Similar to my own beat, I chose to read the Billboard’s blog focused on music charts, news, photos and videos. The writing style was informative but also lighthearted and felt more personal than a news article.
The style felt like a good mix of casual and professional. From an organization like Billboard, I feel like that is what the reader expects.
I enjoyed reading some of the different blog posts because they were usually short and sweet overall, incorporated photos and also made good use of hyperlinks. I also enjoyed how they used lists in some of their posts. Lists make it easier to skim a post and still feel like you have a general understanding of the content.
Their top posts on their blog were timely and had to do with the 2020 Oscars. I found this to be effective since it is what people seem to enjoy talking about after major awards shows like the Oscars.
Since my own blog post is going to revolve around the local live music scene in the Greater Lafayette area, I will definitely want to incorporate some similar aspects into my own blog posts. If I am talking about different places in the area to go to listen to live music, a list would be a helpful way to convey this information.
If I’m talking about a specific band or musician, a hyperlink to their social media or website would add to my blog post. I will also want to include pictures of venues and performers throughout my posts.
One thing I might do a little bit differently than the blog posts I read on Billboard is making sure I am incorporating pictures throughout a blog post rather than all at the end. I think people enjoy text being broken up by pictures while they are reading.
Carly Miller 