Informational Blogging and Academic Writing – What’s the Diff?

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academic writing vs. blog posts
Informational blogging and academic writing – is there a difference? It depends, observes blogger Yvonne McQuarrrie in Quora. “Blogs have a specific circle of readers, ‘your fellows’, ”McQuarrie says. “You can communicate with them like friends.”  An academic paper, on the other hand, she adds, will be read by someone in the context of an educational institution. A second contributor to Quora, Raina Du Trieux, emphasizes audience as well: “Formal writing is used in academic and scientific settings whenever you want to convey your ideas to a wide audience with many possible backgrounds and assumptions.”
Requirements differ from one discipline to the next, says Michel Clasquin-Johnson, weighing in on Quora as well, “but some tell you never to use the word ‘I’”. “In academic writing, there is the requirement of backing up claims and arguments with noted and verifiable evidence,” adds Virginia Badeuax.

 “Essays are for a specific audience (your professors) to show what you’ve learned. They expect an in-depth analysis of the assigned books and perhaps from secondary sources as well. Blog posts are for a more general public to entertain them or educate them in a brief and engaging, is careerpathwriting solutions.com’s take.

Career Path Writing Solutions goes on to offer a number of guidelines for blog content writers:

  • Short paragraphs are encouraged.
  • Be intelligent without being technical.
  • Explain concepts briefly, touching on important details only.
  • Personal touches are allowed and encouraged.

While every one of these Quora and Career Path Writing Solutions observations are very much in keeping with the way we train blog content writers at Say It For You, two of the points Carol Tice lists in comparing blog posts and articles are definitely not. In blog posts, Tice says:

  • Good spelling and grammar optional.
  • Posts are mostly your own opinion – no interviews or research.
  • Posts are built around SEO keywords.

Beg to differ, Tice. Good spelling and grammar are hardly optional. As a corporate blogging trainer, my favorite recommendation to both business owners and the freelance blog content writers they hire to bring their message to customers is this: Prevent blog content writing “wardrobe malfunctions”, including grammar errors, run-on sentences, and spelling errors. Blogs are, in fact, more personal and more informal than academic pieces, but they shouldn’t be sloppy.

What’s more, I believe, interviews are one very effective format for blog posts. In a face-to-face (or Skype) interview with a business owner or executive (or professional practitioner), I am able to capture their ideas and some of their words, then add “framing” with my own questions and introductions, to create a blog post more compelling and “real” than the typical narrative text.

Are there differences between informational blogging and academic writing? To be sure. But the two will always have a common goal – engaging and informing readers.
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Blogging Helps FNU LNUs Get Found

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FNU LNU (acronym for First Name Unknown, Last Name Unknown) is a term used by authorities to identify unknown suspects. When you’re selecting keyword phrases to use in your website and blog content, it’s useful to remember that the business owner or the professional practitioner is actually the FNU LNU in the equation. Nine out of ten, I explain to newbie blog content writers, at stage #1 of their search, online readers don’t know the name of the individual, the business, or the practice. What most consumers are likely to type into the search bar are words describing:
  • their need
  • their problem
  • their idea of the solution to their problem
  • a question

Blogging for business, I teach at Say It For You, essentially consists of introducing yourself to strangers.  Not that it isn’t a good idea to email links to your blog posts to existing customers and clients, but, for developing new relationships, your blog will be your central prospecting tool. In order to convert those “strangers” to friends and customers, address your blog posts to them, and write about them.  Fact is, they’re going to care about your name only if and when they know you care about their problems and needs, and when they are reassured that you have just the means to take care of them.

 

It’s reassuring to blog content writers to remember that the only people who are going to be reading the blog posts, are those searching for precisely the kinds oif information, products, and services that relate to what you do, what you have for sale, and what you know about and know how to do. It’s also reassuring to realize that consumers who feel fairly informed are more likely to make buying decisions.

 

Generally speaking, the information consumers seek in the process of online searching falls into three categories:
  1. How to do things
  2. How to find things
  3. How to keep things (and their bodies) in the best condition possible

Once having been “found”, the next step is to get “personal”, Practical eCommerce’s Paul Chaney emphasizes “Blogging,” he says, “consists of one person – or one company – communicating directly with consumers in an unfettered, unfiltered manner….blogs are a more personal form of communication.”

Marketing blogs may be written about business, but they had better be about people as well, and that includes both the online searchers and the blog content writers. You start out being a FLU LNU, and, ideally, end up being an ally! 

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The Remarkable Growth of Blogging for Business

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“If you were to read 10 different blogs per day, it would take you over 41,600 years to work your way through the blogs that are currently online,” observes 99firms.com.
The statistics backing up that remarkable 99firms statement are, well…remarkable:
  • A new blog post is published every half second.
  • One quarter of all websites on the internet are blogs.
  • WordPress posts are viewed more than 20 billion times each month.
  • 55% of marketers say blogging is their top inbound marketing tactic.
  • 70% of consumers would rather learn about a company from a blog post rather than from an ad.
Understanding the reason blogs beat traditional website pages hands-down when it comes to winning search engine rankings is a matter of simple addition, I explain to new clients of Say It For You. The typical website has only a finite amount of space for text, making it nearly impossible to have a large volume of content including all the key words that relate to that business. Blogging doesn’t have those constraints, because blog content stays around forever.  As new content is added, all the formerly posted content moves “down” a spot to make room, but remains on the site, adding to the cumulative number of repetitions of key words and phrases.

Meanwhile, the traditional selling sequence of appointment, probing, presenting, overcoming objections, and “closing: is totally dead, as Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible, asserts. What’s new, Gitomer says, is a step-by-step risk elimination, a process for which blogs are well-suited. Business blogs, I’m fond of saying in corporate blogging training classes, are nothing more than extended interviews, and blog posts are an ideal vehicle for demonstrating support and concern while being persuasive in a low-key manner

“We’ve sprinted, not walked, into a do-it-now-or-be-lost-forever internet-driven business world,” observes social media maven Ryan Cox in a guest post on this Say it For You blog.
Consumerism can be described in one word: NOW!  If I think about something, I turn to Google and search for it. If you do not show up to give me information, I’ll have already given third party authority and my interest to someone else.”

“The marketing budget for a business owner has been turned upside down by the emergence of social media, blogging and real-time communications,” Cox continues.. “No one has perfected the dissemination of messaging from business to consumer, but the answer is you need to have a blog.”

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Good, Better, and Great Titles to Use in Blogging for Business

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Any writer or blogger will tell you that publishing your post is one thing.  Making sure it’s clicked and read – well that’s another, observes Emily Johnson in a post on locationrebel.com. Once you have an idea for a topic, there are good, great, and perfect ways to create a title for the post, she explains. Focusing on just two categories of blog post title – listicles and how-tos –  Johnson offers two powerful examples:

 Idea A: Writing a blog post
1.  Good Title:    Mistakes to Avoid While Writing a Blog Post
2.  Great Title:   15 Mistakes to Avoid While Writing a Blog Post (Listicles get read more often than other articles because they organize information and inform you up-front how many new things you will learn.)
3. Perfect Title:   15 Common Mistakes to Avoid While Writing Your First Blog Post
(The word “first” narrows down the scope of the article.)

Idea B: Changing tires
1.  Good Title:    How to Change a Tire
2.  Great Title:   How to Easily and Quickly Change a Tire
Perfect Title:  How to Easily and Quickly Change Your Tire Alone: 12 Steps
(This one implies an understanding of the reader’s fear of doing the task alone, and also
incorporates a listicle.)    

There’s a reason “how-to” blog post titles work, marketing gurus Guy Kawaski and Peg Fitzpatrick show in the Art of Social Media. The best “How-to”s, they explain, are neither too broad nor too limited. They have a “news-you-can-use” feel. The response you’re after from readers, I teach at Say It For You is, “Aha! “I have found the right place to get the information I need.”
In general, blog post titles have a multifaceted job to do: arousing readers’ curiosity while still assuring them they’ve come to the right place. Of course, no clever title can substitute for well-written, relevant content in the blog post itself, content that provides valuable information to your readers. But, in order for blog marketing to lead searchers to become buyers of your products and services, your stuff has first got to get read!

 

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Business Blogging to Help Maintain Control Yourself

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take control
In this time of Coronavirus anxiety, I suggested in my latest Say It For You blog post, our focus as blog content writers should be firmly on showing readers how our business owner and professional practitioner clients can help their readers maintain control. As the TIME piece by Hallie Levine emphasizes, anxiety in short bursts and in the right amounts can actually help people fulfill tasks and achieve results. The secret for hitting the anxiety “sweet spot” (not too much nor too little), Levine says, is maintaining control over as many aspects of the situation as possible.
Now, let’s examine how we can use that same advice for our own benefit.
Get real.
In The Art of Social Media book by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick, there’s a little section called Be a Mensch, with “mensch” being defined as a “kind and honorable person who does the right thing in the right way”.  One thing for sure is that a mensch is real. You can’t give a reader a sense of control without showing that you’re dealing with the very same issues facing them. Emotional intelligence, closely related to mensch quality, is the capacity to express and then manage emotions. So first of all, allow your content to “get real’.

Be organized.
Even while letting readers see your own “humanity”, keep your blog content well-organized and well-written to convey a feeling of being in control. Maintaining a consistent schedule of posting sends a reassuring message to readers.

Share, don’t “give” advice.
As content marketers, we want to present the business or practice in a very personal, rather than a transactional way. Still, since the business owner or practitioner is, after all, the SME (subject matter expert), practical advice on how to best use the product or service is very much in order.  The tone, however, should be one of “sharing” a useful insight or tip, rather than “handing down” advice.

It’s interesting that Kristin van Ogtrop in that same TIME issue on anxiety, realized that “there is a fine line between setting boundaries and controlling, between guiding choices and telling your kids what to do.”  The message for marketing content writers, I believe, is to acknowledge that the reader is the one in control.  We’re the ones sharing some valuable mechanisms to arrive at a state of “anxiety contol”. 
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