Mars versus Venus: Blogging Styles

At a networking luncheon earlier this week, Susan Wranik of Susan I Wranik Associates, LLC gave a great presentation on ‘Are You Sabotaging Your Speaking Power.’ It was about how men and women convey information differently, which can have a big effect on business. Her point was that women often don’t say what they mean, use poor word choices, all of which contribute to the way we communicate.

She said as women, we ask, support, justify, and then justify again. Men, on the other hand, are a straight shooter, they tell it like it is.

I had to laugh at one of her examples of all of the things going on in a woman’s head at any given moment, that it’s hard for us, much less men, to keep up. Over and over she emphasized the notion that less is more. And that’s something we’ve been hearing a lot in the blogosphere today.

Do we say what we mean in our blog posts or do we dance, skirt and curtail our way around it. I looked at a couple of A-listers, with Susan’s words in my head.

• Seth Godin had an entry called ‘contagious’ yesterday that leaves very little room to question the directness in a man’s words.
• Arianna Huffington in a piece last week, while direct, still felt the need to explain that she finds “it more than a little curious” instead of saying, “it’s curious.”
• Steve Rubel is pretty direct in his delivery compared to Toby Bloomberg, who frequently peppers her words with details, descriptions, adjectives, synonyms.

Granted, some of it comes down to individual style, but Susan’s point was to make sure the point isn’t lost in the translation.

I’m guilty, too, though getting better. Sometimes I want to be superfluous, ostentatious, throw caution to the wind and explain to you in every little detail, so I’m absolutely positive that you’ll understand, no chance for misdirection, why something is the way it is.

The best way to do that is to tell it like it is.