here would probably be better time management. That’s one thing I really have to work on.

Any other blogging-related injuries you’ve experienced?