In Blog Content Writing, Begin With What they Get!

/0 Comments/in /by

July fourth, 2012 was a big news day.  Capping more than fifty years of research, the European Center for Nuclear Research announced they’d found the Higgs boson, the so-called “God particle”, which gives all other particles their mass.  “Scientists and journalists scrambled to tell the public exactly what the Higgs boson was and what it did – not always successfully,” according to Time.

Since “explaining stuff” is a big part of any blog or web page copywriter’s challenge, I could really relate to what writer Jeffrey Kluger called the “odd and merry disconnect between how little most people truly understood the breaking news from the physics world and the celebratory reaction that nonetheless followed it”.

Certainly one highly important function of any company’s – or any professional’s – blog is to share news and announcements. And as those of us who provide blog content writing services know, readers must buy into the idea that this news is something they should care about.

But, before readers can care, they need to understand what it is that has happened! It’s hardly likely that any “celebratory reaction” is going to ensue if you haven’t gotten to Square One in terms of your audience comprehending your news. (What???” doesn’t usually lead to “Yeah!!”)

Given news on the order of “Salk Vaccine Works” or “Man Lands on Moon”, observes Kluger, we “get” it. But understanding the existence of a particle called the Higgs boson – that’s a “far harder hill to climb,” he says.

I once heard WIBC Radio”s Denny Smith make a comment that I considered very relevant for SEO marketing blogs: People are looking to their advisors for more than just information, he said. They need perspective. For every fact about the company or about one of its products or services, a blog post needs to address unspoken questions, beginning with “What does that mean?  What is that all about? Only after the light of understanding “dawns” can readers ask the only question that can really make a difference for the business owner or professional practitioner: “I get it, but how does that news affect me?”

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Use Guest Bloggers for Bad-Deal-or-Bargain Business Blog Posts

/0 Comments/in /by

Every industry or profession can be approached in different ways, and blog content writing for a business or professional practice is the perfect way to offer a “bi-partisan” presentation of the issues.

As a trainer in corporate blog writing, I know how crucial it is to differentiate yourself and clarify the special “slant” you have and your position on the issues faced by your industry or profession. I’ve gone so far as to tell new bloggers. “Blog more what you believe than what you do.”

An article that appeared two weeks ago in the Indianapolis Star called “A Bad Deal or a Bargain?” reminded me just how important it is in blog writing to express points of view in addition to offering product and service information.

The Star piece was addressing the debate about the Indiana Gasification Project, which would construct a plant in the southern part of the state to convert coal into “synthetic gas”. The newspaper page was divided down the middle. On the left side, Steven Francis of the Sierra Club and Ed Gerardot of the Indiana Community Action Assn. were making the point that a coal-to-gas plant would hurt ratepayers. On the right, Mark Lubbers, project director of the gasification company, discussed reasons why building the new plant makes sense.

I think the same effect could be achieved in blogging for a business or practice by having a guest blogger explain her point of view, then having the “host” blogger tell her side of the story.

Now, I’ve always taught that reading competitors' blog posts is a great form of market research for business owners launching their own blogging strategy.  Even repeating what established bloggers have said (of course in each case properly attributing the material to its source) forces "newbies" to think about what they might add to the discussion.

But today I’m talking about using your blog to present opinions on industry or professional issues.  Rather than you summarizing what others may think, or the way competitors have chosen to handle the problems, why not invite some of the actual “thought competitors” to express their ideas on your blog site?

In providing blog marketing services to my Say It For You clients, I try to keep in mind the rule Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham shared with Oprah: Always remember to write for people at least as smart as you are.

Why not use corporate blog writing to put conflicting views about a particular subject (your guest blogger’s view and your own) out there and let smart readers judge for themselves?
 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Where Does Business Blogging Time Go?

/0 Comments/in /by

The Book of Times includes facts on how long things take, how long they last, and how often they happen.

Always on the lookout for interesting insights about corporate blogging for business, I first learned of author Lesley Alderman’s fixation with counting stuff through my favorite magazine, Mental Floss, and of course couldn’t resist the temptation to parse time-related data on what I do as an Indianapolis freelance copy writer and professional ghost blogger.  After all, I reasoned, if a day may be thought of as made up of 28,000 hugs (3 seconds apiece), how might I measure the activities I teach in blog marketing training sessions?

"Creativity is a process", explains Vicky Earley of Artichoke Design, "and you need to give it the time necessary." Creativity often "meanders, considers, ponders, and only then delivers". According to ProBlogger, “researching and composing an excellent blog post for a business "can use up the better part of a day".

Early calls it “meandering”, but I teach writers of SEO marketing blogs the importance of “reading around”, and then “curating” others’ material. Finding and reading what other writers are saying and what the latest thought trends are in your field is a big part of successfully keeping up a corporate or professional practitioner blog. Say you’re posting new blog content every three days. Say you’ve allotted two hours of your time for each blog post, or 40 minutes per day, with one fourth of that time devoted to finding, reading, and processing that content. Using Alderman’s method of measuring time, each day of a blogger’s life is worth 144 “reading around”s!

By the same token, finding just the right photo or clip art to capture the theme of a blog post might take 10 minutes, say 3.33 minutes per day.  Since, in blogging for business, words and pictures are my only tools, I spend at least that much time “illustrating” posts. Measuring time the Alderman way, a day in a blog content writer’s life is made up of 432 “illustrations”.

Of course formatting the text to make it more readable, actually writing the copy, researching, editing, strategically employing keyword phrases, and just plain “thinking” about the topic – all these elements figure into the gestation of a  blog post.

Blog content writers – start measuring your time!
 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Should Business Bloggers Be Treadmill Walkers or Toshers?

/0 Comments/in /by

If we freelance content writers were living back in the 18th century, we might be making our living as toshers or treadmill walkers, both common occupations at the time, rather than by blogging for business.

Reading Mental Floss Magazine’s latest issue, I learned that treadmill walkers trudged all day to mill grain, while toshers wandered through sewers looking for trinkets.

Considering the sheer discipline needed to maintain an SEO marketing blog week after week, month after month, ex-treadmillers might actually be very well suited for corporate blog writing.  “What qualities make for a great ghost blogger? Drill sergeant discipline, for one,” I wrote five years ago, explaining that web rankings are based at least partially on frequency of posting new content.

But same-old, same-old isn’t going to go any further than treadmills (not even in terms of attracting readers through search engine optimization, as the now more sophisticated search engine algorithms judge content by relevance and response along with recency).

Of course, sheer repetition of what-we-sell, what-we-do, what-we-know content won’t go very far in terms of engaging the interest of any who do land on a business’ or practice’s blog page, I’d recommend bloggers focus on “toshing” their way to the top.

“Trinkets” likely to be of business blogging help include:

  • interesting pieces of information on topics related to your business (or, if you’re a freelance blog content writer,  related to the client’s business). If you can provide information most readers wouldn’t be likely to know, so much the better.
     
  • “startling statistics” are important in blogging for business, because that information helps engage online readers’ interest.
     
  • anecdotes relating to the business owners and hardships they overcame in establishing the business


Back in the 18th century, the trick to being a top-notch tosher was sifting out or shloshing out the garbage and rescuing the treasure.  A successful blog marketing strategy involves much sifting and sorting as well.  Then, it’s crucial for writers to create a clear thought path – from those fascinating tidbits in your business blog writing to the benefits online readers stand to gain.

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

In Blogging for Business, Keep So-Long-As Short!

/0 Comments/in /by

"If you plan to stay anywhere within your home remodeling budget," cautioned the interveiwee on a Destination DIY radio episode I heard just the other day, "stay away from 'so-long-as' extras."  "So-long-as-we're-fixing-up-the-kitchen-we-might-as-well-add-…." can turn out to be a very expensive train of thought, she explained.

"So-long-as" add-ons in blog content writing tend to get "expensive" in a different way.  Attempting to cover too much ground in a single blog post, we lose focus, straining our readers' attention span.
 

"One message per post" is the mantra I pass on to newbie Indianapolis blog writers.  In fact, because blog posts are updated so much more frequently, they have a distinct advantage over more "static" general website copy.  Each post, I teach in corporate blogging training sessions, should contain a razor-sharp focus on just one story, one idea, one aspect of  your business.  Other important things you want to discuss?  Save those for later blog posts, I tell them.

Still, I like the idea employee benefits professional Mel Schlesinger teaches salespeople – adding an "Oh, by the way…" to describe an add-on service or product feature.  In SEO blog marketing, you can lead to your "so-long-as" information with a link to another page, an offer of a down-loadable while paper, or by simply telling readers to watch for information on that other product or service in your next blog post.

Keeping the primary focus is crucial in business blog writing, though, because online searchers tend to be scanners rather than readers.  Truth is, many will not ever get far enough into your post to even notice the "so long as" part!

In Do-It-Yourself projects, "so-long-as" add-ons may not be a very smart idea from a budget standpoint.  In business blog writing, lack of focus can get uncomfortable costly as well.  But for readers who stick with you, you can use "so-long-as" add-ons to let them know you have lots more helpful information, products, and services to fill their needs.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail