Today, I Blog. Yesterday, I Blog. Tomorrow, I Blog.

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The other day, I read something so interesting in Speaker Magazine! It’s about  how our English language is very different from Asian languages.  Since I’m a wordsmith (what else could you call a professional ghost blogger?), the ways in which different people use words, especially for doing business, is something I find fascinating.


The article was called “Writing for Global Audiences”, and the writer, Dr. Kathleen Begley, was advising professional speakers to be careful when communicating with people from other countries. She explained that English has twelve different tenses. As an example, she gave the following: “Today, I speak.  Yesterday, I spoke. I had spoken the day before yesterday.  Tomorrow, I will speak.”  And (an example of a tense called future perfect conditional), “By 3 PM, I will have been giving this speech for thirty minutes.”  Asian speakers, Begley explained, would use only one tense for all of these:  “Today I speak.  Yesterday, I speak.  Tomorrow, I speak. By 3 PM, I speak for 30 minutes.” 


A couple of things about the use of language in blogging come to mind.  I’m always mentioning that blog writing is much more informal and conversational than other forms of business writing.  But, as I tried to bring out in In Blogging, Keep The Love, But Lose The “Like”!, this is your business and your brand you’re putting out there with your blog.  You always want to be sure that poor grammar and misspelled words aren’t distracting readers and taking away from the impact of your message.  Granted, 99.99% of business bloggers (and of their blog readers, I might add) wouldn’t so much as recognize the existence of the future perfect conditional tense.  I’ll bet, though, a few might be put off by shoddy spelling and lesser-grade grammar. ,”The devil is in the details”, may be true of blogging for business, along with the one about “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.


Back to the subject of English language tenses..In blogging it’s important to maintain consistency and frequency, since both of these are measures search engines use in ranking your blog.  “I used to blog”, “I once was blogging”, or “I had been blogging but I’m not blogging now” – none of these are phrases likely to capture respect in online rankings.  To “win search”, you’ll need to be saying “Yesterday I blogged.  Today I blog.  Tomorrow I will blog, and, by next year, I will have been blogging for a year and half.”  By that time, you should be able to add, “And, I have been winning search!”

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Get Tammy Dancing With Elvis In Your Blog

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As a professional ghost blogger, one of the pointers I always give business bloggers is to keep a sharp focus in each blog post.  In Your Blog’s No Swiss Army Knife, the point I tried to get across is that you don’t want your blog to be an all-in-one marketing tool.  You shouldn’t try to give searchers information about everything you have to offer, all in one blog post.  With each post, offer just a “peek”, enough to convey to the people browsing the Web they’ve come to the right spot. On the other hand, you want your blog to stand out, to be unusually interesting, so that readers will want to stay awhile and maybe even move on to your business’ website. 


The other day I read a review of a band that played at Daddy Jack’s on Halloween night, telling how this band was able to keep the crowd dancing and singing along.
The reviewer added something that I think is really good advice for business bloggers.  “It was especially fun,” he remarked, “to see Tammy dancing with Elvis, and a ladybug dancing with a monster.”   In other words, when you put two things together that don’t seem to match – that can be a good technique to capture people’s interest. Suggesting a totally new way of using your product or service, that may open up new possibilities for that potential customer to do business with you.


Picture the ladybug/monster couple dancing at Daddy Jack’s – it captures attention because those two characters don’t usually go together. Now, if I’m your ghost blogger, and if I can capture an Internet browser’s interest by showing useful – and unexpected – ways your company’s expertise or product line can be of help, you’ve got a good chance of converting a “Who knew?” browser into an  “I wanna know more!” online buyer!

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Not Always “Aha!” – Blogging Can Rhyme In Time

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In “Creatively Mindful Gifts”, Ellen Michel, outreach manager for Bloomingfoods Market and Deli, had some interesting things to say about gift giving during the upcoming holiday season.


As a professional ghost blogger, I’m always on the alert for “tidbits” that capture big concepts using very few words. In her article, Michel remarked that “We don’t have to make everything new at a time when people take greater pleasure in basking in memories.”  She mentioned the “rhyme in time” effect that gives us a chance to repeat and recall time-honored rituals during the holidays.


In an earlier Say It For You blog (see Aha, Aha! Right Rope For Your Blog) I’d mentioned that your business blog should be designed to elicit an “Aha!” response. I pointed out that your potential customer is searching online for a product, for service, or for information, and that he or she’s moving fast.  You’re hoping that your blog can cause a “light to pop on”, so that the Internet browser will want to stay on the blog long enough find out more about you and your business.


There’s another aspect to gaining a blog following, though.  Often, once searchers find valuable, relevant, and well-written information in a blog on a topic of interest to them (which is how they came to make their way to your blog in the first place!), they’re likely to come back for more.  Even if some visitors are not prepared to make a purchase decision today, they may well come back to visit as regular blog “fans” That’s where your blog’s “rhyme in time” effect can kick in, offering fans a space to feel at home and to enjoy sharing – and, yes, repeating – information about the things that interest you both.

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In Surgery Or Blogging, Outsourcing Can Do Your Clients A Service

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Every so often, the question comes up again: If a business uses a ghost blogger, is that business playing fair?


When I first introduced my Say It For You blog, I traced the long, proud history of ghostwriting.  I explained that celebrities and public figures have always used ghost writers to help them create books, write speeches, produce autobiographies, compose articles, or even format important letters. The reason?  They lacked the time, the discipline, or the writing skills to do it themselves!  In fact, as I pointed out in one of my earliest blog posts, Ghost Blogging In The Tradition Of The Founding Fathers, George Washington used several very famous ghostwriters. Over the generations, world leaders, corporate moguls, and even famous performers  considered the urgency and importance of their message justification enough for hiring talent to get the job done.


I was very interested to read comments in the Journal of Financial Planning about  outsourcing professional services.  Many financial planners around the country work with their clients to create an overall financial plan, but then hire outside money managers to implement that plan by choosing and monitoring the specific stocks and bonds for the clients’ portfolios.  One Certified Financial Planner®  explained why: “If I were spending a lot of time on investment selection, I couldn’t do the premier job that I want to do for my clients,” she said. “There just aren’t enough hours in the day.”


Another planner added, “You’re doing your clients more of a service by hiring expertise for them.,” he remarked, comparing the situation to an internist who wouldn’t perform surgery himself, but brings in specialists as appropriate.


With blogging fast becoming an indispensable customer acquisition tool in our web-based world, ghost blogging becomes an outsourcing solution for busy business owners who dearly want to” win search”, but can’t find time to play in the blogging arena!

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Build Your Blog And They Will Come

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My past is catching up with me, I think. A retired financial planner and investment adviser, I still keep up with the CFP® continuing education requirements and subscribe to several professional journals on finance. So, now, here I am, a professional ghost blogger, and what do I find in the September/October issue of Practice Management Solutions (magazine for financial planners), but an article about social media and the value of —blogging!


“Social media”, the article explains, “is a general term that encompasses a number of interactive broadcast activities and….websites.” Practice Management then goes on to say that the main benefit of adding social media such as blogging to an overall marketing communication strategy is “to attract the attention of your clients and prospects to your products, services, and capabilities.” Resorting to the use of social media doesn’t mean abandoning more traditional communications, the writer assures readers, urging financial planners to add such powerful new web-based tools to their current “suite” of marketing activities.


Stressing that, just as in the real estate game, location is key, Practice Management tells financial planners to “build a presence where your audiences are – on the busiest avenues of the social media infrastructure”.


Mike Gegelman, a financial planner in Florida, couldn’t agree more.  In Advisor Today, another of the journals I read, Gegelman reminds colleagues that “Successful prospecting comes down to three things: the right message to the right market at the right time”. Truth is, Gegelman is highly unusual  in that he spends time studying writing and marketing, and composes and tests all his own marketing materials, from brochures to blogs. Most small business owners and professional practitioners, as I brought out in my earlier blog You May Be A Finder, Binder, Minder, or Grinder – Are You A Writer? devote their efforts to finding and minding business, with no time or inclination to compose to write even the most informal of blogs.


However, since most of these busy entrepreneurs are becoming aware that blogging belongs in every business tool kit, a ghost blogger is often invited to enter the picture (or, as I like to say, behind the picture!)

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