While Milo Frank’s ideas on painting word pictures and finding a common language with your audience were the stuff of Monday’s Say It For You wordsmithing ideas for blog content writers, today let’s return to another of my favorite authors – Malcom Gladwell.

Since I offer business blogging help and am always on the alert for interesting information that can help freelance blog writers appeal to online readers, I loved learning about the Jack Tinker advertising agency.  I was fascinated to hear that it was the Tinker agency that came up with the name Riviera for Buick’s luxury car, the name Accutron for Bulova’s quartz watch, and the name for Oasis cigarettes.  All these choices were based on the kind of psychological research that was a Tinker speciality.

The one Gladwell anecdote that really stood out for me as a professional ghost blogger, relates to Tinker researcher Herta Herzog.  In the middle of discussing new approaches for Alka Seltzer commercials, Herzog said, “You show a hand dropping an Alka-Seltzer  into a glass of water.  Why not show the hand dropping TWO?  You’ll double sales.” And, explains Gladwell, that’s exactly what happened!

All of us involved in providing business blogging services need to keep that Alka Seltzer strategy firmly in mind.  For one thing, the story demonstrates the power of images, reminding us how important it is for us to incorporate photos, video, and even clip art into our SEO marketing blogs.

Even more important in blogging for business is putting your products and services in context for the online visitor.  How will I use the product?  How much will I use? How often? Where? What will it look like?  How will I feel?

In business blog writing, then, painting the picture is only Step #1.  What comes next is putting the reader into the picture!

You can now sample Discovery Channel’s science-fact series through a book.  Mythbusters authors Keith and Kent Zimmerman “blow up things”, both literally and in the form of debunking common myths. 

Myth-busting is a tactic blog content writers can use to grab online visitors’ attention.  In corporate blogging training sessions, I explain to newbie content writers in Indianapolis that citing statistics to disprove popular myths gives business owners the chance to showcase their own knowledge and expertise.

Most of us, for example, in answer to the question “If you get caught in the rain, 
will you stay drier if you walk or run?” would say running makes the most sense.  
The Zimmermans created controlled conditions, including a sprinkler system in a tall
building to measure the velocity of rain, to bust that “common sense” conclusion.

Even experts from the National Oceanographic Atmosphere Administrsation thought running would keep you drier than walking, but the actual results of the Mythbusters experiment demonstrated you’d stay drier by walking!

This experiment is an example of mythbusting at its most compelling.  There is real proof offered, not just an “I’m-the-expert-and-you’re-not” material offered.

Since one of the purposes of any SEO marketing blog is to attract potential customers to the business’ website, it would be a tactical mistake for freelance blog writers to imply they’re out to prove those online visitors wrong.  The Mythbusters authors acknowledge that their readers’ conclusions are intuitive and natural. Anyone might reasonably have come to the conclusion that running to get out of the rain will keep you drier; itt just happens to be that reality is counterintuitive.

In corporate blog writing, then, the trick is to engage interest, but not in “Gotcha!” style. Business owners and professional practitioners blogging for business can showcase their own expertise without “showing up” their readers’ lack of it!