A Business Blog Needs Words

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“Blogging has become the best possible way to leverage your online presence and gain traction with Internet searches performed by your potential clients.”(No surprise there, but what I did find surprising is the source of the remark – none other than the National Association of Realtors!)

The realtor website went on to repeat the modern blogging mantra: “An interesting, relevant image is an essential part of your blog post. It’s not merely aesthetic; it’s crucial for boosting your readership and your SEO. People are much more likely to read a blog illustrated with a nice image,” the NAR advises. “It doesn’t matter what industry, topic, niche, or specialty, images matter.”

“Hey!” I sometimes want to shout. “Don’t forget that, no matter what industry, topic, niche, or specialty, the main content of the blog post consists (or at least should consist) of WORDS. Words matter.” Jennifer Olney of bealeader.com knows what I mean. In “Lazy Blogging: Why Your Word Matter,” Olney comments that too many authors rely on visuals to take the lazy way out of writing. Real authors, she implies use adult words and showcase their understanding of the use and beauty of the English language.

“Content comes in many forms, but web copy, articles and blog posts are among the most popular – and effective,” writes Dan Hughes of jtvdigital. Like Olney, Hughes observes that “ Many people overlook words and the power they have to entice their target audience. In this day and age, pictures and video are powerful promotional tools that cater to the attention span of the modern digital consumer, Hughes points out. “However,” he continues, “much like any business, well-crafted web copy is an essential part of success.”

“Words are art, and our ability to convey our message in words helps us be understood without distraction, Olney says. All the emojis in the world could not convey the extent to which I agree!

 

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Business Blog Tidbits Far From Useless

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love and togetherness
So, why do I find seeming “useless” tidbits of information so very useful when it comes to blog content writing? Let me count the ways:

1. Tidbits can be used to describe your way of doing business, to clarify the way one of your products works, or explain why one of the services you provide is particularly effective in solving a problem. It’s interesting when business owners or practitioners present little-known facts about their own business or profession.  In “Keep It Cool,” for example, Mental Floss magazine reviews the history of air conditioning, telling the story of how, when President Garfield was shot and lay dying in the White House, inventors rushed forward with devices they hoped would help, using a contraption to blow air over a box of ice into a series of tin pipes, eventually using a half-million pounds of ice. History tidbits in general engage readers’ curiosity, evoking an “I didn’t know that!” response.

2. One thing I suggest stressing in blog posts is best business practices.  While one goal of any SEO marketing blog is to help your business “get found”, once that’s happened, the goal changes to helping the online readers get comfortable with the way you do business. Mental Floss Magazine highlighted the making of the 1991 movie “The Silence of the Lambs”, in which the serial murderer is obsessed with collecting rare moths.  Animal rights groups might have protested the exploitation of harmless insects just to make a film, but, thanks to animal wrangler Raymond Mendez, the 300 tomato hornworm moths traveled first class, were kept in a room with special heat and humidity settings, outfitted with tiny harnesses during high speed stunts. Blog content writing is the perfect vehicle for conveying a corporate message like this one, starting with a piece of trivia, presented to make a point.

3. Common myths surround every business and profession.  If you notice a “factoid” circulating about your industry, a common misunderstanding by the public about the way things really work in your field, you can use a little-known tidbit of information that reveals the truth behind the myth. In Mental Floss Magazine, I found a cute myth-debunking article about the “Eskimo kiss”. Popular wisdom claims that Eskimos rub noses (because kissing on the lips would cause their mouths to freeze together). The myth started in Hollywood when the director of the 1922 movie “Nanook of the North” saw Eskimo women giving their babies “kuniks”, pressing their noses against their babies’ cheeks and breathing in their scent. Truth be told, Eskimos kiss on the lips just like everyone else. That Eskimo kiss debunk would be perfect for the blog of a lip balm company, a lipstick manufacturer, or a candy company around Valentine’s Day.

For clarifying and debunking, and to add variety and fun, tidbits of information are far from useless!

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Don’t-Worry-We-Organized-Them-For-You Blogging for Business

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“Turns out someone left a whole world of ridiculously interesting facts out there. Don’t worry! We organized them for you,” Mental Floss magazine editors assure readers. How? Well in the May-June issue, seemingly diverse pieces of information are organized by tens:

“10 Ways Beauty Gave History a Makeover: covers topics ranging from pharma discoveries based on ancient Egyptians’ eye makeup to Winston Churchill’s meeting with women’s magazine editors to frame the wartime rationing of textiles as the new stylish and patriotic fashion in dress; “10 Services You Never Knew You Needed” discusses gift certificates for unusual services, from lawn-mowing goats to grandma rentals.

Using a unifying theme to organize different pieces of information is called chunking. Chunking is, in fact, a good way for business bloggers to offer technical information in easily digestible form.

Just as the Mental Floss editors took separate anecdotes from history, and separate units of product descriptions, relating them to a unifying theme, bloggers can use chunking to show how individual units of information about their industry or business are related, perhaps in ways readers hadn’t considered.

Mental Floss is also using the “list” technique that is so very useful in freshening up blog post content: Starting with one idea about your product or service, put a number to it, such as “2 Best Ways To …,”  “3  Problem Fixes to Try First….”, or “4 Simple Remedies for…”

The point of the “lists”, of course, is to demonstrate ways in which your product or service is different, and to provide valuable information that engages readers and makes the information easy to grasp and retain.

In every business or profession, there’s no end, it seems, to the technical information available to consumers on the Internet. It falls to us business blog content writers, though, to break all that information down into chewable tablet form, helping readers make sense out of the ocean of information available to them.

Looking for information on a particular topic? Don’t worry, business owners can reassure their blog readers – we organized it for you!

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Putting Some Fun Into a Business Blog

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laughing Puppy“You might think that humor only works for inherently funny businesses, but any business blog can become more interesting and relatable by lightening up,” KeriLynn Engle of Business2Community reminds blog content writers.

Leyl Master Black of Mashable agrees: “Do you like to laugh? Guess what: so do your customers,” he says. “To breathe life into a complex (or even boring) product, consider putting a humorous spin on how people use it.”

As a corporate blogging trainer, I admit to having mixed feelings about humor in business blogs.  Sure, I like to laugh as much as the next guy or gal, and I’ve no doubt about the humanizing effect of a chuckle.  But I agree with Mark Ivey, who advises, “Be funny at times.  But be careful in doing so.”

“Good humor works because it connects with people at an emotional level,” Ivey says. “But humor has to be handled right,” he cautions. “Just being funny online is not enough, and there are risks.” Tips Ivey offers:

  • Be direct and swift – (avoid long stories leading up to punchlines).
  • Make sure the humor is consistent with your brand.
  • Poke fun at yourself, the weather, and other innocuous subjects.
  • Stay away from political or religious issues.
  • Don’t target any race, gender or group such as senior citizens.

Bill Faeth of Inbound Marketing Agents names at least two good reasons for using humor in a blog:

  1. Humor builds connections because it’s a shared experience that builds trust.
  2. Humor is memorable marketing, creating “aha!” moments in prospects’ minds.

Faeth is in agreement with Ivey in terms of being pithy and creative when using humor, but adds a strong caution about using sarcasm, which he names the most likely form of humor to backfire entirely.

There is a strong tie between humor and marketing, Hannah Kaufman of Savvy Panda points out. But, she cautions, “Before you even think about creating a funny marketing campaign, make sure you align your humor with your target audience. Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about them.”

Putting fun into a business blog is a good idea, but it must be done with finesse!

 

 

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Business Blogging More Than a Matter of Facts

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facts“While most organizations believe they must safeguard all data and treat it as an invaluable corporate asset, the truth is that data has no intrinsic value. Data isn’t an asset at all; the real value lies in the information behind the data,” writes Pedro Cardoso of Enterprise Apps Today.

Instead of focusing on “managing data”, Cardoso concludes, it important to look at what types of information will be game changers for the business and your customers. When you start leading with solutions that focus on delivering business value, something magical happens, he says. What any business wants is “a lineup of anxious customers who want some of ‘what that other customer is having’”.

Typically, websites are used to provide data – what products and services the company offers and in what “packages”, who the players are, in what geographical area the company operates, and (on the better sites), data pertaining to the owners and the history of the company. All this is valuable stuff from a searcher’s standpoint, to be sure.  The real value, though, just as Cardoso expresses, is in the information behind the data, which is the stuff that makes any enterprise stand out from its peers.

One excellent technique for departing from the facts, yet staying on topic is storytelling. When you get right down to, the information behind the data is best absorbed through emotion rather than through logic. One Oscar-winning producer liked to put it this say: “Hits are made in the heart, not the head.”

To harness the power of that emotional appeal and direct it towards the marketing strategy of a business or practice, there’s no better way to tell series of stories than the blog. The stories actually serve as calls to action for readers.

Business blogging is more than a matter of facts!

 

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