Got a Snowclone for Your Business Blog?

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Book of Random Oddities“Snowclones are fill-in-the blank clichés, references or patterns,” explain the editors of The Book of Random Oddities. (A faithful buyer of “Not Your Daughter’s Jeans”, I had nevertheless not thought of that brand name as a snowclone.)

As a blog content writer, needless to say, I’m constantly on the prowl for expressions that help online readers feel a connection with my clients’ businesses and professional practices. Snowclones such as “X is the new Y”, imply that some new thing has now become more popular or more stylish or more effective than something that used to be the “in” thing.

The snowclone can be flattering to the reader (think “40 is the new 30”), and can reinforce the benefits of the activity discussed in the blog (“knitting is the new yoga” alludes to the relaxing effect of a yarn-related hobby).

Used effectively in a blog post, the snowclone can come across as providing valuable information, helping readers keep up with the latest developments in the field, and, of course, promoting the benefits of the product or service offered in that business or practice.

Sometimes snowclones come from famous quotes, such as “I X, therefore I am”, or “To X or not to X”. We’ve all heard the “a few X short of a Y” as disparaging descriptions of less-than-intelligent individuals – (“A few cards short of a deck”).

Point is, anything that can add variety to your business blog posts, assuming it’s in good taste, is a positive.  Sometimes the variety comes from the information itself, but sometimes, the variety is in the language used.  Snowclones offer a way to connect with your readers through popular culture, along with a sprinkling of wit.

Got a snowclone for your business blog?

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Tying In to Other People’s News in Your Own Business Blog – C

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Tying into OPN (Other People’s News) is the theme of this week’s Say It For You blog posts. As blog content writers, of course, Bwe can always use new ideas for presenting information to readers about our company, our practice, or our industry.

Reading the daily newspaper, I teach, is just one of many strategies for blog content development. Both news and feature items can spark ideas for blog posts, while positioning your blog as the place to find interesting and valuable information. You may actually cite material from the newspaper story, relating it to new developments in your own industry, or simply use the articles as “triggers” that remind you of areas you might not have covered thoroughly in prior blog posts.

In the particular issue of the Indianapolis Star I used for this week’s blogwriting exercise, “Family ties to Panama Canal history” tells the story of Carmel, Indiana residents John Hawks and son Frank Hawks, descendants of John Frank Stevens, a chief engineer of the Panama Canal. The story chronicles the royal reception the Hawks were given when they visited Panama this past August.

As a Star reader, I loved the way reporter Michael Auslen connected the present-day Hoosier family to the milestone engineering project from the past. As a corporate blogging trainer, I couldn’t help thinking that any business can trace its connections to the history of its industry or profession.

Merely by gathering information on our topic and presenting it as part of our blog, we’re providing a valuable service, but to go the next step, we must ensure that each blog post connects the people running the business or practice to the people using the products and services. “Tracing the chain” by bringing readers back to the beginnings of the enterprise and sharing how someone’s idea turned into a business or professional reality makes for powerful blog content.

When we’re “stuck”, experiencing “blogger’s block”, Other People’s News can become just the nudge we need!

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If You Blog “God bless You!” What Are the Chances They’ll Sneeze?

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Man with allergy, cold, blowing nose with a tissueQ: “If you call a random phone number and say ‘God bless you,’ what are the chances that the person who answers just sneezed?” (This is yet another of the absurd hypothetical questions to which author Randall Munroe offers serious scientific answers in “Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions”.)

This Thanksgiving week, I’m devoting all three Say it For You blog posts to myth busting through blogging, using Munroe’s book as a jumping-off place. In the world of business and professional services, there are inevitable misunderstandings about products and services, and blog content is the perfect vehicle for combating these misconceptions about our (or our blogging clients’) industry or profession.

As a corporate blogging trainer, of course, what I’m really getting as is that content writers need to find “story starters” and “idea prompts” to help sustain the creativity level of our content marketing over long periods of time. (In fact, I’m issuing a challenge to readers of Say It For You blog to write in their own ideas for using an absurd hypothetical question/answer in one of their own posts!)

A:  There’s probably a 1 in 40,000 chance the person picking up the phone just sneezed, says Munroe, but, you need to know there’s also a one in a billion chance that person just finished murdering someone, he cautions. While the sneezing rate doesn’t get much scholarly research, Munroe adds, a doctor interviewed by ABC News pegged sneeze frequency at 200 sneezes per person per year. To add to the absurdity, Munroe recalls the statistic that 60 people are killed by lightning in the US every year, meaning there’s only a one in ten billion chance you’ll call someone in the 30 seconds after they’ve been struck by lightning and killed!

Having personally composed hundreds of blog posts on the topic of sinus ailments and balloon sinuplasty, I can think of quite a number of ways to use the “God bless you” call tidbit as an idea prompt. For the benefit of my freelance content writer colleagues and trainees, though, how about these tie-ins:

  • Allergists, home remedy merchants
  • Etiquette advisors and human resource professionals: (“What is most politically correct to say when someone sneezes if you don’t know their religious preference?” asks Quora.com)
  • Headhunters looking for statisticians

If you blog “God bless you?”, what are the chances readers will convert to buyers?

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How Many LEGO Bricks Would it Take to Build a Blog Post?

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Q: “How many Lego bricks would it take to build a bridge capable of carrying traffic from London to New York? Have that many A variation of plastic toy bricksLego bricks been manufactured?” asks Jerry Peterson. (This is another of the absurd hypothetical questions to which author Randall Munroe offers serious scientific answers in “Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions”.)

Since myth debunking is such a great use of blogs (due to the inevitable misunderstandings about a product or service that happen in the world of business and in professional services), I find Munroe’s book a terrific idea stimulant for blog content ideas. While our blog readers may never actual pose such large-scale questions, it’s a good idea for us blog content writers to do that for them, as a way of combating common misconceptions about our (or our blogging clients’) industry or profession.

A. There have certainly been enough bricks to connect New York and London, Munroe assures the curious; in LEGO® units, the two cities are 700 million studs apart.  Of course, he hastens to add, the bridge wouldn’t be able to hold itself together or carry anything bigger than a LEGO car, but it’s a start.

Writers’ Digest advises novelists to use story starters or writing prompts. And while we business bloggers aren’t dealing in fiction, some of Munroe’s absurd hypothetical questions can function as idea prompts and help us pump up the creativity level of our content marketing. (In fact, I challenge readers of this Say It For You blog to write in ideas about how they’d go about using one of the absurd hypothetical question/answer selections I’m highlighting this week in one of their own posts!)

Still not sure how LEGO® bricks can build blog content?  Here are just a few thoughts:

  • Preschools, tutoring services, toy stores, parenting magazine publishers, child psychologists (According to the Center for Childhood Creativity, “Positive parent-child interactions – how parents and children communicate through language, shared experiences, and mutual discovery – powerfully influence how children learn, grow, and thrive.”
  • Construction engineers
  • Travel firms promoting New York-London fares.

How many LEGO® bricks would you need to build an interesting new blog post for your business or practice?

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Shooting Blogging Arrows to Shed Light

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Aiming archersQ: In the movie “300”, they shoot arrows up into the sky and they seemingly blog out the sun.  Is this possible, and how many arrows would it take?” asks Anna Newell. (This is one of the absurd hypothetical questions to which author Randall Munroe offers serious scientific answers.)

A. Longbow archers can fire 8-10 arrows per minute, with each arrow spending only a few seconds in the air, and with each arrow intercepting only about 40 cm of sunlight. In short, it would be pretty hard to make the sunblocking operation work, Munroe concludes. To be fair, he adds, if the sun were low on the eastern horizon at dawn, with the archers firing north, the shadow effect could be pretty powerful. 

Myth-debunks are a great use of blogs, I’ve found, because many of the misunderstandings about a product or service present themselves, in the natural order of business, in the form of questions and comments from readers and customers. Shining the light of day on that misinformation shines light on your own expertise. And, while readers may never actual formulate those “absurd hypothetical questions”, it’s a good idea for us blog content writers to do that for them, offering ”serious scientific answers” that debunk common misconceptions about our (or our blogging clients’) industry or profession.  A business or professional blog is the ideal vehicle for anticipating readers’ “negative assumption” questions and their misconceptions.

There’s a caveat here, however, and it relates to the danger of rubbing readers the wrong way. People generally don’t like to have their assertions and assumptions challenged, even when they come to our blog seeking information on what we sell, what we do, and what we know about. So, after you’ve debunked a myth or misconception, I suggest, throw readers some intriguing, little-known information to soften the resentment they might be feeling at having been proven “wrong”.

One misconception about blog marketing itself, observes Doug Rice of 12most.com, is that it’s all about technology. It isn’t, he says. “Content marketing is not a technological idea, but a philosophical one. It is essentially the notion that, if you give away valuable information, potential customers will see you as a valuable resource (thought leader) and, eventually, buy from you.

You might say we blog writers shoot content “arrows”, not to block out the light, but to shed light on the subject!

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