Business Blogger Finds More Song Titles to Keep Posts in Tune

Continuing the challenge I issued earlier this week to have business owners come up with new blog post content based on song titles, here are four more to fit my own business (which provides blog content to promote corporations’ and professional practitioners’ business). Whether they’re beginners or veterans, business bloggers often confide in me (in my capacity as either their blogging trainer or their professional ghost blogger) that they have trouble coming up with new ideas for posts.)

Since in Monday’s blog post, I selected song titles to illustrate blogging “Do’s”, positive good practices, today I’d like to focus on titles that illustrate some business blogging “don’ts.

 

  • “Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” (B.J. Thomas)

One possible approach to a business blog is to point out deficiencies in competitors’ services or products, showing what “they” do wrong and you, of course, do “right”. As a trainer who is part of each client’s online marketing team, I recommend taking the higher road, using the power of We . At _____ (your company name), we offer….we believe that….we value… we are always careful to…..  Accentuate the positives about YOU, rather than focusing on others’ “mistakes”.

  • “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word” (Elton John)

Too many business owners shy away from blogging for fear of receiving negative comments
from readers
or having customer complaints on the blog site. True, if you don’t blog frequently, you won’t receive negative comments or complaints, but neither will you attract the attention of search engines or of readers! In fact, “getting in front” of complaints by demonstrating how you remedied a negative customer situation is probably the most positive kind of publicity you can ask for!  Don’t be afraid of showing your err-is-human side.  In fact, your blog gives you a chance to turn a “failure” into a success story.

  • “Where Do We Go From Here?” (Alicia Keys)

Calls to Action, or CTA’s, are a vital component of blogging for business. A clear, easy-to-execute “next step” enables readers to learn more, ask questions, price products and services, sign up for an RSS feed of your blog, look at your website, or even proceed immediately to your shopping cart. In an attempt to avoid being too “pushy” or too “sales-ey”, many business bloggers make the mistake of being unclear about the “So, how do I…..” readers need to know.

  • “Testify to Love” (Wynonna Judd)

Testimonials in your blog can definitely make the different between a visit and a conversion. When surveyed, as Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware often relates, consumers confessed they want to buy from people “just like them”. Stories of satisfied customers speak louder than any ad.  However (and here’s the Don’t in the equation) unlike the usual testimonial  list of sentence fragments (…excellent product, …very high quality …etc.) use your blog post to tell the whole story – what the issue or problem was, how you worked to solve it, and why your solution worked better than what the customer had tried before.

Now, it’s your turn again.  Select song titles that illustrate important facets of your business. Or, find another unifying theme around which you can center several blog posts.  Remember, “The more frequently your content mentions the keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business, the better your chances of your site being found for those keywords or phrases.”
 

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Song Titles Can Keep Business Blogging in Tune

Whether they’re beginners or veterans, business bloggers often confide in me (in my capacity as either their blogging trainer or their professional ghost blogger) that they have trouble coming up with new ideas for posts. One technique I’m fond of suggesting is finding a unifying theme for a group of posts, then composing a week or two worth of posts with each one highlighting a different aspect of that theme.

Let’s practice.  For this week’s Say It For You blog posts, I’ve picked out a number of song titles to illustrate different aspects of my own business, which is providing blog content to promote a corporation or a professional practice. I’m going to challenge readers to pick out song titles (either from my list or from anywhere), and show why they think that song expresses some aspect of their own business!

Today I’ve selected song titles that illustrate blogging “Do’s”, positive steps and good practices for business blogging:

 

“You Gotta Sing Like You Don’t Need the Money” (Susanne Clark)

Even if your business is relatively new and still in the struggling stage, your blog posts must project an impression of confidence and success, focusing readers’ attention on your unique talents and “slant” in your field. As blogger Pamela Wilson explains, the reason children make such huge developmental strides in their first years of life is that they don’t worry about what other people think – they simply progress. On that same theme, career counselors advise dressing for the position you want, not for the one you have. Blog as if you already are where you want to be!


“This is How We Do it” (Montell Jordan)

 Use your blog post to demonstrate ways to use your products and services,         remembering  that consumers who feel fairly informed feel empowered to make buying       decisions (and therefore more comfortable making those decisions). Even as you’re offering detailed instructions, it’s perfectly OK to add why it’s worth investing in the services of a professional when specialized expertise and experience is needed.

“New York, New York” (Frank Sinatra)

Even if your company operates nationally (even globally), localizing a blog post through an anecdote, a testimonial, or a tie-in to news affecting just one city in which you do business  can help forge a connection with readers from that city. Authors Doug Karr and Chantelle Flannery point out (Corporate Blogging For Dummies) point out that local search is good for SEO, with the volume of geographic or local search continuing to rise.


Your turn.  Try to come up with a unifying theme around which to build three or four blog posts about your business. Hint: It’s OK to use song titles to keep your blog continually in tune! 

 

 

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Sustain Ability in Business Blogs

Accompanying my college freshmen mentees on a tour of the Fineline Printing Group plant the other day, I noticed a poster on the wall with a two-word headline:
SUSTAIN ABILITY.

The headline related to to the "green" initiatives undertaken by the company. (Fineline executive Phil Mikesell explained that the company offsets 100% of its electricity with wind energy.)

Interestingly, that same week a business blogging client had posed a question: "Is it legal to ‘trick" people to our blog? …Should we use topical phrases to aid our visits?"

The Google Webmasters site has something to say about "tricking users" to gain traffic: DON"T. "Don’t load pages with irrelevant keywords."  ‘Keyword stuffing’ refers to the practice of loading a page with keywords in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking… "This results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site’s ranking," warns Google. The recommendation: "Focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context."

Reading this, I was reminded of the phrase "sustain ability". Rather than taking the easy way out, the short-term solution, Fineline Printing had opted for the longer view to help sustain their business and support their community. In many ways, the same "long-way-round-is-the-shortest-way-home" approach is true of blogging.

Momentum in the online rankings race comes from frequency of posting blogs and from building up longevity by consistently posting content on the Web over long periods of time. Down time, of course, is rare for a small business; business owners who can maintain the drill-sergeant discipline needed to increase web rankings are rarer still. The task of playing the kind of sustained game that “wins search” might fall, in many cases, to professional ghost bloggers.

Whether we’re talking about a company’s blog rankings or its environmentally "green" initiatives, there’s no quick payoff. The spoils go not to the swift and certainly not to the "tricky", but to those who have the ability to sustain a long-term, honest, effort.

 

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Business Blogs Take a Lesson From Elementary School

Remember Show and Tell back in grade school?  There was pedagogic science behind the practice, but it all boiled down to the fact that we absorb information better when it comes to us in more than one form.

While business blogging is usually not meant purely to educate readers, bloggers can take a lesson from those old show-and-tell sessions.

"Better headlines have been proven to increase readership and response by as much as 700%," advertising and marketing commentator Michel Fortin points out, adding that photos and graphics near the headline are even better.

Adding video to blog posts is a powerful way to engage readers’ attention, but simple clip art and photos can also serve to focus on a key points in each post  Just the other day, leafing through the October issue of Health.com magazine, I came across an intriguing title: "The 5 Germiest Places in Your Life".  The five include phones, soap dispensers, computer keyboards and mouse pads, lobby-level elevator buttons, and lastly, shopping cart handles.  Thinking about it now, I realize that as a visual learner, it was the line drawing of a shopping cart that focused my attention on the title of the article.

Fortin suggests livening up business copy with before-and-after shots, photos of products, and even photos of the business team. The picture makes the words come alive for the reader. But, as a business blogging trainer, I would hasten to add that the words can pull their own weight when it comes to making friends and influencing people. Perhaps the best words come from satisfied customer "friends", so, wherever possible, include case studies and testimonials in your business blog posts.

You might say it’s good to go back to the future, taking a lesson from elementary school show-and-tell strategy!


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How-Did-It-Get-Its-Shape Business Blogging

The title “How the NFL Football Got Its Shape” has two qualities I think bloggers for business ought to consider imitating: It’s engaging, and it doesn’t try to sell you anything.

Life’s Little Mysteries contributor Dan Peterson offers seven paragraphs on the history of American-style football, with links to two other football-related stories, so the content of the article fulfills the implied promise in the title, which engages readers’ interest and offers an overview of what the article will cover.

There’s certainly a lot of talk in blogging circles about creating “engaging” content, but as a business blogging trainer, my “fix” on “engaging” is that, however relevant the factual content you provide in your blog, at least some of your online visitors will have heard at least some of that information before.

What can make the critical difference between “ho-hum” and “engaging” in blog content is showcasing the unique slant or approach your business takes. Your blog should reveal how your products – or at least the products you’ve chosen to offer to customers – “took shape”. How did your business model – the unique way you’ve selected to offer services to your clients and customers – evolve?

For readers looking for facts and statistics about football equipment, Dan Peterson provides plenty, from the standardized dimensions and weight of NFL and NCAA balls, to the different ways white lines are painted on high school footballs compared to those used by college players.

For readers seeking insight into the “why” of football shape, Peterson traces the early rugby balls made of pigs’ bladders, explaining the improved grip that the laces provide, even though they’re not needed for closure on the now-rubber balls. Providing valuable information to readers without being too sales-ey is one way to positively differentiate your business blog and cultivate potential buyers.

Effective blog posts will move readers along a path:

  • verifying that they’ve come to the right place
     
  • you’re on the “same page” as them because you understand their interest and their needs

Your content leads readers from

  1.  “Never thought of it that way!”, to
     
  2.  “I didn’t know that!”, and finally to
     
  3.  “I’ve got to take advantage of that!”

 

 

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