Could Penny Press be Talking About Corporate Blogging for Business?

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“Quotefalls” are a type of puzzle I like to solve in PennyDell Puzzle Magazine, and I Quotefallsfound one puzzle solution the other day that might’ve been written specifically for blog content writers:

“There’s a big difference between having to say something and
having something to say.”

Since, as I teach in corporate blogging training sessions, such a large part of the success of any SEO marketing blog is tied to the frequency with which new content is posted, that means business owners (and we, the professional ghost bloggers they hire to create blog content on their behalf), in essence have to say something, at least every few days!

The problem isn’t a lack of “something to say.”  After all, explaining each product and each service a business offers, and doing that in understandable, engaging fashion, helping online readers envision the positive results of taking action, plus describing whatever special slant or approach the business takes in its marketplace compared to the competition – Heaven knows, there’s plenty of fodder for freelance blog writers to turn into regular blog posts.  That seems to hold true – for the first week, maybe the first month or so…

But what happens after that? With more than four years writing for businesses and professionals of every ilk, hiring writers to help with the task, and offering business blogging help to owners, managers, and employees, I’ve seen it happen again and again.  Energy flags, new ideas come few and far between, with the intervals between blog posts growing longer as time passes.

The very best business blogging advice I can offer at that point is itself a quote (but not at all puzzling!):

"The more you know about, the more you can blog about.”

To deliver quality writing of any kind, including quality business blogs, we blog content writers simply must keep educating ourselves, reading everything from books to blogs, from websites to billboards, reading newspapers and magazines, even comics.  We need to be out there networking, talking to people and hearing their opinions, listening and then thinking about how to take what we’ve seen and heard and use it to bring our message (or our clients’ messages) to readers.

No, providing blog writing services isn’t easy, but, in many respects, it is simple.  Enrich ourselves, and our writing will take on a richer quality.  There IS a big difference between having to blog something and have something to blog about.  WE blog content writers make that difference. 

Quality blogging ‘R us!


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Ghost Bloggers Can Be Like Tiger Woods’ Coach

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Tiger WoodsFriend and business coach Jack Klemeyer has a very interesting take on why top-notch professionals, Tiger Woods included, hire professional coaches – “Coaches offer a bird’s eye view on whatever it is that is going on.”

Over time, Klemeyer noticed, Tiger has been on his best game when he is using a coach. Each time the golfer has decided to go it alone without benefit of coaching, his game has seemed to suffer.  This begs the question of whether Tiger’s coach is a better golfer than Woods himself. Since he obviously is not, how then can the coach give Tiger pointers, tips or advice to improve his game?

As a professional ghost blogger offering corporate blogging training, I think Klemeyer’s answer is very relevant to the whole field of ghost-blogging.  Since very few business owners can take the time to compose corporate blog content with enough consistency and frequency to make a difference in search results, how can freelance blog content writers (who are obviously not as knowledgeable in that field), possibly do an effective job of it on business owners’ behalf?

Ever since Say It For You was established to provide SEO marketing blogs and web content for business owners, I and the writers under contract to me are out to accomplish the following:

  • Provide information that is valuable to readers and which satisfies the needs that brought them online to find answers
  • Demonstrate the particular expertise and history of the company or the professional practitioner and how they are different from their competitors
  • Provide a clear navigation path that brings readers closer to becoming  clients and customers of that business or practice

    “A good coach,” says Klemeyer, “can see things objectively without emotional connection to the situation.” In an ideal corporate blogging situation, whether          the business owner him or herself is doing the writing or collaborating with an Indianapolis blog content writer like me, the very process of discussion what
    the focus of the blog will be is one of self-discovery for the business owner.

Two recent testimonials from Say It For You clients prove this point:

Financial planner in Texas:  “Say It For You helped me, a numbers guy, put into words what I know in my heart but couldn’t verbalize.”

Owner of corporate instructional design firm: “We specialize in a relatively technical profession and I was initially concerned that an outside party might not be able to truly grasp what we do and the business problems we solve. I was so pleased by how quickly our Say It For You ghost blogger was able to gain a deep understanding or our profession and what we wanted to communicate.”

Golf coaches and ghost bloggers share the mission of bringing out the best in our clients!

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Control/Z-ing and Control/-V-ing by Content Writers in Indianapolis

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Tech maven Patric (“Mr. Noobie”) Welch’s for-the-masses “noo” tip of the week reminds readers to use the Ctl-Z key combination to undo mistakes.

Patric Welch, Mr. NoobieIn the same vein, in corporate blogging training sessions I advise business owners that one function their SEO marketing blog can serve is correcting mistakes – not only mistaken information that may have been inadvertently published in a former blog post, but as a response to a negative reader comment or to negative publicity in general.

Ironically, I caution those new to blog writing for business, many of the comments you recieve are actually more likely to be negative in tone (or represent attempts to promote readers’ own businesses by “piggybacking” on your blog)! In the case of any negative event or negative comment, I explain, business blogging is the ideal tool for you to quickly react. Many business owners report that solving a customer’s problem or complaint resulted in them becoming loyal fans. In short, c+ontrol-Z ing” in blog content writing means using the blog for what social media expert Kyle Lacy calls “controlling your message.”

Fellow writer Dan Eldridge reminded me of a way blog content writers can use the key combination which is the opposite of Ctl-Z,  Ctl-V (“Insert”).  Say there’s been a change in a situation described by an Indianapolis blog writer in an earlier blog post.  The situation has now changed.  The content writer can go back to that original post and, at the very top or the very bottom of the post, write an update, usually in bold type. That way, when online readers come across that post, they’ll get a true picture of the situation as it is now, because it’s been “Control-V’d!

Don’t you just love the flexibility of business blog writing?   As a professional ghost blogger, I certainly do!


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How Not to be Boring in Corporate Blog Writing – More Fortune 500 Examples to Follow

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excitementLast week, knowing that the last thing any of my Say It For You blog readers would want for their blog is to have it be labeled “BOR-ing”, I introduced five companies who made the list of Forrester’s Top 15 Corporate Blogs.

I examined ways in which we Indianapolis blog content writers might put those lessons to use.  And, while, as a corporate blogging trainer, I don’t necessarily agree with all of the picks, I think there are things to learn from the reasons Forrester gave for liking certain corporate blogs more than others.

37signals “rarely blogs about their products, instead devoting their blog content writing to sharing advice about business and other topics.” In offering business blogging assistance, I stress that valuable information highlighing the expertise and commitment of the business owner makes for more compelling reading than lists of claims.

Southwest Airlines (“Nuts about Southwest”) blogs about itself and the industry with a personal touch, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Corporate blog writing at its best allows readers to identify with the business in a personal way.  Remember, people want to do business with people.

Quicken Loans (Quizzle Blog) posts advice on understanding the home loan market. Blog content writers need to bring lesser-known facts to readers about the products and processes the company offers, and suggest new ways of thinking about things readers already know.

Accenture taps employees, who share insights on technology, hiring, and consulting.
In any SEO marketing blog, it’s valuable to involve all members of the marketing team, plus as many employees and stakeholders as you can.  Even if it’s not practical for them to write blog posts, their input can enrich the corporate blog immensely. 

Seagate‘s Marketing Manager Pete Seege writes fun posts, such as one about Batman’s storage requirements. In that vein, I advise using unlikely comparisons in business blogging. The new cheetah exhibit at the Indianapolis Zoo is a great example of helping your audience understand what you do by comparing the unfamiliar with the familiar. The sign at the zoo compares cheetahs to race cars, with the car chassis being the animal’s skeleton, the tires being like the claws, and the cheetah’s foot pads serving as brakes.
 
I said this last week, and I’ll say it again: The greatest business blogging help I can offer in corporate blogging training sessions is to urge blog content writers to let passion and energy shine through in the blog!

Whether you’re the business owner doing your own blog content writing, whether it’s a global manager such as Pete Seege, or whether you’re using a corporate blog writing service such as Say It For You –  humor, passion, and energy are never boring! 


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Reality Check for Authors of Books and Business Blogs

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In the intro to his book “Reality Check”, Guy Kawasaki shares four reasons why, afterReality Check blogging since 2006 (How to Change the World), he decided to put his newest important ideas in book, rather than blog form:

  • A book boots up faster than a blog.
  • A book has better copyediting and fact-checking.
  • A book is not dependent on Internet connectivity or battery life.
  • You can write in a book, stick stickies in a book, and dog-ear its covers.

Having spent a good portion of my life over the past four and half years doing blog content writing for my own Say It For You blog and for the blogs of dozens of clients, not to mention all those corporate blogging training sessions I either attended or led over that same period of time, I found Kawasaki’s take on blogging’s deficiencies more than a bit deflating.

My sense of purpose was re-strengthened somewhat by reading Penelope Trunk’s blog post “5 Reasons Why You Don’t Need to Write a Book”.  Trunk says those reasons begin with the fact that “people who have a lot of ideas need a blog, not a book.” (Yes!!!)

Many people think they have a ton of ideas when in fact, she points out, most of us have very few new ideas.  If you disagree, Trunk dares you to start blogging, because “there is nothing like a blog to help you realize you have nothing new to say.”

Reading further, I realized that Trunk’s list of reasons to write blogs, not books, relate more to what blog maven Seth Godin might refer to as “cat blogs” than to the sort of SEO marketing blogs that are the focus of much of my work as a professional ghost blogger. Cat blogs, Godin explains, are written out of a need for self-expression, or perhaps to gain converts to the writer’s way of thinking.  Penelope Trunk believes that people on the cutting edge of any topic are now reading articles and blogs rather than books, because online readers want immediacy.

Generally speaking, my business owner clients know precisely which direction they want to go using blogging for business as one tactic in their overall marketing strategy: UP.  They want their company name to move UP search engine ranking so that those online consumers who are seeking exactly what those business owners have to offer will find them.

My business owner clients want IN.  They know business blog content writing is a form of “pull marketing”, with the power to “introduce” them to potential clients they otherwise might never meet.

My clients need to get the word OUT. For any small business, the first priority is survival.  Guy Kawasaki advises them to “ship, then test”. You can’t wait for perfection, because cash flow starts when you begin shipping! 

That piece of common sense advice is one business owners – and their freelance blog content writers – need to hear.  It’s far more important to get frequent, relevant, and passionate content “out there” on the blogosphere, starting now, even if that content is not “perfect”.


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