Why Not To Be Negative In Blogs

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(Can you see what happened here?  Now you’re focused on the word "negative".  Had I titled this blog post "Being Positive in Blogs", I would have focused your thoughts on ways to make a positive impact.

Business blogging, of course, is all about "up".  To be found on a search engine by more potential customers and clients, your blog needs to move "up" in search engine rankings and appear on Page One of Google (and Bing and Yahoo). Even more important, blog titles and content need to focus on the positive results customers can expect from selecting your products and services.

Copywriter and consultant Michael Fortin says that most of the copy he critiques disobey the cardinal rule of selling, by failing to use "upwords", Fortin’s acronym for:
 

  • Universal
  • Picture
  • Words
  • Or
  • Relatable
  • Descriptive
  • Sentences

To "up" sales, "up" words, Fortin says. Words need to paint vivid pictures in readers’ minds, rather like icons on a computer desktop. In order for our minds to translate words and phrases into something we can refer back to, we need a visual equivalent in words.

Leave out the "buts", advises Fortin, and substitute "ands".  Rather than saying "It’s a great concept for a website, but it’s going to take at least a month to put together" (a negative in the customer’s eyes), say "It’s a great concept for a website and it will take only thirty days (imagine getting that whole wonderful job accomplished in only thirty days!) to get it up and running."

When I train business owners and their employees how to develop content for their blog posts, I try emphasizing the positive in a different sense as well. Although one approach in a business blog is to compare your products and services to others’, it’s important to emphasize the positive rather than "knocking" a competitor. Rather than starting with what "they" (the competition) is doing wrong, devaluing other company’s products and services, use the power of WE to demonstrate what you value, and the way you like to deliver your services.

To "up" online rankings, blog "up"!

 

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Half-A-Slice-Better-Than-One Business Blogging

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There are almost as many different opinions about the best way to write blogs as there are on recipes for "absolutely the best" apple pie. Much of the debate centers around the ideal length for a blog post, with one touted rule of thumb being to keep the post short enough so readers don’t need to scroll down to read it all.

Based solely on my own years of experience as a professional ghost blogger for business and in writing this Say It For You blog on the topic of business blogging, my answer to the length dilemma is simple: Make each post as short as possible (to get your idea across), but no shorter.

Fellow blogger Jameiah Earle, in Literary Kicks, calls pieces of fiction having fewer than 1,000 words "micro" or "flash fiction". When it comes to blogging for business, Inbound Marketing authors Halligan and Shaw stress that "people searching on Google are actually looking for something" and have a specific goal. As you make decisions about your blog posts (including how long each post should be), your goal must be to satisfy theirs, reassuring readers they’ve come to exactly the right place.

Here’s one practical suggestion for keeping your blog copy "tight" and on target:  If you’ve explained the first of several:

  • reasons why a certain thing is important…..
  • myth-busting facts about your industry…
  • customer stories or testimonials you have to share…,

just "push away from the table", as your diet coach might advise.  Leave some of your thoughts on the subject for another blog post, splitting your content into more than one "installment". Each part of the "mini-series" should be able to stand on its own, yet a post might be continuing a thought from an earlier blog post, or promising more on the subject to be expressed in future blog post.

Small business consultant Lorraine Ball, invited to be a guest blogger on Say It For You, explained that using Twitter with its 140-character limit  has made her a better writer overall, training her to look at every word and consider the value it adds to a sentence.

Unlike Twitter, blogs, at least theoretically, are subject to no length limits.  However, when it comes to business blogging, it might be a good idea to slice up the "pie", and that half a slice is better than one!

 

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Why Your Next Hire Might Be A Blog Writer

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As a professional ghost blogger, I’m very conscious of the fact that the "For sale: baby shoes, never used" story I talked about earlier this week exemplifies just one of Ernest Hemingway’s many tips on effective writing. Brian Clark of CopyBlogger.com points out another valuable Hemingway lesson for bloggers – being positive, not negative. 

Clark interprets this to mean that, in our blog posts, it’s important to say what is rather than what isn’t. In other words, if you say your service is "error-free" or your product "pain-free" and "inexpensive", readers are likely to focus on the words "error", "pain", and "expensive": Instead, focus on the positive qualities of what you have to offer.

A second fellow blogger, Jameiah Earle, in Literary Kicks, had the most interesting things to add about the Hemingway baby shoes story: she calls that style "flash fiction", AKA "micro", "short-short", or "skinny", meaning under 1,000 or even 500 words in length. As Earle went on to explain why she likes "flash" so much, I kept thinking of blog posts, which, like flash, are short, concise, focused on one main point or idea.

If the "baby shoes, never worn" legend hasn’t been embroidered in the retelling, Hemingway may have dashed off that piece in a matter of seconds.  Well-researched and constructed business blog posts, on the other hand, take a bit more (truly a lot more) time and effort.

That accounts for Brian Halligan’s (Inbound Marketing) observation that "your next marketing hire…should be someone will great writing skills", rather than either a technical writer of manuals or a traditional career marketer.

With business blogging becoming such an indispensable customer acquisition and marketing tool, ghost blogging becomes an outsourcing solution for busy business owners who have long-long business goals but who are short-short on time.

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For Sale: Blog Platform. Never Used.

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Ernest Hemingway, challenged to write an entire novel in six words, scribbled these six on a napkin:

                                             For sale: baby shoes, never used.


There are any number of lessons, I think, that business bloggers can learn from the legendary Hemingway "demo":

Brevity
Six-word blog posts aren’t going to hack it in terms of SEO "Brownie points"; six-word titles certainly are. Since, as Brian Halligan points out in his new book Inbound Marketing, Google (and other search engines) try to match article titles with the phrase being searched, the more focused titles are on the business’ keywords phrases, the better..

Arouses Curiosity
"Show ’em a gun in the first reel" is an old screenwriter’s rule-of-thumb. The blog title is the "first reel", introducing the theme, hinting at "action" to come.

Emotional Impact
Yes, we’re talking about business blogs here, but blogs are a part of "pull marketing", and  emotions are what’s behind the "pull" in the posts. Professional speaker and speech coach Lou Heckler says a story needs to have moved/astonished/angered/tickled/amazed you for you to share it effectively with your audience. Never-used baby shoes have an emotional impact. While blog posts can be informative, filled with myth-busting proofs, it’s the emotional impact that keeps readers engaged.

The first few ingredients listed on a food container are the most important.  Since the first "ingredient" of a business blog post is, in fact, the title, take a tip from Ernest Hemingway and  make that ingredient count!


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Blogging For Business – Show ‘Em A Gun

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Preparing good speeches, says National Speakers Association President Lou Heckler, quoting NSA founder Bill Gove, means using all three of the "3 P’s".  As a professional ghost blogger and blog trainer, I’d venture to say, the 3 P’s can serve as a perfect template for blog posts.

Premise
What is this blog post really going to be about? The title and opening paragraph of your blog post are for introducing the "cast" (what you’ll be discussing) and "showing ’em a gun" (meaning a controversy, myth, or statistic) to arouse interest and curiosity in readers.

Problem
In films, the tension derives from the hero or heroine encountering obstacles and setbacks.  What problems and issues are your readers encountering?

Payoff
In this "third reel", you offer your unique proposition for solving the problem.  This is where you use the "gun" you showed ’em at the beginning of the blog post.

As you’re planning your speech, Heckler reminded us at NSA, you need to decide what your goal is.  What do you want your audience to think, feel, or do? In blog posts, this is the basis upon which you design your Calls to Action.

Brian Halligan, co-author of Inbound Marketing points out some key mistakes for business bloggers to avoid.  One of the lowest- converting (meaning least effective at gaining new buyers for a product or service) is "Contact us." That’s too general, says Halligan. (What exactly do you want your reader to think, feel, or do?) Have people fill out a form instead of just emailing, he advises. That way, you capture users’ contact information in a database of people who may not be ready to buy just yet.

Whether it’s a film or a blog post you’re planning, the 3 P’s is a good template for delivering a concise message with emotional appeal, and…some bang!

 

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