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Hey Bloggers! Stop Writing Your Bio in Third Person

January 6, 2011 45 Comments

Mr. So and so has worked on bla bla bla and when asked about his greatest achievements he said…

OMG, shut the fuck up.

Its your blog, you wrote the bio, don’t try to make yourself sound bigger than you are.

No one wrote your bio for you, no one interviewed you for your bio, so just speak like a human being.

Same goes for About page.

Making this post longer would only dilute it’s message. So just speak like a human damn it.

Mind Hacking
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  • http://twitter.com/Canis_bonus Canis bonus

    Funny that, I have just entered a professional writing contest where writing in the first person disqualified you. Needless to say I didn’t try my best on that assignment. I find third person really stuffy, and discouraging to read.

    I say keep the third person for academic or more serious writing, but it’s your blog blurb, for crying outloud, have fun and keep it breezy!

    • http://diyblogger.com/ Dino Dogan

      Here here! Its a real turn off, no? It just reeks of pretense for crying out loud. And I think it can have an opposite effect too. Every time I see 3rd person blog bio/about page I think this person is putting on a show because who/what they are is not enough.

      • http://twitter.com/Canis_bonus Canis bonus

        Ooooooh, because THEY THINK what/who they are is not enough. Back to our original discussion about staying the course, lol.

  • http://twitter.com/WilsonPetDesign Nia

    LMAO, agreed with you all the way. I’ll confess my Acting Bio was written in 3rd person for a Press Release. So one must have two version depending on what they are writing for, formal and informal.

    • http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

      thats understandable…actors have to comply with industry standards. But bloggers have no standard that they must comply with, so when I see a bio written in 3rd person it just vexes me.

  • http://live-your-love.com/ Brankica U

    Lol, loved it. I am not sure, but if I remember well there are sites that require you to write bio in third person (not sure if its Ezine articles).
    But the post is just AWESOME….sharing!

    • http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

      Fala zemljanko…its just a little pet peeve of mine…I dodnt want to go there but from a psychological perspective, people who refer to themselves in a 3rd person suffer from a known personality disorder ..Latin name of which escapes me but in English I think we call it Douchebagism Maximus.

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  • http://www.simplyzesty.com Niall Harbison

    Haha it is a point well made especially when you know that most of the stuff has been made up anyway by most people! Running off to make sure mine is ok now! BTW is this the shortest blog post in the world ever? I reckon so!

    • http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

      Is there a contest for a shortest blog article in the world? Cuz I’d like to enter that competition lol

  • http://twitter.com/ElisesReview Elise M

    LOLLL. Agreed. I love this. Third person blogging = total fail.

    It’s kind of funny how all throughout high school and college they teach you to NEVER write in first person when you write essays and papers and whatnot.

    Total crap! School taught me nothing.

    First person blogging is and always will be the right way to do it.

    • http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

      Isnt that funny? School only teaches you socialization (not to be confused with socialism hehe) and obedience. And beyond basic writing and math skillset, its all garbage we forget the minute we hit the streets.

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  • http://first-encounter-design.com Bill Scheider

    Bill thought Dino’s post was right on. He’s been reading Dino’s blog for only a short time, but tells me he’ll be back soon :)
    Bill

    • http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

      I think Im regretting writing this post lol Ever since people realized Im annoyed by the 3rd person speak they’re been speaking to me in 3rd person errrr lol its driving me schizo and its causing a multiple personality disorder. I think Dino will start speaking in 3rd person as well when he gets back

  • http://twitter.com/RyanCritchett Ryan Critchett

    Love it!

    • http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

      lol…thnx bro :-)

  • http://benjaminlang.com Ben Lang

    This is so funny and true, I’m going to check if I did that myself…

    • http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

      If this post causes one blogger to change his/her ways I’ve done my part :-) its so unpersonable, right? Anyways…I will be checking your blog later and if its not changed I will yell at you lol

      • http://benjaminlang.com Ben Lang

        Lol, it may take time!

  • Brooklyn Ann

    I once tried to do a 3rd person bio because so many people were doing it, but I just couldn’t it felt fake and plastic and made my teeth hurt. AMEN to this post…and I love the YODA!

    • http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

      You hit on a very important point regarding blogging in general. The 3rd person bio/about is indicative of a larger, much more problematic issue. Overall plasticity and fakeness. Astute observation, I wish I connected the dots before I probably would have included it into the post :-)

      P.S. Thnx Brooklyn Ann…what an awesome name btw :-)

  • http://cindybidar.com Cindy Bidar

    “OMG Shut the fuck up”

    LOL! Well said! Although – in their defense – the About page is the most difficult page to write. But it doesn’t make a lot of sense on a blog run by single blogger to use third person.

    • http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

      Its really indicative of a larger problem. Corp speak is infiltrating all aspects of our life and we think if it sounds good that its understood. Its a literary equivalent of sounding confident while being entirely incompetent.

      Im staring a plain-speak movement..you with me?

      P.S.

      Plain is not to be confused with stupid a la Sarah Palin. Ross Perot or George Bush …oh wow… just realized that the first 3 examples of stupid people I could think of were all republican…hmmmm

      • http://cindybidar.com Cindy Bidar

        What you are talking about is the fine art of writing lots of words without actually saying anything. They teach it in English class along with other useful techniques like sentence parsing and research paper writing. And you’re right, it has no place in a blog. Well, unless you’re blogging for CitiBank or something.

        I’ll sign your plain-speak petition. It’s long overdue.

  • http://twitter.com/web_licht Leon Widrich

    great post. People forget the impact this makes and humanising what one is doing is sometimes easy to overlook. Everyone wants to be the king in what they are doing, fortunately it’s not reached by writing like Caesar, but by delivering good content. :)

    • http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

      wow…thats a great quote..Im takin it to twitter :-)

  • http://www.inspiredwish.com Jeanie

    My ‘About’ page (similar to a Bio for a book) was by far the hardest to write! Infact it changed dramatically about 5 times before I published it.
    1st draft – all about me me me.
    2nd draft – still about me with a personal story that was too personal
    3rd draft – removed personal story. Made it more about the person reading it.
    4th draft – too long, yawn.
    5th draft – still long but now broken up into readable batches.

    • http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

      Its ok if your About page is about you. In fact, I find that a log of companies make a mistake of making their About page about the customer. Big mistake.

      People click on About page cuz they want to get to know you, so let em know who you are, thats all. And just be authentic about it. If you wrote the bio, then write it in 1st person. If someone else actually wrote your bio for you, then I guess its ok if its in 3rd person.

      But when it comes to blogging, who has someone else write their bio for them?

      • http://www.inspiredwish.com Jeanie

        I’m over my About Page. I think I’ll wait a few weeks and when inspiration strikes I’ll revisit it. Thanks for the tip that it’s okay for my ‘About Me’ to be about me. Who knew?

        • http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

          lol…so obvious, isnt it? So people make the About page about their customers/prospects and then the rest of the website is all ego. Should be the other way around.

  • http://www.twitter.com/fitzternet John Fitzgerald

    Haha. Great post. “OMG, shut the fuck up” is classic Dino. I’ve been reading your blog for a couple of weeks and I already feel confident enough to say something is “classic Dino.” Hooray, personal branding!

    • http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

      Yay Personal Branding lol

  • http://bizhax.com Keith Bloemendaal

    OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So correct, and I am so fucking busted!!!!

    I would go change mine but I have 3 sites to put up today so for now my about pages are all in 3rd person….

    Time to go shut the fuck up.

  • http://www.dazzlindonna.com/blog/ dazzlindonna

    While I agree that an About page on your own site (or if your bio is anywhere on your own site) should be written in the first person, I don’t agree in general, if the bio is included at the end of a guest post, for example. Bios are written in the 3rd person as a tradition, and there’s reasons for it. A reporter, for example, will often use the bio he or she sees on an article when quoting someone, etc. I think it’s best to stick to standard practice in those cases, but yes, your about page should definitely be personal and human. Unless, of course, you aren’t human. ;)

    • http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

      LMAO…that is the best line of the day…”Unless, of course, you aren’t human”.

      It comes down to honesty, doesn’t it? I have guest bloggers on this blog and I write their bio, er go the bio is in 3rd person…but if Im writing my own bio, then why not be honest about it and say “I am…” :-)

      • http://www.dazzlindonna.com/blog/ dazzlindonna

        Like I said, there are good reasons to do it that way. When building up a personal brand, one goal is to be available for journalists to consider you as a source for stories. One way to make yourself more accessible to them is to make their jobs easy. If they can just grab (copy/paste) a bio of you, in the third person (the way they’d write it for their own story, citing your response), and they don’t have to start editing that bio (changing I to he, me to her, etc.), then you’ve made it easy for them to quote you, etc. You then stand a good chance of being seen as an authority, and that bio in the 3rd person played one small part in making that happen. Besides that…it’s just a standard that’s developed over time, and it places of stamp of professionalism because it followed that standard. Honesty isn’t really involved or not involved in it because it’s a standard way of doing it.

  • http://billdorman.wordpress.com Bill Dorman

    But I’m blowin’ up……………..all world…………..I mean the Dorman, he’s blowin’ up…………

    • http://diyblogger.net/about Dino Dogan

      lmao….I now…that Dorman is blowing up indeed :-)

  • http://twitter.com/StartYourNovel Start Your Novel

    Spot on.

    What ticks me off even more is the kind of person that refers to him or herself as “we.” I had teachers in college who did this. It was… sad.

    Self-importance is just smoke and mirrors. It actually takes away from your achievements.

  • http://www.miss-britt.com Miss Britt

    Hell yes.

  • http://fathermuskrat.com/ muskrat

    “It’s” is not the possessive form of the pronoun “it.”

  • Janet Vanderhoof

    Bio’s should always be written in third person :)

  • http://twitter.com/VacuumGuru VacuumSpot

    LOL i wrote my first blog as a guest the other day. Actually was wondering its meant to be in the first or third. So obviously your vote is for first lol.

  • Johnfaustus

    XD that’s so true