Great Headlines Drive Traffic – guest post

/0 Comments/in /by

Lorraine Ball of RoundPeg and I are exchanging guest blog posts. RoundPeg is devoted to “helping small businesses become big businesses”. I asked Lorrain to blog about her approach to Twitter…..

http://www.roundpeg.biz/2009/08/internet-mistake/

http://www.roundpeg.biz/2009/03/discount-tire-gets-my-vote/

http://www.roundpeg.biz/2009/05/twitter-is-not-broccoli/

I have been actively using Twitter as my primary Social Media connection for almost a year, and I can’t imagine my daily routine without it. I have learned how to be funny, sarcastic and somewhat smart in 140 characters or less. I have made friends around the globe, and feel more connected to a number of local folks as well.
 
As I explored Twitter I expected those things would occur, but I have discovered an interesting side benefit. I am becoming a better writer overall. The restrictions of the 140 character limit have trained me to look at every word and consider the value each word adds to a sentence.  This new habit has drifted over to my blog and business writing as well.
 
I am even looking at headlines differently.  While content rich headlines work well for Google search they don’t work when I try to promote a new post on Twitter.  Commenting on this dilemma, it was clear Louis Gray  wasn’t sure which strategy was a better choice when he said:
 
“As Twitter’s impact on immediate traffic expands, it should be interesting to see how many blogs change their approach to headlines and to see if they are in any way reducing longer-term traffic benefits from SEO for instant returns.”

For me, the small business marketing space in Google is very crowded. It is hard to get noticed or rise to the top. I have had more success promoting my blog through Twitter, so I am likely to continue to down that path, working to make my headlines more Twitter-friendly.
 
I use Twitter feed to send my new posts to twitter.  The shorter headlines have helped catch the attention of friends and followers who visit, read, and ReTweet. Some of my most well trafficked posts have catchy titles which are short enough to Tweet, ReTweet and even Re, ReTweet. For example:
 
Mistakes are like Sandcastles
Discount Tire Gets My Vote
Twitter is Not Broccoli
 
In some ways this is simply a return to better writing.  Advertising copy writers and journalists have for years relied on catchy titles to entice the reader.  For awhile Google, and SEO strategies  in general distracted us. Today Twitter and other social media which focus on the human interaction are challenging us to become better writers once again.
.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Ghost Writers In The Sky

/0 Comments/in /by


I can’t believe how far back ghostwriting goes – who knew?  We’re all used to today’s celebrities, CEO’s, and public figures who can’t spare the time to write their own books or speeches, and who hire ghostwriters.  (In fact, publishing companies sometimes purposely associate a book with a well known person to make it more marketable.)  As a professional ghost blogger, I am an avid reader about all forms and styles of ghost writing.  The more I read, the more interesting material I uncover.


 


Composer Wolfgang Mozart, I learned, was paid to ghostwrite music for wealthy patrons.  Come to think about it, that fact was brought out in the movie “Amadeus”.


 


An absolutely fascinating tidbit I just learned is that romance novelist V.C. Andrews’ estate hired a ghostwriter.  The assignment: to continue writing novels in Andrews’ style after her death!  The readers just didn’t want there to ever be a final chapter, I guess…


 


It’s fun to learn about all these things, but blogging is much more in the here and now.  The mission of a ghost blogger like me is to market your business.  Your business blog performs a very practical and very important function:  it helps customers find your business.  And they find it, not in the sky, but right here on the Web. 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Leitmotifs For Blogs

/0 Comments/in /by

Blog posts tend to be more effective when they focus on just one idea, I’ve found.  That idea might be:

  • Busting one myth common among consumers
  • One testimonial from a user of your product or service
  • On special application for your product
  • One common problem your service helps solve
  • One new development in your industry

Focus is what helps blog posts stay smaller and lighter in scale, and much more flexible than the more permanent content on the typical corporate website.

What helps the separate posts fit together into an ongoing business blog marketing strategy are the blog "leitmotifs".

Leitmotif means "leading theme" in German.  In music, "the leitmotif is heard whenever the composer wants the idea of a certain character, place, or concept to come across," explains Chloe Rhodes in A Certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi".

Whenever I’m sitting down with business owners as they’re preparing to launch a blog for their company, I find that one important step is to select 1-5 recurring themes that will appear and reappear over time in their blog posts.  The themes may be reflected in the keyword phrases they use to help drive search, but themes are broader in scope than keyword phrases.

A residential air conditioning firm, for example, might blog using keywords such as "air conditioning", "air conditioning repair", "air conditioning service in Peoria".  A theme, by contrast, might be "Room comfort".

What leitmotifs will unify your blog posts?
 

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Should We Say Goodbye to the Old Blogging?

/0 Comments/in /by

"Say Goodbye to the Old IT," I was told in the Data Center News Digest. (No techie I, I nevertheless follow my own advice by "reading around" in fields related to blog content writing.)

Data Center was explaining that information technology has not only gotten faster and better, it's gone from being the underpinning for business operations to being a driver

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Leitmotifs are the Turtlenecks of Corporate Blog Writing

/0 Comments/in /by

These days, when company owners express doubt about their ability to keep generatingturtleneck new content for their corporate blog posts, I talk to them about leitmotifs and about Steve Jobs.

According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of the late CEO of Apple Computer, Jobs owned some one hundred Issey Miyaki black turtlenecks. Jobs, by all accounts, liked the idea of having a “uniform”, not only for convenience’s sake, but because of its ability to convey a signature style.

In corporate blogging training sessions, I teach that effective blog posts are centered around key themes, just like the recurring musical phrases that connect the different movements of a symphony.  As you continue to write about your industry, your products, and your services, you’ll naturally find yourself repeating some key ideas – in fact, that’s exactly what professionals offering business blogging assistance will say you should  be doing to keep your blogs focused and targeted.

In writing for business, as blog content writers soon learn, the variety comes from the e.g.’s and the i.e’s, meaning all the details you fill in around these central leitmotifs. 

Indianapolis blog writers might use different examples of ways the company’s products can be helpful, or examples of how the company helped solved various problems.  It’s these stories and examples that lend variety to the blog, even though all the anecdotes reinforce the same few core ideas.

Like the Jobs turtlenecks, freelance blog writers will find, leitmotifs in blogs help develop a company’s signature style, which is part of any company’s branding. Focus (just as in building an entire wardrobe around one type of garment) helps corporate blog posts stay smaller, lighter in scale, and more flexible than the more permanent content on the typical corporate website.

You might say leitmotifs are the turtlenecks of corporate blog writing!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail