Blog Content Writers as SME’s

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“You do not want to be a product or service in search of a need,” warns Jack Kwicien in Employee Benefit Advisor. So, what DO we want to be?” blog content writers in Indianapolis might ask.  “You want to address a critical need and be perceived as subject matter experts,” explains Kwicien.

According to About.Com, “a Subject Matter Expert is an individual who understands a business process or area well enough to answer questions from people in other groups who are trying to help.” Actually, the term SME (pronounced “smee”) is not new to me: When I was a developmental editor for Pearson Education, the course writers would turn to the SME’s for specialized knowledge to put into student textbooks..

I can see Kwicien’s advice being helpful not only to employee benefits providers, but to business blog writers in Indianapolis. The Think eBiz Blog agrees. “The blog should not be sales oriented…This follows the business networking notion of give and give….Provide good useful information and establish trust and credibility – sales will follow,” Think eBiz Blog concludes.

In corporate blogging training sessions, the part about providing good, useful information is one important lesson I need to get across to newbie blog content writers. I keep coming back to the idea that business blog writing should be conversational and informational, not sales-y. The fact is, readers understand you’re writing for business purposes. In fact, the reason those readers found your site in the first place is that what you sell or what you do is a good match for their needs.

Kwicien’s advice can be of great business blogging assistance.  You want to be perceived as a subject matter expert offering usable information and insights. Remember that in corporate blogging for business, the blog content itself constitutes a Call to Action!  Once readers feel assured that you know your stuff and that you care about offering good information and good service, they might be ready to take action before they even read all the way into the blog post!

In blogging for business, to work on making sales, work on being SME’s!

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Putting a Spin on It in Blog Content Writing for Business

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Business blog posts are multi-purpose tools. One use of corporate blog content writing is putting your own “spin” on any messages the public might be receiving about your industry – or about you – from competitors or critics. Blogs are a way for business owners to exercise control over any negative perceptions and a tool for correcting any inaccurate press statements.

In this year’s highly charged political climate, of course, “spin” is something we’ve come to expect.  In fact, we’re subjected to an overload of “spin”, which might be the reason we feel such distrust about politicians’ messages. Since, as a corporate blogging trainer, I help business owners and professional practitioners craft their messages, it’s important that what we convey  to their clients and customers (and to the online searchers who are their prospects) goes towards alleviating mistrust and creating confidence, not eroding it..

Remember, I teach in corporate blogging training sessions, a blog is not an ad. You’re providing information with a particular “slant” or “twist” that showcases your expertise in your field or the special qualities of your product.

A joke from China illustrates “spin” at its most exaggerated:

  A chess player who thought highly of his own skill once lost
                        three games in a row.  The next day, a friend asked him how
                        the games had turned out. “I didn’t win the first game,” the
                        chess player replied, “and my opponent didn’t lose the second.”
                        “As for the third game, I asked him to agree to draw, but he
                        wouldn’t.”  

How do you exercise journalistic control through business blogging? It’s a matter of timing. Even the best-designed websites are rarely flexible enough to allow day-to-day, even hour-by-hour updating. With blog posts, businesses have the ability to put out the news about themselves – now, and with their own slant on it!

And (to put a professional ghost blogger’s “spin” on that) many business owners with little time to manage social media and to create content, can, through hiring a blogging professional, be assured of presenting their own perspective on events.

Kyle Lacy explains that it's actually not possible to control the way people choose to interpret your message. But by remaining alert and involved, you can exercise damage control by taking the conversation offline with individual customers and by directly confronting whatever is happening.

Blogging for business, of course, has an important corollary benefit when it comes to controlling the message: material that is both recent and frequently posted is more likely to be indexed by search engines and help the business "get found"!

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Things Your Blog Content Writers WILL Tell You

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“There’s no legal definition of a meteorologist, so anybody can call him – or herself one and get away with it.” That’s just one of the “13 Things Your TV Weatherman Won’t Tell You” in Reader’s Digest.

Things-your-whoever-won’t-tell-you is a useful format for SEO marketing blogs.  Michele Crouch, the author of the Readers’ Digest piece, advises readers, “Try to get your weather from someone certified by the American Meteorological Society.” As a corporate blogging trainer, I’d call that “selling by contrast”, in which blog  content writers direct blog visitors’ attention to the business owner’s or professional practitioner’s special expertise and credentials.

“The dewpoint – not the relative humidity – is the best measure of how humid it feels outside”, we learn. Interesting information tidbits like this can be used in blog content to engage readers’ attention.  In fact, it’s just this sort of information that gets “favorited” and forwarded by readers to friends and relatives.

Blog content that gives readers an “inside peek” into the workings of a business or practice is effective in forging a relationship with potential clients and customers.  “In many cases,” Reader’s Digest confides, “the meteorologist is the highest-paid person on the broadcast…That’s probably why the stations with the best weather people usually have the best ratings.” That’s precisely the sort of “inside scoop” designed to elicit an “I didn’t know that!” response from blog visitors.

“Being human means being effective in business blog writing.  People want to do business with people, and people have failings. “Our long-range forecasts aren’t very accurate.  We’re quite good at one to three days out and decent five to seven days out,” admits Crouch on behalf of her self and her fellow meteorologists.

In Creating Buzz With Blogs, veteran business technology consultant Ted Demopoulos explains, "Blogs create buzz because people will feel like they know you, and people like to do business with people they know." 

“Don’t take a shower during a thunderstorm,” warns Crouch. “You can get struck by lightning due to metal plumbing, which conducts electricity.” People getting “scared” into action is an important topic in marketing, including SEO marketing blogs. Specifically, business owners and those providing blog writing services need to weigh the effectiveness of fear tactics in galvanizing customers into action.

In business blog writing, while it’s important to appeal to readers’ need to avoid pain, (electrocution in the bathtub, for example!) you’re more likely to “win friends and influence people” in your blog posts by giving searchers a “feel” for the relief and comfort they’ll gain after using your products and services.

 

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Blog Content Writers Doing Less, Better

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Aussie Peter Sheahan’s talk at the National Speakers Association Convention was a highlight for me.  In advising professional speakers on ways to drive revenue, Sheahan might have been talking to Indianapolis blog content writers, I thought.

Sheahan’s offers three rules for success:

  • Do less, better.
     
  • Be buyer-centric.
     
  • Treat it like a business.

I was sort of listening to Peter from two points of view – as a speaker and as a professional ghost blogger and corporate blogging trainer.

Do less better.
Narrow down both opportunities and activities.  Check your business model – how do you intend to make money?  What will and what won’t you sell? Don’t spread your energy. Pick a “channel”, give it all you’ve got, and get rid of the rest," Sheahan cautioned. By trying to “hedge your bets”, appealing to diverse audiences, you risk appealing to none.
.
Blogging for business is all about focus.  In fact, each blog post needs to have a laser-sharp focus on one central idea. Online readers’ notoriously short attention span is one factor that dictates focus in SEO marketing blogs.

Be buyer-centric.
Do everything with the buyers’ needs in mind, focusing on the desired results of what you have to offer. .”Get in the right category first,” he says.  “Then, align your materials with their specific needs.”

Blog content writers need to “get in the category”, too, as online readers find the blog through organic search, which is search by category. Only then is it possible to engage those readers with the uniquely presented, usable information in the content itself.

Treat it like a business.
For many speakers, Sheahan points out, it’s all about their passion and what they love to do, not about a real need they’ve found in the marketplace.

Smart corporate blog writing must help online searchers feel they’re being addressed as individuals and that the business owners understand their problems and wishes. In other words, potential customers aren’t going to “get it” and transact business with us until we prove we “get” THEM!

Focused, buyer-centric, business-aimed content can help propel professional speakers to the next level.  Needless to say, "the next level" is exactly where all clients who use business blogging services want to be!

 

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Everyday Terms Explain Complicated Concepts in Blog Content Writing for Business

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In SEO marketing blogs, one technique corporate blog content writers can use to engage readers is building a blog post around an unlikely comparison in order to explain an aspect of their business or professional practice. For one thing, suggesting a totally new way of using your product or service, an “off-the wall” comparison may open up new possibilities for that potential customer to do business with you.

Given the short attention span of the typical web searcher, putting elements together that, on the surface, don’t seem related can be a good teaching tool.

But, to avoid “over-seasoning the meal”, corporate blog content writers need to be careful and avoid overstretching those comparisons.
 
Mental Floss Magazine writer Adam Raymond understands the challenge of explaining highly complicated and even abstract concepts, and his way of using kitchen items to help get those concepts across could be of business blogging help, I imagine.
 

  • The “Big Bang Theory” of our universe’s origins is like baking a blueberry muffin.  (As the batter’s temperature rises, the muffin expands and the blueberries, representing the planets and stars, grow further apart.)
     
  • The philosophy of Existentialism, which holds that individuals are responsible for giving their own life meaning, is explained with ketchup.  (Ketchup is used as an ingredient or as a topping for other foods, but it must find meaning in its own existence.)

My corporate blogging training question is this: What process or product that you employ in your business or profession can be explained using a kitchen item?

Is Raymond overstretching with his metaphors? Similes are simpler to use in corporate blogging for business, as we can see from a second Mental Floss article dealing with oversized vegetables.  Had Meghan Healy instructed readers how to cultivate 65-pound melons, that wouldn’t have been nearly as engaging as her title “How to Grow a Cantaloupe the Size of a 4th Grader.”

 Online searchers almost certainly lack expert knowledge in your field. That makes it difficult for them to judge if your prices are fair, how experienced you are relative to your peers, and where you “place” in the big “scheme” of products and services. Is your business “small”? Compared to what? In what ways is “small” better for this particular service or product? Is your approach to your field different from most others? Is that good?

Use everyday terms to explain complicated concepts in blog writing for business!


 


 

 

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