Blog Posts: Reaction Posts

Jan 27, 2014 | Better Blogging

Sometimes it’s easier to write a post when you start with a general format. Reaction posts are easy to construct and often generate lots of interest. Reaction posts are your reaction to something that someone did or wrote.

Share your reaction to an event. For our purposes there are two kinds of events: actions and announcements. Scott Eblin’s post “Chris Christie: ‘I am not a bully.’ Not His Call to Make” reacts to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s January 2014 press conferences. When Zappos announced that they were going to eliminate job titles and bosses by 2015, I wrote a post about it.

Your reaction should describe the event. Scott gave a quick overview. I pointed to two media stories describing Zappos initiative. Then share your reaction. It’s a good idea to include dates, so readers can place pieces in context.

Share your reaction to an article or blog post. On May 29, 2009, the New York Times published a piece about the “MBA Oath.” I thought the piece was riddled with silliness and said so in “Taking the Oath.”

Caution. If you’re passionate about your opinions, I urge you to let your post cool before you publish.

Recognize inspiration. In October 2013, Karin Hurt wrote an excellent post titled “50 Shades of Boring: When Leaders are Bores” on her Let’s Grow Leaders blog. I raved about Karin’s post in the beginning of mine. It worked fine that way, but it isn’t always easy to work a statement of where you got your inspiration into the post.

Sometimes you can be inspired by someone else’s work and write a whole post without mention where you got the inspiration. That happened for me when a post by Monique Valcour triggered some memories that worked themselves out in “A Force for Good.” My solution was to add an expression of thanks after the end of the post.