Amy Gahran is exploring what people want on the Web—is it OK for business-related bloggers and other Web sites to inject a little personal information, or should it be strictly business? Take her survey and let your feelings be known.
My take is that I actually prefer to know at least a little about the person who's putting together what I'm reading. Not about their favorite pair of bunny slippers, but more some of the things that illustrate what they're writing, or add perspective to a topic, or just give a sense of where that person's coming from. Especially on a blog. I know I let things slip every now and then (OK, maybe a lot)—is that offensive to people? No one's yelled at me yet, but that doesn't mean they don't want to. I try to use good judgment about these things—you won't see much on my views of politics, religion, or other hot-button topics, unless there's something specific that's impacting the meetings/hospitality industries.
Then I look at some of my favorite off-topic blogs, like The Examining Room of Dr. Charles, where the whole point is his personal reaction to the situations he faces as a physician, and his perspective on his patients and their challenges. It is, simply put, beautiful. Take away his personal musings, and there is no blog.
Anyway, what do you all think? Should all online business-related interactions be kept strictly business in tone and content? Is it more interesting to go to Web sites that let a little personality creep in? Are Web sites different in that regard than blogs? Should they be? I find the whole topic fascinating.
(Thanks to Business Blog Consulting for the pointer.)