NASA Isn’t Looking for Astronauts

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As a speaking agent, James Marshall Reilly explains in the book One Great Speech, his biggest challenge is locating and identifying “experts” in varying fields, based on the requests of buyers and event sponsors. Reilly is looking for people as yet unknown in the speaking world. But don’t be confused, he cautions – when Bank of America wants to pay for a speaker, they’re not looking for a banker or financial services expert. The State Department isn’t looking for a diplomat, and NASA isn’t seeking a speaker who’s an astronaut. These organizations have plenty of their own in-house experts.

So what are these mega-company meeting planners seeking?’ Reilly says it’s someone with:

  • a unique perspective
  • a new idea
  • new information
  • passion
  • a story that resonates

Reilly’s insights sure resonated with me. As blog content writers, those are the very qualities we’re aiming for in helping our clients’ stories resonate with their target audiences.

Unique perspective
The typical website explains what products and services the company offers, who the “players” are and in what geographical area they operate. The better websites give at least a taste of the corporate culture and some of the owners’ core beliefs.  It’s left to the continuously renewed business blog writing, though, to “flesh out” the intangibles, those things that make a company stand out from its peers. In other words, it’s the blog that gives readers context within which to process the information.

But, from whose perspective? We can use blogging to offer searchers the relevant, up to date information they came to find, giving it to them in short paragraphs and in conversational style, then leading them to take action. But it’s crucial to present information from the customer’s perspective, not ours. Where we are is never the starting point!

Passion resonates
When online readers find a blog, one question they need answered is “Who lives here?” In terms of achieving Influencer status – it takes passion, and it takes opinion, we’ve learned at Say It For You. Sharing the obvious slant may be vociferous, but if it’s not passionate, it won’t resonate with readers.

Information
Very much like the folks most likely to be in attendance at a Bank of America or NASA conference, blog site visitors are already interested in the subject at hand and may already know quite a bit of information on that subject. While there’s very little likelihood that the “startling statistics” you offer to capture readers’ attention will be “new news”, facts and statistics need to be “unpackaged” and put into perspective.

No, Bank of America may not be looking for a speaker with a finance degree, and NASA may not hire an astronaut for the keynoter at their conference. But if you can turn information into stories that resonate in your blog posts, online readers may just “hire” -YOU!

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In Blogging for Business, Data is a Commodity, But Insight is Gold

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Writing in the Indianapolis Business Journal, Samantha Julka recalls a professor telling her that “Data is a commodity; it’s the insight that’s gold.” Anyone can create a survey and a pivot table, Julka observes…but real researchers pull insights! When numbers are tossed around, people generally view it as vital information, she says, but people may not know what to do with that information. As a consumer, Julka points out, I don’t want to read raw data; I want someone to tell me what the data means. The really juicy stuff, she says, makes people think and helps them make decisions.

Oh, so true, as I’ve been teaching at Say It For You. Citing statistics and other data is certainly one tactic I teach Indianapolis blog content writers to use as a way to capture readers’ attention. But my own experience as a business blogger has shown me that statistics, even the startling sort, aren’t enough to create positive results for any marketing blog.

In fact, the ultimate success of any blog marketing effort depends on readers taking action. In that realm, blogging has one enormous advantage over traditional “push marketing” tactics, in that it delivers information to visitors who are already interested in a particular product or service. Still, that’s not enough.

The blog content needs to address the “So what?” within the data, so that the statistics and facts not only are true, but feel true to your online visitors. In a way, I realize in retrospect, my own years of experience crafting messages for different businesses and professional practices might very well fall under the job descriptor “translator/interpreter”.

Whether it’s business-to-business blog writing or business-to-consumer blog writing, the blog content itself needs to use opinion to clarify what differentiates that business, that professional practice, or that organization from its peers. In other words, blog posts will go from information-dispensing to offering the business owner’s (or the professional’s, or the organizational executive’s) unique perspective on issues related to the search topic.

Several years ago, I read about a study performed at the University of Pennsylvania, in which participants were divided into three groups. Each individual was given $5 which they could choose to donate to a certain charitable organization after they learned more about it. A presentation was made to each group. Group A was given all kinds of statistics about the charity – size, budget, staff, funding sources, etc. Group B heard a story about a young girl who was helped by that organization. Group C was given both data and the story. Which group ended up donating the largest amount? You guessed it – the one that had heard the story, because the story gave meaning and insight into the data.

In blogging for business, data is a commodity, but insight – well, that’s gold!

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Blog Posts and Bradford Hill Criteria

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blog metrics

Back in 1965, Sir Austin Bradford Hill published a paper about the dose-response relationship. If X causes Y, the more of X you have, the more Y will result, is the concept.. While Bradford Hill’s original work related to disease causation, his methods are often used to evaluate cause/effect links in other fields.

Why is causation such an important research activity? “Causation influences decisions related to prognosis, diagnosis and treatment,” researchers found, and “findings also teach us about the functioning of healthy systems”. The authors point out that even though a condition may be found to respond to a certain treatment, that does not necessarily uncover the cause. Of that your headache!)

At Say It For You, our blog content writers know that consistently posting content that is accurate, dependable, and actionable attracts new customers and clients and keeps them coming back. But knowing whether, and how well, your tactics are doing in terms of accomplishing these goals involves verifying the “dose-response relationship” between the content and the results.

Three of the nine criteria Sir Bradford Hill proposed are:

1. Strength (effect size).
2. Consistency (reproducibility)
3. Specificity: (Causation is likely if there is a very specific population at a specific site)

Sometimes, Chief Marketing Officers forget to use the techniques they rely on with other forms of marketing when it comes to blogs, Heidi Cohen of the Content Marketing Institute observes. Metrics are needed to determine whether you’ve achieved your goals. Things worth “counting” include:

  • Visitors (where do they come from? Where specifically do they go on your site?)
  • Page views (where do visitors click to and where do they leave?)
  • Time on site (shows how engaged they are)
  • Signups for an RSS feed or newsletter

Different topics and different blog formats (even days of the week for publishing your blog) can then be tested Bradford Hill-style for strength, consistency and specificity.

To what extent, exactly, is your marketing blog “causing” marketing results? Bradford Hill can help you be in the know!

 

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For Humor and Allusions in Blogs, Make Sure Readers Don’t “Huh?”

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“Know your audience. Not everyone will think every joke is funny,” advises Michael Strecker in the book Young Comic’s Guide to Telling Jokes. Strecker’s advice applies to blog content writing, as we’ve learned through experience at Say it For You.

One reason certain jokes fall flat with certain audiences, I’m convinced, is not that those jokes are offensive or unfunny. It’s that many jokes are based on a cultural allusion that is simply not familiar to that audience.

A cultural allusion is an indirect reference to a person, place, or idea that is not directly described. Here are a few of Strecker’s jokes that will be funny to you only if you happen to recognize the allusion to history, literature, mathematics, geology, or the Bible…….

  • What was the sea creatures’ strike called? Octopi Wall Street.
    (The allusion is to the protest movement against economic inequality that started in New York City and which was named Occupy Wall Street.)
  • Who invented the ball point pen? The Incas.
    (The allusion is to the ancient Incan empire in the country of Peru.)
  • Why was the precious metal so silly? It was fool’s gold.
    (The allusion is to the metal pyrite, which has no value, but which resembles gold in its appearance. Many treasure-seekers foolishly mistook pyrite for gold.)
  • How did the dentist pay for his vision exam? An eye for a tooth.
    (The allusion is to a passage from the Bible about punishing a man who injures another – “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…)
  • What do you do at a math party? East pi and square dance.
    (The allusion is to pi, which is the ration of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, approximately 3.14.)
  • What do you call a street where Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, and James Patterson live? Writer’s Block.
    (The allusion is to three famous writers and to a psychological “block” in which a person represses painful thoughts of memories.)

In blog marketing, we might choose to use an allusion to get a point across without going into a lengthy explanation. Or, we might want to get readers thinking about our subject in a new way. We might even use allusions to cement a bond between our client and the blog readers, showing the business owner or practitioner has experienced some of the same problems and obstacles as their customers now face.

There’s only one problem – an allusion does not describe in detail the person or thing to which it’s referring – readers have to recognize the allusion. As content writers, we need to gauge our readers’ areas of interest and even their level of education. If they simply don’t know the underlying story, literary tale or other reference point, we could be leaving them scratching their heads, and asking “Huh?”

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Guest post: 3 Ways to Create an Extra income Stream from Home

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(Photo by Upsplash)

Want to earn an income but don’t know how or where to get started? Your home can be a money-making machine. Here are a few ways you can add to your finances by taking advantage of your own house…

Sell Items Online or in Yard Sales

If something’s just gathering dust in your house, consider selling it. You could have a cabinet or a couch you no longer need — sell them online! A yard sale is also an excellent idea if you have more items you need to dispose of that are in good condition. In addition, yard sales are visible and advertise themselves, which is an advantage over indoor sales. Make sure you check your local zoning laws and homeowner association restrictions to avoid issues.

Make Renovations and Share the Steps

Equity is the percentage of your home that’s already been paid off. If your home is worth significantly more than what you still owe on your home loan, you may be able to use that equity to pay for home enhancements or renovations. It’s a smart way to finance a renovation project. You may even enjoy tax deductions (if you use the money to enhance your home substantially) and low interest rates (because the property is used as collateral for the loan). Additionally, you can expect a healthy ROI with the right renovations, as well as sell the house quickly and for more money, if that’s something you’re considering.

Start a Blog or a YouTube Channel

Blogging is a smart way to make extra cash. If you like sprucing things up regularly in your home, create a website or a YouTube channel to share your home improvements, DIY projects, flips, and more. You can create an additional income stream by placing ads on your website and earning sponsorships (in time). Post often, research the best times to upload content, make your home enhancements compelling, and really provide valuable information — more people will like and share your videos and content this way, helping you earn more.

Affiliate marketing is another excellent way to make money when you run a home improvement blog. You could simply recommend products or items you like or personally use in your projects. Each time a client uses your link to purchase, you’ll earn a commission. Of course, you’ll need to reach and build up an audience for your platform to take off. Promote your posts and videos on social media accounts by sharing before and after images of your projects.

Making cash off your home is relatively easy as you have more options than you might realize. Whether through selling stuff you no longer need, starting a blog or vlog to document home renovation tips, use your home as the starting place to get your message across and get visitors coming back for more.

 

Today’s guest post was contributed by Seth Murphy.  Seth first dabbled in DIY projects because that was cost-effective. Now Seth hopes his blog, Papa DIY, will encourage readers to take a chance at tackling their own hands-on projects… check out Seth’s blog at https://papadiy.com/about-me/ 

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