Bloggers’ Tidbit Challenge

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Since this week, I’m reaching into the “tidbit treasure chest”, I thought I’d issue a challenge to Treasure Chestmy Say It For You blog readers. The concept is to help blog content writers continually come up with fresh content to educate, inform, and entertain readers (and at least indirectly, get the “cash register” to ring). Tidbits, I explain at corporate blogging training sessions, can be used in business blogs in a variety of ways, including:

  • Defining basic industry technology
  • Sparking curiosity about the subject
  • Putting modern-day practices into perspective (relative to the way things were once done)
  • Explaining why the business owner or practitioner has chosen to operate in a certain way

OK, time for the quiz: I’ll give you a tidbit; you tell me what kinds of businesses might be able to use this in their blog. (I promise to publish the best couple of answers in a future post – anonymously if you request that, or I’ll be happy to link to your website).

Tidbits: (Source: Money Bags)

  1. Glass takes one million years to decompose.
  2. Gold is the only metal that doesn’t rust.
  3. If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water – when a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.
  4. Kits were used in the Civil War to deliver letters and newspapers.
  5. Nine out of every ten living things live in the ocean.
  6. The tooth is the only part of the human body that cannot heal itself.
  7. Caffeine increases the power of aspirin.
  8. When a person dies, hearing is the last sense to go.  The first sense lost is sight.
  9. In ancient times, strangers shook hands to show they were unarmed.
  10. The earth gets 100 tons heavier every day due to falling space dust.

Whether you take me up on my challenge or not, next time you’re at loss for new content ideas, reach into the tidbit bin!

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Reach Into the Tidbit Treasure Chest

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TFor freelance blog content writers, the tidbit “bin” turns into a treasure chest. If you’re working on a business blog and you can include interesting information most readers don’t know, that’s gold. Even if such information appears useless on the surface, if we get creative, we can put it to very good use in adding interest to our blog. One of my favorite sources for tidbit “ore” is Mental Floss magazine.

Take these three tales recounted in Mental Floss:

1.  Frank Humely, imprisoned in the Los Angeles County jail for forgery and miscellaneous other misdeeds, hatched a plan to escape.  An accomplice would mail him sugar-fronted cakes with a gun and ammo hidden inside.  Frank planned to shoot the guards, take the keys, and hightail it. The plan failed – the cakes attracted attention because they were so heavy…

(I can see a bakery using this story to illustrate the lightness of their own wonderful cake creations.)

2.  In the 10th century, the Vikings in Denmark had a special way of singing. They made a rumbling sound from their throats, described as “similar to a dog but even more bestial”.

(I can see this story being used in a blog for a cough lozenge company, a physician’s practice that treats severe sinusitis, or a voice studio!)

3.  During the Vietnam War peace talks, the North Vietnamese insisted on having a square table for the meeting room, so that all four parties would appear equal, while, for that very reason, the U.S. and South Vietnam wanted a rectangular table.

(A furniture store could do a lot with this story. I can also see this in a blog for meeting planners, or even one offered by a school architectural firm.)

Continually coming up with fresh content to inform, educate, and entertain readers is a pretty tall order for busy business owners and employees. Trivia can solve the problem.  Tidbits of information  can be used in business blogs for defining basic terminology, sparking curiosity about the subject, putting modern-day practices and beliefs into perspective, and for explaining why the business owner or practitioner chooses to operate in a certain way.

Reach into your own tidbit treasure chest!

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Shocking-Use Blogging for Business

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Glowing light bulb in row of switched off ones on yellow. Front viewRebecca O’Connell, writing in Mental Floss Magazine, has put together a list of 10 Shocking (Mis) Uses for Electricity. While I always tell newbie blog content writers to include lists in their blog posts (good for SEO, I’m told by my tech-savvy friends), I particularly like the idea of comparing the way things were and the way they are today. Blogging about those changes helps readers understand how to get the maximum benefit out of today’s version of the products and services you offer.

When it comes to electricity, some of the old applications O’Connell brings to light in her list are downright shocking.

  • In the late 18th century, those suffering from dental problems were treated with electric shock. Doctors would take a metal wire, encased in glass or strung through a feather, and apply it to the throbbing molar, she explains.
  • Also in the 1700s, an English entertainer used electric conductivity by strapping an orphan boy into a harness, suspending him in midair, and giving him a charge with an electrostatic device. The boy appeared to acquire mystical powers: Small objects floated toward him. He could turn book pages without touching them. When people tried to poke him, sparks flew.
  • Around that same period of time, an early generator was invented called an electropholus. An insulated plate would be rubbed with cat fur from a dead cat. That plate was then put together with a metal one, generating static electricity which could be transferred to a jar.  That early generator was called an electrophorus.
  • After Benjamin Franklin and Prokop Divis  independently invented the first lightning rods, it became the fashion in Paris for men and women to don top hats and umbrellas with personal lightning rods. Designed by Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, the rodware featured a tall wire with a coil that trailed to the ground.

The rewards for blasts-from-the-past blogging for business might include:

  • Reader engagement – the “I never knew that!” response
  • You come across as knowledgeable and committed to learning everything about the history of your own field
  • Readers are moved to take advantage of all the new technology and know-how now available.

Can you compile a shocking-use list for your business or profession?

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A Profoundly Moving “Final” Blog Post

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“In October of 2014, I was told I was about to embark on a journey.  As I prepared In Memory Letterpressfor this journey, I learned many things about life and myself…I had been given a special gift – time to prepare for my final ‘destination’, what baggage to bring or not bring. As you read this, you know I have reached that destination.”

Just last week, in my monthly e-newsletter, I talked about “changing voices” in business blog content writing.  “I/you” writing, I explained, is very personal, with the business owner or practitioner talking directly with the reader. By contrast, when interviewing clients and reporting on their experience or when interviewing experts, that writing might be done in third person.

Never before, though, had I come across “I/you” writing in the form of a self-composed obituary. Donn K. Miles, who died June 17th, had prepared the obit which I read in the Indianapolis Star. “I was born…”  “I was adopted…”  “I graduated…”  “I served…” “I was married…” “My curious nature and the love of people led me to a lifelong employment in the world of sales….”

The late Mr. Miles was so right – he had indeed been given a special gift and he was able to give me and all the other readers a special gift by putting his story into words.

Naturally, as a content writer for so many years, I feel reverence for the power of words, of “voice”, of messaging.  And, while the marketing messages we offer online readers may not be as profound or as stirring  as Miles’ story about his final journey, the words we use in our blog are the best tools we have for letting others hear the story of what we do, what we’ve learned, what we offer, and, essentially, who we are.

Thank you, Donn K. Miles for your profoundly moving “final blog post” obituary, reminding us Indianapolis blog content creators of the power of I/you writing!

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Helpful Hint Blog Writing

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hints and tipsHitting 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”.  Well, providing tips and help hints may very well be the perfect tactic for accomplishing that very goal.  

In a recent issue of AARP magazine, I found an article that uses a “kill-two-birds-with-one-stone” approach to offering helpful hints.  I think that approach could work really well in blogging to promote a business or professional practice.

The AARP article is titled “Great ways to save: tips from 20 experts that can save you thousands of dollars.”  Wow! That gets readers’ attention – useful information coming to them not from any sponsor or vendor, but from twenty experts.  What’s more, the authors have done all the work, collecting all this wisdom and serving it up for readers’ convenience.

I noticed that the “Great ways to save” article was about money management; the tips were collected from a money coach, a chief information officers, the fashion director for Men’s Health magazine, and a positive living expert.

OK, so as a business blog writing trainer, how would I advise adapting that helpful-hint/curation strategy to you business or practice?

Find complementary businesses or practices.  Ask the owners (or cite their blogs) for tips they can offer your readers.  Pet care professionals can share tips from carpet cleaning pros – or the reverse! If you’re a carpet cleaning pro, you can share tips from allergists as well.  If you’re an insurance advisor, offer tips from car dealers about accident prevention.

Of course, you’re going to want to add some tips of your own.  A realtor’s blog might offer tips for buying a house.  A restaurant’s blog might offer hints on tipping etiquette or the temperature of “rare”, “medium” and “well-done” steaks. Whatever the product or service, readers will be hungry for information that helps them gain maximum advantage for buying and using it.

Helpful hint blog writing can be very useful to your business or practice!

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