The Power of Blogging on Paper

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notes on paper
Paper can be our valuable ally when our mission is learning something, the authors of Mental Floss magazine explain – in fact, we “get empowered by taking notes on paper,” as many scientific studies prove.

Interestingly, while the blog posts that I and my Say It For You writers create are meant to be read online, there are some valuable tips in this article about note-taking that can be used to organize business blog content.

Mental Floss describes three basic methods for taking handwritten notes – the Outline Method, the Cornell Note-taking System, and the Mapping Method. Each can be used in formatting informative blog posts to make them more engaging and easier for readers to understand.

The Outline Method
This method uses topic titles, followed by indented subtopics (either numbered or with bullet points.

The Cornell Method
This method uses a chart-like method, with each page divided into two columns with one row at the bottom. Students would use the larger right-hand area to record notes, then later add questions and comments of their own in the left-hand column, with an overall summary in the bottom section.

The Mapping Method
This system is nonlinear, with the main topic inside a bubble, and spider legs that lead to secondary thoughts or sources.

As a business blogger, I’m kind of partial to bullet points, and from what I’ve been told, Google and other search engines like them, too. Online searchers who have found our blog posts, remember, aren’t getting the information out of our mouths; we have only our written words, with perhaps some charts or pictures, to engage their attention. The fact that lists and bullet points are generally a good fit for blogs is something I have always stressed in corporate blogging training sessions. What I’ve found over the years is that lists help keep both readers and writers on track.

The “mapping method”, I think, can be adapted for blog series, where you’re exploring different aspects of the same topic in a group of three to four posts. A recent series for a hospital supply corporation blog, for example, offered four different blog posts about bariatric surgery, each of which emphasized one aspect of the topic, The first discussed all the preparation needed on the part of both the patient and the family members leading up to the surgery. Another post compared different methods being used in bariatrics; a third post discussed the psychological aspects of this type of life-changing surgery.

Each blog post, of course, is meant to be shared online. But for us blog content writers, we can get empowered as we plan by taking notes on paper.

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Writing Blogs in the Shower

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creative blogging
Everybody knows it – our best ideas come to us in the shower. But why is that? Mental Floss explains that “you’re more likely to have a creative epiphany when you’re doing something monotonous like showering”. Since monotonous daily routines don’t require much thought, the authors explain, your brain flips to autopilot and the prefrontal cortex is activated; you’re able to make creative connections that your conscious mind would have dismissed. What’s more, since most of us shower in the morning or at night when we’re most tired, we’re at our creative peak, the journal Thinking and Reasoning tells us.

But is business blog writing supposed to be creative? Yes, indeed. Creative writing is any form of writing which is written with the creativity of mind. Nonfiction writing can be creative says, says writerstreasure.com, if the purpose is to express something, whether it be feelings, thoughts, or emotions.

The question author Malcolm Gladwell gets asked most often just happens to be the same I’m most often asked when offering corporate blogging training sessions: “Where do you get your ideas?” the trick, Gladwell explains, is to “convince yourself that everyone and everything has a story to tell.”

Continually coming up with fresh content to inform, educate, and entertain readers – well, that’s a pretty tall order for busy business owners and employees, and it’s a pretty tall order even for us professional content writers. 

At Say It For You, I’m constantly on the prowl for blogging ideas that I and my team of content writers can “store up” in preparation for those days when ideas just don’t seem to present themselves. In fact, I’ve found over the last ten years of working with business owners and professional practitioners, just about all of them can think of quite a number of things they want to convey about their products, their professional services, their industry, and their customer service standards. Yet, their biggest fear seems to be running out of blog content writing ideas.

Actually, I realized early on, it’s not that business owners (or the freelance blog writers they employ) don’t have enough ideas – it’s that those ideas need to be developed!  Where the creativity comes in is that in writing about the same few central themes, those themes need to be developed into fresh, interesting, and engaging content.

Next time your creativity seems to have hit the proverbial brick wall – just try blog writing in the shower!

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Start a Blog Conversation About Soda

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small companies

 

If you’re a big brand like Coke or SunChips, your brand is being talked about and you need to address the topic head-on, and only then spread out to more general conversation, says Gary Vaynerchuk in his book The Thank You Economy. On the other hand, he points out, if you’re Sally’s Orange Soda and no one’s talking about you, you need to do the reverse, meaning that you create a general soda conversation first.

Since most of the business owners and professional practitioners for whom we Say it For You writers are creating content fall closer to the Sally’s Orange Soda end of the spectrum, I found this Vaynerchuk observation particularly apropos.

Kevin Phillips of Impactbnd.com has some good ideas for business blog topics that fall into the “general conversation” category, including:

  • comparisons and pros and cons
  • how-tos and tutorials
  • classifications
  • laws and regulations
  • myths and misconceptions

What starting general conversation topics for blogs does not mean, Phillips is quick to explain, is providing amusing, interesting material that has nothing to do with your company’s field of expertise. The important things, he learned, are 1 .answering the questions the audience is asking and 2. asking yourself what the root problem is that your products and services help solve.

An interesting tidbit of information can form the nucleus for a “general conversation” provided that

a) the new information relates to something with which readers are already familiar

b) your reason for including that information in your past is readily apparent.

Suggesting new ways of thinking about things with which readers are already familiar makes for good general conversation fodder as well.

At some point, content writers must remember, all that “general conversation” about soda needs to lead back to Sally’s Orange Soda, positioning that small company as the “go-to” place for information and services.

If you’re a giant, you can start the blog conversation with you, is Vaynerchuk’s message. If you’re Sally, start a more general, informational conversation, but bring the readers “back home”.

 

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Your Blog is the Lobby to Where You Live

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At California’s Joie de Vivre Hotels, they care about the big and the little stuff, Gary Vaynerchuk explains in The Thank You Economy. That hotel company, the author explains is “doing its damndest to perfect the art of customization”. The message, from the moment travelers arrive at the front desk is this: “We love where we live and want you to love it, too.”

The home page of your website is like the lobby of a hotel, Enchanting Marketing observes. A simple headline should tell web visitors where they’ve arrived and what to expect. A photo helps humanize your business. In “How to welcome new visitors to your blog, Melissa Culberson names three things you must accomplish in welcoming first-time online searchers:

  1. Acknowledging the visitor (an About Blurb lets newcomers get a sense of who you are)
  2. Showing the visitor around with a Welcome or Start Here page
  3. Giving them something to do before they leave (liking you on social media, signing up for a newsletter, etc.)

The intent of most business tactics and advertising campaigns, Vaynerchuk asserts, is to entertain, inform, or scare the consumer into paying attention. The best tactics, though, benefit people who have already expressed an affinity for the brand, and are also designed to get those who work for the company “to think with their hearts as well as their heads.”

Blog content writers need to think with their hearts as well as their heads, as well. “In order to make people really like you, and really pay attention to your content, you need to give some of yourself – your emotions,” Kenneth Waldman writes in mention.com. Build the story, he advises, and only then add the product or service, not the other way around.

Online visitors to your blog want to feel you understand them and their needs, of course, but they want to understand you as well, I teach at Say It For You. The stories you tell in your marketing blog have the power to forge an emotional connection between readers and you as a provider of products, services, and experiences.

Your blog is the lobby to where you live!

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Blogging to Differ

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differences between two thing

Some people think graveyards and cemeteries are the same thing, but they’re not, Jakub Marian, author of the book One Hundred Most Commonly Mispronounced English Words points out. Graveyards are on church property; cemeteries are not.

With July Fourth around the corner, Writing Explained wants readers to appreciate the difference between “half-mast” and “half-staff”. When a flag near civilian structures or homes on land is flown low on its pole, at ”half-staff”, that signifies a mournful salute, often for fallen soldiers, police officers, or politicians. The phrase “half-mast” means the same thing for flags on a ship or on a naval base..

“Companies all over the world regularly struggle with explaining the benefits of their products, William Craig observes in Forbes. One way to empower customers to make a decision, he says, is to help them understand the differences between various terms. As an example, Craig discusses two terms that tend to be used interchangeably and wrongly in the field of nutrition: probiotics and prebiotics. The first term has a “sizeable head start” in terms of marketing, he observes, but the scientific consensus is shifting towards the second. It’s important for companies competing in the nutritional supplement arena to double down on efforts to better educate the public.

As blog content writers, we’re part of that same struggle to educate both prospects on clients on the differences between various terms – and between one business’ products and services and those of its competitors. Demonstrating the differences, and, even more important, why those distinctions matter, becomes a core function of our content writing.

A couple of years ago, the AARP magazine featured a piece called “Knowledge is Power”. The author’s idea was that we should “put words in readers’ mouths” so that they can feel confident about protecting themselves from fraudsters. At Say it For You, we believe the same principle can be applied when it comes to empowering readers by teaching them the correct use of the terms that apply in that field of interest.

As I work with clients, whatever the nature of their business or professional practice, I always advise that we use the blog to provide information – especially new information – related to their field. Buyers feel empowered to make a decision when they feel they understand the terminology. Blogging to differ is a good idea!

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