What “The Office” Can Teach You About Blogging Photo by Helen Reicher

What “The Office” Can Teach You About Blogging

by Matt · 23 comments

Now, we’ve all seen the hit tv show “The Office”. Orig­i­nally from Eng­land, this real life satire of office life has to be one of the fun­ni­est shows I have ever seen!

Based in Scran­ton Penn­syl­va­nia, “The Office” is about a fic­tional paper sell­ing com­pany and all the wacky char­ac­ters that work there. The rea­son “The Office” is so pop­u­lar is def­i­nitely because of the char­ac­ters in the show. They form the dry humor that has put the show #1 in the rankings.

It almost seems like every­one in the office, as unusual, awk­ward, and dys­func­tional as they are indi­vid­u­ally, make an amaz­ing well oiled machine when paired up together. Well this is exactly how your blog works.



You see your blog, just like “The office”, has dif­fer­ent parts to it. And when you find the right bal­ance, they can form a pros­per­ous, attrac­tive asset for your busi­ness. So if i had to relate mem­bers of “The Office” to your blog, this is how it would go.…

Michael Scott — Michael Scott is the regional man­ager of Dunder-Mifflin Scran­ton. He is the char­ac­ter who cre­ates all the ridicu­lous sit­u­a­tions, awk­ward moments, and over­all office may­hem. With­out Michael you can’t have an office, he is the lifeblood. On your blog this would be your con­tent. Have you ever heard the expres­sion “con­tent is king” well on your blog that state­ment is ampli­fied 100x. If you don’t have amaz­ing con­tent on your web­site than there will be noth­ing to sep­a­rate you from the other 50 mil­lion blogs on the inter­net. Con­tent is what dri­ves your blog, it’s what brings peo­ple to it, and keeps them there.

Pam Beasly — Pam Beasly is the won­der­ful, attrac­tive recep­tion­ist at Dunder-Mifflin. With all the may­hem and com­mo­tion that Michael causes, Pam is always there to keep things in order. On your blog this would be word­press as a plat­form, and your tem­plate. You see your tem­plate is the thing that keeps every­thing together. Word­Press makes blog­ging extremely easy, with a nice dash­board, 1 click wid­get installs, and lots more. Pam is the same in that she keeps sta­bil­ity for all the crazy peo­ple in the office. She is also the beau­ti­ful face that you see when you first walk in, just like your tem­plate. First impres­sions mean a lot — remem­ber that.

Jim Halpert — Jim is one of the com­pa­nies sales reps but more impor­tantly, he is one of the shows main char­ac­ters. In fact when the cam­era isn’t fol­low­ing michael it’s usu­ally on Jim. Jim is the char­ac­ter in the show who makes every­one else look so ridicu­lous by being sane in the mid­dle of it all. He offers a very inter­est­ing per­spec­tive on the show which is why he is so valu­able. On your blog this is much like your email autore­spon­der. It’s the thing on your blog that you can use to relay unique mes­sages and show peo­ple dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives. If you want to launch a prod­uct it goes through that. If you want to build your brand, it goes through your autore­spon­der. (It also quite funny how well autore­spon­ders go with word­press, just like Pam does with Jim)

Dwight Shrute — Hon­estly I couldn’t even sum Dwight up in a few sen­tences. But if i had to try I would say that he is what the show rep­re­sents. Whether it be his ran­dom weapons around the office, bob­ble­head.….. of him­self, or his mus­tard yel­low shirts, he is the fun­ni­est, most awk­ward part of the office. If I had to relate him to some­thing I would relate him to your blogs niche or theme. When you blog you need to have a spe­cific niche or theme so read­ers can really get an answer to their prob­lems. Dwight’s dry humor and awk­ward­ness show what “The office” is really about.

Andy, Angela, Ryan, Kelly, Dar­rel, Stan­ley, Roy, Jan, Ryan, Oscar, Creed, Phillis, Kevin, Toby, and Oscar, — All of these char­ac­ters absolutely make the show. They all have their own per­son­al­i­ties that together makes for one hilar­i­ous 30 min­uets. But since they aren’t main char­ac­ters I bunched them together to sum up the sup­port­ing cast of the show. On your blog this would be your plu­g­ins. While you could tech­ni­cally blog with­out plu­g­ins, it would just be dumb. They are what makes a blog.… a blog. It’s impor­tant to have things like a retweet but­ton and an all in one seo plu­gin just like it’s impor­tant to have secret office romance (cough.… Dwight…)

Just Some Final Thoughts…

So when you’re putting up your next blog post, installing your next plu­gin or send­ing out an email, and you don’t know what to do.…… just think of the office.

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Article by Matt

Hey guys, My name is Matt Adamo, a 17 year old high school student that has a passion for blogging. If you want to check me out and learn more about me, check out MattAdamo.Net

  • Summary

    You see your blog, just like "The office", has different parts to it. And when you find the right balance, they can form a prosperous, attractive asset for your business. So if i had to relate members of "The Office" to your blog, this is how it would go....

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Seth February 3, 2010 at 8:56 am

Matt – excellent advice through a very very funny show.
Seth´s last blog ..What “The Office” Can Teach You About Blogging

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Sharon Mostyn February 3, 2010 at 9:11 am

Very perceptive combination of “everyday life” events and blogging, Matt!
Sharon Mostyn´s last blog ..Top 12 Twitter Chats by Day – What are your Favorites?

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scheng1 February 3, 2010 at 9:50 am

You must be thinking of blogging day and night, that’s why you can connect everything to blogging
scheng1´s last blog ..7 steps to Positive thinking

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Reza Winandar February 4, 2010 at 6:34 am

Wow, it means that you are addicted to blog! Try to relax and live your life dude!
Reza Winandar´s last blog ..This is blog is now Do Follow

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icons February 3, 2010 at 12:20 pm

Thanx for sharing such a useful information. I am definitely going to use it.

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Kok Siong Chen February 3, 2010 at 9:46 pm

Interesting! I just wonder how you got this interesting idea to use The Office to teach us how to blogging. Thanks for sharing!

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gautam hans February 3, 2010 at 11:24 pm

Amazing post! The comparison of a blog with the Office is a good one. I agree content is the main thing or the king. And you also need supporting staff which are the plugins for the blog.
gautam hans´s last blog ..How to prevent your twitter account from being hacked

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sudharsan @ technoskillonline February 4, 2010 at 3:21 am

Very good post
keep it up

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Inside the Webb February 4, 2010 at 7:57 am

Such an awesome show, I love The Office and this is a classic post. Great info!
Inside the Webb´s last blog ..Behind the Scenes at Vibrant and Inspiring Design Blog ilovecolors

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Dennis Edell February 4, 2010 at 12:22 pm

I’ve never seen the show, but do think it’s an excellent analogy. :)
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Welcome Aboard Part 2! All The Info You’ve Been Waiting For…

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JR February 4, 2010 at 5:48 pm

Dennis
You would love this show, it’s right up your humor alley ;-)
JR´s last blog ..Last Chance to Buy The Best Spinner Tool for Half Price

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Dennis Edell February 5, 2010 at 9:52 am

I’ve caught bits and pieces; just looks stupid. Hey wait a sec here, what ya tryin to say lady! :-)
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Welcome Aboard Part 2! All The Info You’ve Been Waiting For…

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JR February 8, 2010 at 12:50 am

LMAO, no, it’s just really silly, and humerous, morons at their best, which I think you would find funny with your sense of humor.
JR´s last blog ..The Ultimate and Best Content Spinner Ever

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Taylor Marek February 4, 2010 at 5:09 pm

Good analogies. Always seems that we need to have something we can relate to, relate to something else so we can understand it from another angle. ;)

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JR February 4, 2010 at 5:46 pm

I often watch the office while I am working on blogging, now I will think of this post every time.
JR´s last blog ..Last Chance to Buy The Best Spinner Tool for Half Price

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element321 February 5, 2010 at 1:30 pm

Great post! I love how you compare the two and having the same characteristics. I also believe that Content is the king of the blog.
element321´s last blog ..25 Recommend WordPress Plugins

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Joseph Smith February 5, 2010 at 6:11 pm

Very original post here. I am a big fan of the Office and blogging, so this was a great combination. Well done!
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Cabins For You February 15, 2010 at 11:09 am

Very unique analogy. This is a great article for new bloggers to read.

The analogy about Micheal Scott is perfect. He definitely runs the show just like content helps fuel your blog.

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Peter Slowakei February 18, 2010 at 7:09 pm

Really admired that post very much!
Matt,you are a real talent!

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Blogger February 22, 2010 at 7:58 am

Hey Matt, great article!

I can imagine my blog being a microcosm of The Office. My plugins, regular commentors, backlinks and content all work together to create a final product that is a blog.

And you want to know something funny?

My dad’s name is Michael Scott. :)

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seo packages June 15, 2010 at 3:04 pm

The Office is a wonderful reference is you have a humor blog or if you want to inject some humor into your blog. Unfortunately (and I agree) Americans were polled recently and asked which TV show their workplace was most like and overwhelmingly they said “The Office”.

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