How To Curl Up and Dye in Your Business Blog

On a recent jaunt to Shelbyville, Indiana, I saw a storefront sign that caught my blogging trainer’s eye: “Curl Up and Dye Salon”. Cute name, I thought. More important, the play on words engaged my interest because it presented a familiar phrase with a new twist.

Reinforcing the familiar, then progressing to new information is an effective tactic for business blogging as well. Starting with the “known” helps online searchers conclude they’ve come to the right place for the data, products, and services they need.  The new elements you introduce – specialized knowledge, expert “how-to” tips, unusual case studies – help distinguish you and your business from those of your competitors’.

Puns can add an element of humor in blog posts as well as reinforcing the familiar.
A sign at Ivy Tech Community College quotes Groucho Marx: “Time flies like an arrow.  Fruit flies like bananas.” This one’s funny because it forces the reader to consider the two words “like” and “flies” in a new way. And, while a pun in itself doesn’t constitute a Call to Action, it can keep visitors engaged for the several additional seconds needed for them to reach the CTA in your blog.

Yahoo! News’ fashion comments on Michelle Obama’s skillful recycling of outfits can serve as a guide for business bloggers struggling to keep content fresh over periods of months and even years. Michelle’s “Reuse, Renew, Reverse” has style watchers fascinated by her ingenuity.  Wearing a navy sweater with the lace-up in the back one day, then laced in front over a blouse the next earned her the title “fashionista-in-chief” from reporter Claudine Zap.

In similar vein, bloggers for business need to learn to reuse and renew blog content in order to keep blog post #386 (which this post is for Say It For You) as interesting to readers as blog post #3!  Maintaining consistently high rankings on search engines depends in large part on longevity.  That translates into the discipline to post content on the web over and over again, over long periods of time. Reusing and especially renewing content is the secret.  As veteran country singing star Mel Tillis puts it, “Every time I walk out there, it’s a different audience.”

Business owners who can learn from the First Lady to “reuse, renew, and reverse” with style (all the while maintaining a Mel Tillis-like discipline) are rare. The task of long-term business blogging blogs might fall, in many cases, to professional ghost bloggers.