Friday Staff Meetings Back for Yahoo and Blog Writers in Indiana

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New CEO Marissa Mayer is making headlines at Yahoo, bringing over certain management techniques from her former employer (Google). As I read this story in the Wall Street Journal, I couldn’t help thinking about my own (teensy-tiny by comparison with Yahoo, of course) professional ghost blogging company in Indianapolis. At least four of the Mayer “makeover” moves mentioned in the Journal can serve as good practices for business blog content writers.
 

Focus on users
Explaining to employees why she’d removed Yahoo’s stock ticker from the internal website homepage, Mayer said, “I want you thinking about users, not about finances”.

Your blog isn’t about you, not at all – it’s about them! A wise man once said that everyone’s favorite radio station is WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) Use your blog to offer searchers the relevant, up to date information they came to find. Give it to them in short paragraphs and in conversational style. Remember to focus on the users of your products and services.  Make your blog content writing all about them and about how safe (or better looking, smarter, more secure, happier, healthier, more relieved) they’ll feel when they’ve taken advantage of what you have to offer.
 

Use more data
Mayer has stressed the need to use more data on ways people use Yahoo’s services.

Even if blogging for business helps my client’s company or professional practice “win search” so that the blog’s consistently appearing in a coveted Page One spot on Google, Yahoo, or Bing, there’s work to be done tracking how many new potential customers “showed up” at the website (or in person at the place of business) because of the blog. That means learning exactly who those customers are and whether they fall into the demographic that business is trying to attract. Surveys and interviews with selected customers can give my clients the data they need to make marketing decisions.


Play the web
Mayer was urging Yahoo to get more of its content on other websites.

Indanapolis business bloggers can “play the web” through posting guest blogs on others’ websites.  In corporate blogging training sessions, I explain how online “networking” can be done by “curating” material written by others, then emailing or phoning the author, inviting them to comment on and link to that blog post mentioning their work.
 

Friday staff meeting
“She has already begun weekly meetings, where she makes announcements and fields employees’ questions,” reports Amir Efrati.

Mayer apparently appreciates the value of frequency and consistency of contact with the employees. Frequency and consistency are vital to the success of  SEO marketing blogs.
Readers and search engines each know to “expect” fresh content. Freelance blog content writers are helping their business owner and professional practitioner clients build equity in keyword phrases over time. 

Now there’s a question we freelance blog writers need to ask ourselves every so often:
Wouldn’t a makeover be of business blogging help?

 

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Tips For Assistance Give Big Assist to Corporate Blog Content Writers

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On the flight home from my Pacific Northwest vacation, I tore out a page from my complimentary copy of American Way Magazine titled “Tips for Assistance When Your Flight Has Been Delayed or Canceled”.

What did I like so much about this piece, and what elements can be incorporated into SEO marketing blogs?

 

  • It offers valuable information to us passengers without attempting to sell us anything. Website information,   the #1 -800 reservations number, and information about the AA.com Notification Center are all included.

    Hitting precisely the right "advertorial" note is the big challenge in corporate blog writing. In fact, one point I've consistently stressed in these Say It For You blog content writing "tutorials" is how important it is to provide valuable information to readers, while avoiding any hint of "hard sell".
     

  • It shows American Airlines understands its customers’ concerns: retrieving lost luggage, dealing with flight insurance and with unexpected expenses.

    In corporate blog posts, you target a particular audience and work to address their needs. As time passes, you continually hone your content in light of your own deepening understanding of what makes that group of people “tick”.
     

  • It manages to convey the thought that American Airlines is there to serve:  “We expect, as you do, that American Airlines and American eagle will operate flights on time…Our goal is to get you to your destination safely and quickly as possible.”

    I teach business blog content writers the power of using first and second person pronouns rather than the more impersonal third person. Notice all the “we” and “you” going on. Blogs need to sound like real people talking to other real people.

 

The article is divided into sub-topics with “bolded” titles and bullet points throughout, serving up the content in well-organized fashion.

That bullet points in general are a good fit for blogs is actually something I stress in corporate blogging training sessions. By most accounts, search engines like bullet points. Even more important, I’ve found over my years as a professional ghost blogger, bullet points keep everyone on track.

 That American Airlines “Tips for Assistance” article, I concluded, was going to be of a whole lot of assistance in blogging for business!

 


 

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A Blog By Any Other Name – Not as Sweet for Search: Part Two

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With any business blog, I explained the other day, there’s no getting away from it – the title is going to be the first thing readers (and search engines, for that matter) are going to encounter.

To illustrate a couple of important points about elements Indianapolis blog writers ought to include in the titles of business blog posts, I chose three headlines from the August 4th issue of the Indianapolis Star, and on Monday, discussed the first of those. Here’s the second of the series:


“At the Airport, What Once Was Lost Now is Found”
(The article describes the vast and random collection of items left at the airport by passengers.)

An engaging title – no?  I know it aroused my curiosity – just what was lost and now found? I wondered.

For a blog, however, the title could be better.  In a corporate blogging training session, I might advise content writers to ask themselves what words a reader might type into the search bar that would lead them to this article about lost items left at the Indianapolis airport.

“The Lost and Found Department at the Indianapolis Airport” – that title would be more informative, to be sure (as a reader, I’d know whether I’d come to the right place to get the information I needed), but somewhat prosaic (read booo-ring). How about this one: “At Indianapolis Airport, Between Arrivals and Departures, There’s Lost and Found.”
(I invite Say It For You readers to submit their own versions of this title.)

We business bloggers love to write, but we sometimes forget an important fact: online searchers don’t (at least not generally) like to read. Instead, they scan to be sure your blog content a) answers their question and b) shows them how to satisfy their need or solve their problem.

Indianapolis freelance blog content writers must remember, as well, that the search engines must make that match between the inquiry and the blog content. The title is the “Aha!”, verifying that match.

 

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Corporate Blogging By Any Other Name – Not as Sweet in Search: Part One

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Before you sneak a glance at their nametags, their faces are going to be the first thing you notice about strangers at a party or networking meeting.  With business blogs, by contrast, there’s no getting away from it – the titles are going to be the first thing readers (and search engines, for that matter) are going to encounter.

Call me old-fashioned if you will, but I appreciate getting my paper copy of the Indianapolis Star delivered to my door every morning.  To illustrate a couple of important points about elements Indianapolis blog writers ought to include in the titles of business blog posts, I chose three headlines from the August 4th issue of the Star.

Let me explain, first off, that as a professional ghost blogger and corporate blogging trainer, I don’t deal in what Seth Godin would call “cat blogs” and “boss blogs”, only in viral blogs.  I call viral blogs SEO marketing blogs, which are created to help search engines connect the blog to strangers who have a need for information about specific products or services.

Here’s the first Indianapolis Star headline:

“Insurance Will Help Rescue Farmers”
(The article shows the effect the drought continues to have on farmers and consumers.)

The good thing about this title is that it makes clear what readers can expect to find in the article.  From a business blog content writer’s point of view, specifying “crop insurance” would be more focused, as would saying “Indiana farmers”.  Of course, the Star isn’t “marketing” anything here. But, were this a business blog offered by, say, a seed company or agricultural commodities investment firm, the title could be used to target Indiana farmers.

One of the main motivators for having an SEO marketing blog in the first place is to “get found” by the ‘right people”. (Who are those? People already interested in what you have to sell, what you know, and what you know how to do.)

Blog titles can be really important stuff. That’s because titles have a triple function – engage readers, offer an overview of the topic of the post, and incorporate keyword phrases to attract search engine matches.
 

At Say It For You, we know there’s nothing old-fashioned about carefully crafting the title of each business blog post!

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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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