It takes seven years to digest swallowed gum (Not! That’s just one of those lingering misconceptions one hears.)  According to Mental Floss Magazine, “Despite what you heard on the playground, the gum you swallow doesn’t exactly linger in your gut.” In fact, Mental Floss goes on to explain, your gum shoots through your system towards the “exit” at the same speed as other foods.

For newbie business bloggers at a loss for content ideas, debunking a myth about your industry is a great place to begin. Here’s why: In the normal course of doing business, you’ve probably run up against misunderstandings about a product you sell or a service you provide. 

Not only is addressing misinformation in your company blog interesting to readers, it highlights your own special expertise and knowledge. With doubts reassured, many readers are more comfortable trying out your product or service. What’s more, if you make it a habit to debunk myths in your blog posts, that in itself can go a long way towards making your blog a “go-to” place when people need information relating to your industry or profession.

One myth about blkogging itself is that it’s simply a fad. Truth: The Pew Internet Project estimates that almost 32 million Americans read blogs regularly.

Speaking of big numbers, a second blog-related myth I hear a lot is that you need many visitors and many RSS subscribers to be successful in blogging for business. I love what blogger Rich Brooks has to say about that one: “Search engines deliver over 73% of our traffic, and over 85% of that traffic comes from first-time visitors.” 

Well, then, what is the secret of blog success?  “What we need to do is capture these names by making them an offer they can’t refuse,” answers Brooks, dispensing with overblown claims about the importance of comments with a terse: “Comments aren’t clients.”

If there’s something new in your industry, don’t let your readers find out about it somewhere else, advises HomeschoolBlogger.com’s Karen Braun. I agree.  And, if there’s a persistent myth out there about anything you sell or anything you do, your blog should be the place to go tfor the truth, the whole truth, and nothing "bust"!

 

Visiting Columbus, Ohio to give a talk about blogging for business (what else?), I picked up an official visitors’ map for the city. Unfolded, the piece had a street map on one side, with information about the city on the other:
 

• Accommodations
• Attractions
• Food and Drink
• Shopping
• Visitor Information

With some time to spare between events, I began to read through the descriptions in the "Attractions" and "Food and Drink" sections of the guide, realizing, as I proceeded, that the set-up had a website "feel" to it.

Many company websites have sections like that, listing categories of product lines or of services the company offers.  The content is relatively static, with its purpose being to show what’s available for purchase. From the visitors’ map, for example, I learned that Schmidt’s Restaurant Und Sausage Haus features "award winning German/American favorites and a full-service bar".

Informative stuff, I thought, but not personal or focused enough to make me want to aim my GPS towards Schmidt’s. Upon further digging, I learned that the restaurant is run by the fifth generation of the Schmidt family.  Now that’s the stuff a good blog would share. Blog posts might include interviews with the oldest and youngest living Schmidts, complete with photos, and let me know Hans Schmidt might just stop to chat, sharing with me and my dinner companions tales of early Columbus days when his German settler ancestors first arrived.  I thought of dozens of ways blog posts could be making that restaurant come alive for searchers by making it more personal.

Further down in the visitors’ guide, I found a listing for Yosick’s Artisan Chocolates.  Besides informing me I could find chocolates, pastries, and espresso at Yosick’s, the listing shared that the establishment is Certified Kosher by the Columbus Vaad Ho-ir. I wasn’t able to locate a blog for Yosick’s, but a blog might have clarified what goes into certifying kosher chocolate, and who the Vaad Ho’ir is. ( As it happens, I know those terms, but would’ve liked to know more about what makes chocolate "artisan"!) 

A blog is the perfect tidbit dispenser. Blog "chats" with potential customers and clients, informal but very informative, make those customers and clients feel welcome.  Remember, too, I was being exposed to Schmidt’s and Yosick’s through a visitors’ map. But, what if I’d been searching online for restaurants in Columbus? Whichever restaurateurs had posted relevant content on the web by bloggin, especially those who’d been blogging more frequently and more recently than their competitors, are precisely those I, as a searcher, would have been most likely to discover!

Another insight I had while glancing through the Columbus, Ohio vistors’ map was that it
had almost too much information to absorb all in one sitting.  The big thing about a corporate blog, in my view, is that it’s made up of lots of little blog posts! In each post, you highlight just one idea, showcase just one of your products, or describe just one special service you provide.  Rather than a resume-like list of all you have to offer, you engage blog readers with several delicious details centered around just one idea. You can get to all the other wonderful things you have to share in future blog posts!

The message your blog conveys, post by post, step by step, is subtle, but that message definitely makes its presence known. 

After all, you and your team are not just "anybodies" – you’re artisans!