Philosophical Blogging for Business

/0 Comments/in /by

The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates

I’d never  heard blog posts referred to as “philosophical” before, but Julie Neidinger‘s description really resonated with me. Philosophical posts are “idea” posts, she says, with the main goal being to further the culture of the brand or team writing the blog.

These posts (and here’s what really hit the spot for me) “are as much for the writer as the reader, helping to clarify the thought process… as the writer is working through the initial idea.” Some philosophical posts, Neidlinger observes, are “as much for the writer as the reader”.

“Philosophical posts are good,” she says, “in that they reveal the writers as real people. They don’t generally come from a place of hierarchy (i.e. teacher-down-to-student), but are instead on the same level. The reader is walking beside the writer and working through the idea.”

I express something of the same sentiment on the Say It For You website. “When you put up a blog with excellent content that engages your potential and current customers, you will typically receive the following four types of benefits: An SEO benefit, a promotional benefit, a credibility benefit, and (this is the one that comes closest to expressing what Julie Neidlinger is saying) a training benefit.

The way I explain the training benefit is this: When you blog, you verbalize the positive aspects of your business in a way that people can understand. You put your recent accomplishments down in words. You review the benefits of your products and services and keep them fresh in your mind. In other words, you are constantly providing yourself with training about how to talk effectively about your business.

Going on to describe how philosophic blog posts are born, Neidlinger talks about content curation: “They often stem from books or other outside influences that have caused the author to think about new things and apply them to a current situation.”

The information in a blog post might have been “curated” from various sources. That’s a good thing, because you’re providing a valuable service to readers by collecting information and presenting it in one easy-to-access form.  On the other hand, “collections” are not nearly of sufficient benefit to readers.  Those facts and statistics need to be thought through and then put into perspective so that readers realize there’s something important here for them.

Ms. Neidlinger, I agree. Blogging for business means being a curator, but also a bit of a philosopher, thinking through the material before presenting it, along with the new thoughts you find going through your head because of others’ insights.

So, go ahead, I’d say to freelance blog content writers and to their business owner and professional practitioner clients – reveal the “real people” side of your blog writing!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

It’s Never Too Late to Remember the “Why” Behind Blogging for Business

/0 Comments/in /by

training“Raise your hand if you want more website visitors,” says Corey Eridon of hubspot.com.  Now think about the way people find your website, he continues. They could type your name right in, but that’s an audience you already have. You could pay for traffic by buying an email list (don’t you dare, he adds), but that’s expensive and illegal. You could pay for traffic by placing paid ads, but even though that’s not illegal, it’s expensive.  So, how can you drive traffic? Blogging, social media, and search engines.

As a longtime blog content writer and corporate blogging trainer, I love Eridon’s very simple breakdown of the reason blogging works: “Every time you write a blog post, it’s one more indexed page on your website.  It’s also one more cue to Google and other search engines that your website is active and they should be checking in frequently to see what content you’ve published…”.

Blogging also helps keep your social media presence going, Eridon adds.  Instead of having a social media manager come up with brand new original content or creating that content yourself, your blog can serve as that repository of content.

What’s more, since the best business blogs answer common questions, consistently creating content that’s helpful to the target customers, Eridon explains, blogging helps establish the business owner or professional as an authority on the subject.

It was very interesting to me to read a comment posted on Corey Erison’s blog by a Scott de Long.  At Say It For You, I’m always talking about the “training benefit” of blogging, and while de Long doesn’t call it that, he “gets” my concept. “The purpose is to present our people as experts, or at least well informed, but the real benefit comes from the research they do to become better informed,” de Long says.

In fact, there are four unique benefits that come from blogging:

  • The SEO benefit – The more relevant content you have up about your business, the greater the chance that people will find you via search engines.
  • The promotional benefit – The content in the blog exists to promote your business, your products and services, and you as the business owner.
  • The credibility benefit – Your blog says a lot of positive things about you and your business. It says that you are in the 21st century and interested in using the latest tools to communicate with your customers.
  • The training benefit – When you blog, you are constantly providing yourself with training about how to talk effectively about your business.

It’s never too late to remind yourself just why it’s worth blogging for business!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

“Right” Answers Make for Great Business Blog Content Writing

/0 Comments/in /by

question markOne of the givens for us content writers is that people are online searching for answers to questions they have and for solutions for dilemmas they’re facing. I really believe that blog writing for business will succeed only if two things are apparent to readers, and in the order presented here:

1. It’s clear you (the business owner or professional practitioner) understand online searchers’ concerns and needs
2. You and your staff have the experience, the information, the products, and the services to solve exactly those problems and meet precisely those needs.

The problem, though, and it’s an extremely common one, is that buyers tend to ask the wrong questions.  I read a marvelous commentary on this very point by Allen Hammer of email service provider Delivra. Among the top worst questions, Hammer observes, are:

  • How much does it cost?  (You should be asking “What value does your solution bring?”
  • What features does your system have? (Better to ask “How will your technology help us reach our goals?”)
  • How many clients do you have? (Better: “How do most of your clients partner with your company?”)

So, how can we get readers asking the right questions so we can offer the right answers? One way is to let some of your other customers provide the answers before the questions are even asked, say the authors of Tips and Traps for Marketing Your Business. Testimonials showing how your technology (or your product or your service) helped other clients reach their goals offer the right answer even if the reader, absent your blog post, might have asked one of those wrong questions Hammer lists.

What’s more, while question-answer is actually a very good format for presenting information to online readers, there’s actually no need to wait until readers actually write in questions.  Every practitioner hears questions from clients; every business owner fields customer queries daily. Sharing some of those – both Hammer’s “right” ones and the ones he thinks are “wrong” –  can remind readers of challenges they face and issues they’ve had with their current providers of products and services.

“Right’ answers make for great business blog content writing!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

It’s All in the Title in Blogging for Business

/0 Comments/in /by

titlesFor novelists, a lot goes into their title.  It’s how they relate to their work-in-progress, their baby, for months to come, observes WritersDigest.com . We blog content writers, of course, aren’t given months to agonize over the title of any one blog post. Still, titles are crucial in capturing the interest of both search engines and online searchers.

There are two basic categories of blog titles, we’ve found at Say It For You. The first simply conveys what content readers should expect to find in the post or article. That type of title is not “cutesy” or particularly engaging, but can be highly effective in business blogging because it’s short and to the point and uses keyword phrases that match up with what a reader may have typed into the search bar. The second category of arouses readers’ curiosity, but gives only the barest hint of the content to follow.  A compromise I teach is to use a combination of a “Huh?” title to get attention and then an “Oh!” subtitle to make clear what the post is actually going to be about.

Thomas Umstattd advises authors to use the title to describe not the content of the article, but the value readers can expect to find in the content, making a case for why readers ought to even bother reading on.

In “Title Trauma”, Cindy Callaghan of Writer’s Digest offers a few “outside-the-box” avenues writers can explore for creating captivating titles.

1. The Free Dictionary website offers common figurative phrases.

2. Alliteration.  Say you’re writing about a hair salon in Carmel.  Look for descriptive words beginning with C.   “Captivating Curl in Carmel“ might become your title.

3. Use song titles that express the idea you’re writing about.

4. Use word switcheroos: “Come up with a well-known phrase or slogan, and swap in your keyword, Callaghan advises. She used “What happens in London stays in London.”

The best writing and titling assistance of all for novelists, suggests Callaghan, is the kind that comes from a critique group or writing partner. Of course, the ideal situation for freelance blog content writers is where there’s an approval process.  Assuming you’re in the much more common situation of being your own editor, reading over the post in “Preview” mode, all formatted and ready for publishing, increases your chances of finding your own mistakes before anyone else does.

Pay particular attention to those crucial  5-12 words in the title. After all, you want business blog readers to do just that!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Questions to Kickstart Your Blog Writing

/0 Comments/in /by

Young man start running #2Often, writers will do interviews to gain background information for an article or a novel, and WritersDigest.com offers a great list of questions to get those interviewees talking. The answers to those questions, I think, make for exactly the kind of content most likely to humanize business blog posts, revealing the real people behind the pages of a business’ or a practice’s website.

As a content writer, you’re after the story behind the page, I teach in corporate blogging training sessions:

  • What were your goals when you began your business/practice/organization?
  • What helped you make up your mind to do it?
  • What obstacles did you face?
  • How did you find solutions to those obstacles?

Skillful business blog writing reveals the person behind the page:

  • Why is your work important?
  • What have you accomplished that makes you most proud?
  • What mistakes did you make and what did you learn from those mistakes?

Two of the “Four P’s of Businss Blogging”, after all, are passion and personality. In business blog posts, as compared to brochures, ads, or even the website, it’s easier to communicate the unique personality and core beliefs of the business owners.  Over time, in fact a business blog becomes the “voice” of the corporate culture, whether the “corporation” (or partnership or LLC) consists of one person or many.

It’s important for readers to understand the opinion behind the page:

  • How do you see the future bringing changes in your industry or profession?
  • What are the biggest concerns you and your competitors must deal with now?

Prospective clients and customers want to sense leadership, to “meet” business owners and professionals who have strong opinions about important issues in their field.

As blog content writer interviewers, we really asking all those questions on behalf of online readers, helping them feel good about making the decision to deal with our clients.

Interview questions are a great way to kickstart blog writing!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail