The More We Blog, the More We Influence

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Of all thirteen “prospect attraction influencers” mentioned in Mike Michalowicz’s book Get Different, the two most usable for blog content writers, I concluded were these:

1. Expansion – We like to expand the things we already like, own, and believe, Michalowicz says. People who value their nice care will be attracted to a nicer car, people who value their health want even more advice on becoming healthier.

Years ago, at a meeting of the National Speakers Association of Indiana, I remember the speaking coach saying, “If they’re in your session, they’ve already drunk the Kool-Aid”.  He might well have been coaching content writers. Just as conference attendees who choose to attend a particular breakout session already have an interest in the topic, if readers have arrived at your business blog, it’s because they already have an interest in your topic. No long intro is needed – they are ready to receive the information, the services, and the products you have to offer. It’s now up to you to assure those visitors, through the words and pictures in your business blog content, that they’ve come to precisely the right place to get more, to expand their information and their assets.

2. Repetition – The more we hear a recurring message, the more it attracts, the author explains. When we notice the same thought that we had repeated in marketing, we are drawn to it.

At Say It For You, after fifteen years of being involved in all aspects of corporate blog writing and blogging training, one irony I’ve found is that business owners who use this repetition principle are rare. There’s a tremendous fall-off rate, with most blogs abandoned months or even weeks after they’re begun. Pity, because blogs are startlingly less costly than business print ads, “winning” with content, not cost, and with frequency, not size. Consistent content publishing is not only reassuring to customers, Google rewards websites that publish regular, high-quality content that provides real value to users. If you create successful blog posts with the ideal frequency, you’re more likely to succeed in pleasing Google, Ballantine.com says.

It’s hardly easy, but it is simple – the more we blog, the more we influence.

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Being Heard, Not Only Seen, in Your Blog

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In this week’s Say It For You blog posts, I’m sharing insights from the October issue of Poets&Writers magazine. An insightful profile of CelesteNG’s new book, Our Missing Hearts offers valuable concepts for business blog content writers. Poet Maggie Smith believes NG’s book should be required reading for all, “grappling with big questions such as art, freedom, and ethics”, but there is one particular line in the book that resonated with me as a content writer: “We talk a lot about being seen, but I think we also want to be heard. Everybody has stories inside them but not always someone to tell them to.”

Social media maven Neil Patel agrees, One sure way to sabotage your own brand on social media, he says, is talking without listening. “Users want something real. They want real people, real interactions, and real, unbridled human connection…The real human essence of the brand is what users want to see come through loud and clear.”

“Who doesn’t want a personal fortuneteller?” Tom Searcy writes in Inc.com. Customers are looking for people who “hear” their concerns about upcoming regulations, technology trends, mergers and acquisitions, and modern day issues. “Remember,” Searcy says,”When you talk to the buyer about the buyer, you increase his or her engagement.” Potential customers want great products, outstanding service, and a competitive price. But, according to According to research from HubSpot, there’s something else they want even more: listening.

Over these years creating Say It For You blog content for different business owners and professional practitioners, I’ve come to realize that, in addition to wanting to be heard, blog readers actually want to “hear”. Unfortunately, I came to realize, most blog writing was being devoted to describing “what we do”, describing all the services and products the company or organization offers. Too little space seemed to be devoted to “what we believe” and to “who we are” as citizens of the community. For that very reason, when I’m offering business blogging assistance, I emphasize that the best website content – and the best corporate blogs – give online readers a feel for the corporate culture and some of the owners’ core beliefs about their industry and the way they want to serve their customers.   Those “we believe” statements can turn out to be the business’ most powerful calls to action.

A provider’s blog may not, at least not on a level similar to CelesteNG’s book.”grapple with big questions such as art, freedom, and ethics”, but the content must clearly demonstrate that the owners “hear” their customers’ concerns, and that, in return, their prospects and customers are able to “hear them!

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Writing is Creative. Publishing Blogs is Creative Business

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“Writing is creative. Publishing is business,” Aaron Gilbreath says in the October issue of Poets & Writers magazine. There are many ways to write for money, Gilbreath says, including content marketing, copywriting, journalism and technical writing. Reality is, he tells “creative” writers of fiction and poetry, there may be good reasons to write free of charge in order to build a reputation…Gilbreath quotes poet Robert Graves’ quip: “There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money, either.”

While content marketing is on Gilbreath’s list of ways to make money (but excluded from his list of creative writing categories), at Say It For You, we consider creativity an absolute building block for success. But is business blog writing supposed to be creative? Yes, indeed. As writerstrasure.com points out, any nonfiction writing can be creative if the purpose is to express something, whether it be feelings, thoughts, or emotions. And, while the purpose of technical writing may be to inform and sometimes to trigger the person reading into making an action beneficial to the one of the writer, Idrees Patel admits, concise and magnetic writing is what will draw the reader in.

The question author Malcolm Gladwell gets asked most often just happens to be the same I’m most often asked when offering corporate blogging training sessions: “Where do you get your ideas?” the trick, Gladwell explains, is to “convince yourself that everyone and everything has a story to tell.”

Marketing seems to go in cycles, remarks Morgan Stewart in a Media Post Publications article. “We bounce back and forth between…left-brain marketing focused on analytics and segmentation, and right-brain marketing focused on the creative.”  Both types of marketing are needed, concludes Steward. “Left-brain marketing narrows target audiences. Creative pulls people into your message.  Creative gets people talking.

In offering business blogging help, I emphasize that in business blog writing, it’s crucial to avoid the urge to directly sell a product or service. Instead, the creative challenge, is continually coming up with fresh content to inform, educate, and entertain readers.

 

 

 

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Everyday Employee Experience at the Heart of Blogging

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“Narrative gives us a sense of shared experience and humanity,” Hubert Joly (former CEO of Best Buy) writes in The Heart of Business.  “Telling everyday stories – stories of employees, customers, communities, and how they impact each other’s lives – fosters a sense of purpose and connection..” For that very reason, thehartford.com explains, “Your employees need to understand your company, its values, its goals and its priorities.”Surveys show 72% of consumers report feeling closer to a company when employees share information about a brand online.

As I related in an August Say It For You blog post, when I’m working with a company to set up a business blogging strategy, encouraging that company’s employees to post blogs, quite often I hit a wall of resistance, with employees viewing blogging as just one more task to add to their work load. Should employees be required to write blog posts? Marcus Sheridon of SalesLion.com thinks so. Since one goal of content marketing is to produce as much content as possible, the more hands are put to the task, the better. With content that answers consumers’ questions so valuable, it stands toathat employees who deal with consumers every day should be the ones to write about it. Human nature being what it is, he says, if it’s not required, they won’t do it.

Sure, but after fifteen years of providing blog content writing services to dozens of different businesses and professional practices, I’ve come to the same conclusion as Stan Smith of pushingsocial.com: “Blogging is writing, and writing, for most people has a fear factor right up there with public speaking.  You can coach, bribe, threaten all you want but in the end, you’ll be writing most of your blog posts.” That’s precisely why I found Joly’s account of how things worked at Best Buy so inspiring. At every meeting, people would tell their own personal stories and how they personally had been able to make a difference to someone.

At Say It for You, as our team provides content writing services to business owners and practitioners, one way we involve employees is to highlight specific accomplishments in a blog. That brings a two-way benefit: When readers learn about an employee’s enthusiasm and how that person put in extra time and effort in serving customers, that tends to cement the customer’s relationship with the company or practice. As featured employees proudly share those write-ups with friends and family, the blog becomes a gift that keeps on giving.

Far from being a contradiction to concept of authenticity, we help readers “meet” the actual team of employees who are providing the product or service, the ones whose daily activities result in the benefits customers enjoy.

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Guest Post: 10 Reasons to Keep Using Social Media

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Today’s guest post is from Karan Sharma, co-founder & CEO of Kinex Media Inc. Karan  intends to bring a massive transformation in eCommerce web designing & development, and his team of talented IT professionals knows the secret of getting huge conversions…… 

Before mobile phones and the internet came into existence, people had no virtual source to keep them entertained. They used to keep themselves busy by reading newspapers, novels or books; participating in sports; playing outdoor games and community building activities. Gradually mobile phones started to change the route of the era; consequently, people’s involvement in all the above activities began to decline. People started being satisfied in the virtual world. 70% of ‘That’ virtual work consists of social media. In today’s day and age, there won’t be a single person who doesn’t have an account on any social media platform (Exception: People aged 70 to 80 years). The question is, “Why are people going insane over social media?”

1. News Updates & Current Events In Your Pocket!
Earlier, three orthodox sources helped to remain updated with the current events and new updates – Newspaper, Radio & Television. But these sources required us to sit at a place and have focused listening. The knowledge gained through such sources was more of a time-consuming process. Besides, carrying a radio and television on the journey was not possible. One could buy newspapers, but the constant movement of the vehicles can’t let us fix & firm the vision.
But, with the origin of mobile phones and social media, it became easy to stay updated with local, national and international happenings. What you’ve to do is – Glare at the mobile screen for 5 minutes, and you come to know everything happening in the world.

2. No More Chacha Chaudhary & Santa Banta Jokes!
No doubt, it was one of the memorable eras we lived in when we used to chuckle over those sarcastic and ironic jokes. But today, people’s preferences for laughing material have changed. In 2022, people laugh a stomach aching laughter when they see memes & real-life funny videos. More precisely, the people of 2022 find it difficult to laugh at scripted and made-up material. This is the primary reason behind the popularity of these famous Instagram memes pages – @epicfunnypage, @sarcasm_only,@thefatjewish, @funnymemes, @ladbible etc.

3. Fight With Social Anxiety
Social Media has such magical powers that it doesn’t let anybody feel social anxiety. Before we stepped into the era of social media, socially anxious people used to repel social participation, like attending a wedding or any other party or visiting relatives. If their families force them to be socially active, they suffer a mental breakdown, as they find it difficult to mix with people. But social media allows such people to be socially active by not compromising their zone. Besides, people won’t feel any FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) as tagging and mentioning keep them inside the zone.

 

4. Get To Know What Your Friends Are Doing!
Since childhood, we’ve been listening to the phrase – ‘Sharing is Caring’. The Social Media world has taken this thing very seriously. Today, people share any and everything on social media. Whether you’re sick, making up your mind to travel or buying a new dress, everything goes into the social media stories and posts.

5. Who Doesn’t Want ‘My Space’?
Who doesn’t want to enjoy their personal space? Social Media offers such space in the form of individual profiles. Like, Your Instagram provides you opportunities to appear your best in front of people through DPs (display pictures); write something catchy about you so that people come to know who you are and the profile grid, which is solely yours, where you can showcase your way of living life. Isn’t that cool? It is similar to having those childhood albums, which we still use to see with utmost pleasure.

6. Shopping From Social Media Platforms Is Trending!
Many shops and businesses, irrespective of their brick-and-mortar presence, love to put their products on social media to increase brand awareness and trigger online sales. Observing the fast-growing fad of social media shopping, many social media platforms introduced extra shopping space to provide better opportunities for shopkeepers to set up their sales. Not only has social media allowed store owners to display their products, but it has also facilitated users with massive Research-Carrying-Out opportunities.

7. You Can Make New Friends!
In real life, it’s challenging to make new friends. We all feel shy about making new friends face to face. But we feel comfortable when it comes to chatting with friends in that chatbox, where our faces are not visible. Besides, the chat boxes offer many facilities, including stickers, GIFs and photo-video sharing facilities. It also provides you with audio and video calling features.

8. Because Everybody Is Using Social Media
In the 21st century, every person is available on social media. Each one is observed to be spending at least 1 hour on social platforms. So if everybody is doing it, why don’t you? If you are a socially active person, it is quintessentially essential for you to have a social media presence.

9. Express Your Opinion on National or International Happenings!
Gone are the days when only party leaders, MLA’s or MPs had the opportunity to express their opinion on national and international happenings. When people are free to express their opinion, social media has come out as an ideal platform to support such opinion-expressing activities.
Social media polls and likes and dislikes buttons help to express the opinion firmly.

10. Offers Filters to Click Photos!
Who isn’t fond of clicking photos? But when we have excellent filters, the joy of clicking pictures gets doubled! Social Media platforms offer such filters and allow you to click images in the best resolution in fewer sizes. Snapchat filters are taking photography to the next level among all SM platforms. Some filters can enhance your beauty, while there are others as well, which can make you look funny.

Caution: Excessive Usage Is Harmful!
But in 2022, a trend is catching fire on almost all social media platforms – ‘Kill Social Media Addiction’. Social Media is undoubtedly the best medium to stay updated with current events worldwide; it allows you to keep in touch with old friends and express your opinion on political affairs. Spending too much time on social media leads to addiction, and getting rid of such addiction becomes difficult. So it is suggested to use social media for less than 1 hour.

 

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