Business Blogs – Still Way Closer To An Actual Human

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MailI try never to miss the “Cathy” comic strip in my Indianapolis Star.  In one of the latest, Cathy and her boyfriend are opening their mail – he’s reading email on his laptop; she’s sorting through dozens upon dozens of envelopes.


He: “What’s all that?”                                
She: “Mail.”
He: “Mail?? Who sends paper mail?”
She: “People.”
He: “People?”
She: “Yes.  Unlike you in your cold electronic bubble, I get mail from people.”
(He looks through some of her mail…) “This is all mail from magazine subscription departments!”


And now comes her answer that I, member of a generation thrice removed from GenY, absolutely adore: “Still way closer to an actual human than you’ll get any time soon!”


Since I work as a professional ghost blogger, I’ve obviously been able to abandon most of my generational bias towards long, individually composed business letters and long phone conversations.  I’ve come into the world of electronic marketing tools.  But there’s a reason (I share this in the spirit of honest self-analysis) I gravitated towards composing blogs rather than designing websites.  In a way, blogs are the humanizing factor in the online communications family. The blogs are where you meet the people running the business or professional practice.


In today’s increasingly web-based business world, electronic marketing and prospecting strategies are must-haves. But, Cathy, you gotta know this: Blogs, even ghostwritten blogs, are way closer to an actual human than you get with brochures, billboards, and websites!

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Blogs For The Texting Demographic

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text messagingOn the surface, I wouldn’t have expected to find valuable insights about blogging in one of several professional journals I read to keep up my financial planning credentials.  But, in the June issue of Employee Benefit Advisor, I found an important piece of blogging wisdom. In his article “OMG I Have No Money – The Texting Demographic Requires New Approach”, Brent Shearer points out that employees under age 27 (there are 80 million of them in the U.S.) need tailored communications to urge them to participate in retirement savings plans.


Shearer sums up the hurdle facing employers and the investment industry in words that could have been taken from a web design and blogging manual.  He notes that GenY’ers expect to accomplish their objectives in just one or two clicks.  It’s important, he says, for a company’s website to create “an environment of comfort for making decisions quickly”.


As a professional ghost blogger, I know the statistics:  80% or more of business comes as a result of organic search. If you’re a business owner or have a professional practice, that means you’ll be meeting new customers and clients not because they searched for you by name, but because they used a search engine (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.)  to lead them to information on a topic.  If GenY is a big part of your target market, and if you used Search Engine Optimization strategy, providing relevant, new, frequently posted information through business blogging, your blogs could be the first step in your relationship with some new GenY clients.


SInce, as Shearer so aptly points out, GenYers make decisions quickly, those browsers are going to do one of two things – “bounce” away from your blog and keep looking for what they want, or (and this is the result you’re aiming for) proceed to visit your website.  Your website is where you’ve arranged for that “environment of comfort for making decisions quickly”.  The lesson business bloggers need to learn along with the employee benefit specialists: With a well-coordinated marketing approach, your business or practice will likely get a chance to “reach out and touch” the texting demographic.  You just won’t get ’em to sit still very long while you’re doing it!

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Year Of The Blog

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This is the season when I spend time at the Indiana State Fair.  It was interesting reading, in the Indianapolis Business Journal, details of an interview with the Fair’s executive director Cindy Hoye.  Hoye talked about the different ways the fair brings in revenue, everything from corporate sponsorship (think Clarian Health) to naming rights for buildings (think Pepsi Coliseum).
Since, as a professional ghost blogger, I’m part of each client’s marketing team, I always have an eye out for marketing ideas.  There were two in the IBJ article that I found especially apropos for bloggers.  Describing all the facility improvements that were made for this year’s fair, including a greenhouse, fishing pond, and new covered bridge, Hoye said “We’ve got to keep the product (referring to the fair) fresh.”  Right on for blogging.  In fact, of all marketing tactics, blogs are born for “fresh” – with new, different, constantly changing content put online every day or every couple of days, blogs are far more flexible and adaptable than print pieces or even websites.Tree
The one Indiana State Fair innovation that really caught my attention (and, apparently sponsors’ attention as well) is declaring an annual theme.  Last year was the Year of Corn, which highlighted Indiana agriculture.  This year it’s the Year of Trees.  (The Indiana Hardwood Lumberman’s Association became a big sponsor.) Since blog posts are much more frequent than yearly, you can present material on many themes, one per post, but all relating to what you have to offer. By limiting each blog post to one central theme, you attract online searches related to that one aspect of your business, plus you keep the product (your material) fresh!
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For Businesses On A Budget, Blogs Are Pocket Parks

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Where there’s little space and little money for redeveloping urban areas, pocket parks provide a welcome solution. Small green areas with benches for sitting and swings and slides for kids, pocket parks help unify as well as beautify neighborhoods. These mini-parks are part of the Central Indiana Community Foundation’s Keep Indianapolis Beautiful initiative, a wonderful example of making a little money go a long way.
My small business and professional practice ghost blogging clients are in something of the same boat, trying hard to do smart marketing on a limited budget.  Most owners enter the web world by having a site designed for their business or practice.  The website may be attractive and easy to navigate.  Still their “park” is not accessible to new customers and clients who don’t know it’s there!  That’s where business blogs come in, and where I, as a professional ghost blogger, enter the “neighborhood”.
Blogs are like pocket parks, much easier and much less expensive to create and then constantly redevelop.  People find your “pocket park” blog, not because they know the name of the company or even your own name, but because your blog content is organized around specific key words and topics.  People find the blog “right in their own neighborhood”, exactly when they need it.
There is no practical way a website can change its title and its content every day or even every couple of days to match different key words searchers use.  Blogs, small and nimble, can readily adapt. Since, by definition, blogs are providing new thoughts and new information with every entry, your “pocket park” is right there, informing the potential customer or client that you have the know-how – or the products – she’s seeking.
Eagle Creek Park offers far more amenities than the School 46 Pocket Park, to be sure.  But if you’re far away from the big reservoir, the little park bench under a tree in the pocket park is where you’ll sit for a spell.  Ideally, business blogging is just one piece of a multi-faceted business marketing and advertising plan.  But budget-conscious owners will find blogging delivers a lot of park bench for the buck!
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Getting Bumped Teaches This Ghost Blogger A Valuable Lesson

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Rap music listenerThe past couple of weeks provided proof of something I’ve been saying about blogging.  In today’s Internet-based shopping-and-searching business world, it’s simply not good enough to hand out stuff.  Businesses have handed out and sent out stuff for decades – flyers, brochures, letters to customers and prospects.  All of this is one-way communication.  Today, the process has got to get inter-active.  Blogs, being short, frequent, and “out there” on search engines, are ideal for this purpose.  Potential clients and customers can post comments, ask questions, or simply proceed to the business’ website to learn or do more.
There’s another aspect to interaction with blogging, and this is the one that had such a direct effect on my own blog in recent weeks.  Since one of the goals of business blogging is search engine optimization (meaning moving up the ranks in Google, Yahoo, and MSN territory), I try to set an example for my ghost blogging clients with my own Say It For You blog.  In the days leading up to my big come-uppance, my blogs had been showing up on page 1 or 2 on Google under the category “ghost blogger”.  Then, whammo – my blog disappeared!  What had happened? Without fail, I’d blogged every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, using the key words and providing fresh content that was relevant to the topic of blogging.
Turns out, I was upstaged by none other than hip-hop artist Kanye West and a host of his fans, plus a few of his detractors.  Sandra Rose claimed she’d discovered Kanye using a ghost blogger named Marcus Troy.  Dozens of fans were posting blogs opining on the truth or untruth of the matter, offering approval or horror at the practice of using a ghost blogger.  The principal players Troy, Rose, and even Kanye himself were blogging.  It was time for this professional ghost blogger to weigh in, and so I did (see Does Kanye West’s Ghost Blogger Say It For Him?).  Whew! Back up the ranks once more.
I’d been writing a lot about what drives search engine rankings, and then along comes this this living, breathing answer to the question.  What are the keys to success in blogging to win search engine rankings?  Recency?  Yes.  Relevance to the topic?  Of course, yes.  Frequency?  Yes, again.  But, there’s one more element that can’t be forgotten – traffic.  In other words, it matters how many people are writing in and coming to call at your little corner of the blogosphere – a.k.a. interaction.
All the excitement about whether Kanye is writing his own blogs or whether he’s found the perfect ghost blogger to “speak” in his voice skillfully enough for there to be a debate – well, it just goes to show.  Blogging works because it drives traffic and interaction.  And that, I learned the hard way, is What Search Engines Want.
I like to keep my blog language a lot more grammatical and a lot cleaner than Kanye’s, but boy – is he great at traffic, or what?
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