Vice-O-Meter for Blog Content Writers

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We all have our vices, says Dr. Oz, who devised his Vice-o-Meter to give readers a sense of which habits do real harm and to suggest strategies for breaking them once and for all.

Business bloggers have common vices, too.  So, by way of corporate blogging training, I thought a Vice-o-Meter for content writers (both business owners and professional ghost bloggers) would prove useful.

Consuming more than one drink a day –
After one serving, the cons of drinking alcohol start to outweigh the pros, says Oz.

The parallel bad habit in corporate blog writing?  Focusing on more than one main concept in any one post. Remember the Power of One. Your one idea might include busting one myth, offering one testimonial, describing one special application for your product or service, one problem and how you help solve it, or one new development in your company or industry. Try to do more than that in any one post and the cons start to outweigh the pros.


Constant sitting –
A sedentary lifestyle, Dr. Oz explains, increases the risk of disease. Embrace NEAT, he advises (non-exercise activity thermogenesis or small movements throughout the day).

The parallel in blogging for professional practitioners or business owners? Allowing the blog to become “inactive”, with weeks and even months elapsing without posting fresh content. It's crucial to maintain frequency and consistency in posting content on the Web; both of these are measures search engines use in ranking a blog, and a higher ranking makes it easier for you to "get found" by your potential customers.

Yo-Yo dieting –
Continually losing weight, then putting it back on is hard on the cardiovascular system.

The parallel lesson I stress to Indianapolis blog content writers is “yo-yo blogging”.  Spacing SEO marketing blog posts at regular intervals and maintaining consistency has a double advantage. The blogging becomes part of the business owner’s or blogger’s routine. Meanwhile regular readers and subscribers (and search engines as well!) come to expect a regular flow of information.


Walking in high heels every day –
Towering shoes disrupt blood flow to the legs while putting strain on leg muscles and tendons. “If you’re not ready to give up stilettos, at least change into more supportive shoes for walking farther than the printer,” cautions Oz.

This parallel might seem a bit of a stretch (no pun intended!), but showing off by using blogging as advertising almost always turns out to have a negative effect on readers.  In blogging for business, it’s better to take an advertorial, “trusted adviser” stance, softening your selling approach.

Have you checked your blog writing vice-o-meter lately?

 

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When Bloopers Aren’t Funny for Business Blogs and Websites

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 The more I keep reminding blog content writers in Indianapolis how important it is to be fastidious with the language used on web pages and blogs, the more examples of sloppiness seem to stare me in the face whenever I surf the Web.

“In general,” says zdnet.co,uk, “we can slip up in a verbal conversation and get away with it.”  That’s not the case with written communications, zdnet adds.  “When we commit a grammatical crime in emails, discussion posts, reports, memos, and other professional documents, there’s no going back. We’ve just officially gone on record as being careless or clueless.”

You don’t have to be a corporate blogging trainer or professional ghost blogger to notice, either.  Take a look at these website bloopers:

From the Jewelry Blog:

If you planed all year long to get something valuable as a gift this holiday…

Say It For You asks, “Did you aviate?”
 

 From the Marcy Design Services website:

Building a web site is only one part of the equation. Your company also needs to attract attention as well.

Say It For You asks, “Don’t  the expressions ‘also” and ‘as well” mean the same thing?”
 

From the Spork marketing blog:

“…and in that respect it accomplishes it’s basic mission.”

Say It For You really isn’t laughing at this one – Spork’s actually referring to grammar and spelling errors on a sign!

I found the same ist/it’s mistake in the title of an Austin Bling blog post:

Amethyst and it’s meaning, the birthstone for February

Say It For You reminds business copy writers that “it’s” is not a pronoun – it means “it is”.


It doesn’t take a blog content writer or a copy editor to realize that bloopers like these aren’t funny.  Understandable slip-ups? Maybe.  An impassioned public speaker might remain unaware of the spinach morsel caught in his own teeth until it’s too late to re-engage his audience. “If a visitor sees a spelling mistake on the site, he will naturally assume that the carelessness applies to the business as a whole,” warns conversionmedic.com.

When it comes to business blog content writing, it pays to be fastidious!

 

 

 

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The Balancing Act in Blogging for Business

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 “There’s a balancing act that must take place between authenticity and brand image,” reflects sporkmarketing.com. Referring to videos on websites, Spork points out that “Today’s consumers are so inundated with slick advertising, they’re much more likely to trust a poor quality video made by a regular person than anything produced by a professional.” The other side of the coin, Spork cautions, is that “low quality ads send the wrong message about a company’s inherent value”.
 

As a professional ghost blogger, I found Spork’s remarks very much on target. One of the biggest challenges faced by all of us Indianapolis blog content writers is finding that authenticity/brand quality balance.

In today’s competitive business world (as any good freelance blog content writer needs to keep in mind), corporate blogging for business represents an ideal tool for “getting personal” and earning trust. Business owners need their SEO marketing blogs to express who and what they are. What makes them tick?  What “ticks them off” about their industry? In short, business blog writing needs to be real.

Being real, though, doesn’t mean being sloppy, as I’m constantly reminding business owners and professional practitioners during corporate blogging training sessions. Grammar and spelling errors, like the low video quality in the ads Spork describes, make for low quality blog posts, in turn sending nothing but the wrong message to online readers.

Robin Nobles of searchengineworkshops.com agrees. “Our websites are our online store fronts,“ Nobles says. “If our sites are full of grammar errors, what does that say about the professionalism of our businesses?” On the same subject, blog maven Ted Demopoulis adds, “There's a difference between more formal business writing and blog writing, but "that's no excuse" (for typos, misspelled words, and poor grammar).

Not sure how to strike the right balance between branding and authenticity for your online business marketing? A professional ghost blogger could help you hone your balancing act!


 

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Expert, Serious, and Real Blogging for Business

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Stuck in traffic behind a Bob Block truck, I  reflected that there was much for Indianapolis blog writers to learn from the simple, six-word message on the vehicle:

  • Expert advice
     
  • Serious equipment
     
  • Real results

As a corporate blogging trainer, one question I’m asked most often has to do with blog post length. In an earlier Say It For You post, I quoted Charles of netbulders.org, who looks at blog title length and content as equally important. 

But before considering word count in corporate blogging for business, I think blog content writers need to focus.  The Bob Block truck signage provides a perfect model, exemplifying a business value proposition with three simple parts:

  • The owners’ expertise (“expert advice”)

Buyers want more than just products. Blog content writing can introduce readers to business owners, explaining the owners’ specialty or niche within their field, their special “philosophy” about their area of practice or their industry, and their unique approach to providing client services. 

  • The excellence of the product or service (“serious equipment”)

“You go into your local store to buy something and all you can see are products on the shelf with names and prices.  There is nobody to talk to and no other information available, just products on shelves and prices.  Today, that’s what a business is without an accompanying blog.” says Nick Semon of Insulation Stop.

  • What’s in it for the customer (“real results”)

Your business blog writing must give online searchers a “feel” for the desired outcomes of using your products and services.

Not sure you’re ready to tackle the writing of an SEO marketing blog for your business or practice?  Start by composing a six-word signage ad for your business or practice, modeled after the Bob Block truck.

The interesting thing I’ve found over the years of blog writing for business is that the very exercise of thinking through the themes and the ideas for a blog helps train the business owner or practitioner to articulate those ideas when they’re talking to their customers!  At Say It For You, we call this” the “training benefit” of corporate blogging.

Content writing for business IS my business. But, now, getting the message condensed into six words?  That poses a challenge even for this professional ghost blogger!
 

 

 

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Business Blogging to the Tune of a Single Powerful Idea

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 What do architectural monuments have to do with blog content writing for business?  A lot, I learned from an article by Paul Goldberger in Vanity Fair.

Two of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s granddaughters and noted architect Frank Gehry have very different ideas, it seems, about the best way to design a Washington, D.C. memorial to Ike.

As a corporate blogging trainer, I was very interested in the question posed by Goldberger:

                     Does the government have the right to build a memorial to
                           anyone’s grandfather that is not to the heirs’ taste?

Of course, when it comes to professional ghost bloggers, the answer to a parallel question would be an emphatic “No!”   After all, ghost bloggers are “professionals who work hard to deliver the company voice and value through their writing,” as social media maven Jason Falls explains. 

The emphasis, though, has to be on the company voice. Indianapolis blog writers, I teach, must be able to “hear double”, picking up on not only what clients want to say, but on each client’s unique style of expression.  The goal, I explain to new Say It For You clients, either business owners or professional practitioners, is to speak YOUR message, in YOUR voice, to YOUR potential customers.  “A good ghost blogger, I like to add, should be neither seen nor heard.”

According to author Paul Goldenberger, architect Frank Gehry works very hard not to impose his own “voice” on the assignment, instead talking to client, colleagues, and friends to gain insights before creating the design for any monument. In similar fashion, those of us who provide business blogging services must interact with our clients, their employees, their web administrators, and their customers, to achieve the right “feel” for their SEO marketing blog.

“For all that the war over the Eisenhower Memorial has been cast as a battle between modernism and traditional design,” posits Goldenberg, “it’s really not that at all. The greatest memorials, whatever their architectural style, have conveyed a single, powerful idea with absolute clarity.”

Here, too, there’s a lesson for corporate blog writing. Smaller and lighter in scale, much more flexible than the more permanent content on the typical corporate website, blogs should focus on one idea per post.That could include busting one myth, offering one testimonial from a user, describing one special application for your product, citing one common problem your product or service helps solved, or relating facts about one new development in your industry.

Blog posts tend to be more effective when they focus on a single, powerful idea!


 

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