In Blogging for Business, Remember the Golden Rule Conundrum

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“Most of us were taught in childhood the so-called golden rule,” Garrison Klueck writes in this month’s MENSA Bulletin. The basic directive, he reminds us, is to “do unto others what you would have them do unto you”. What could possibly go wrong with that easy-to-grasp call to altruism and empathy, Klueck asks? Where’s the conundrum?

The basic problem, Kleuck points out, is that the golden rule assumes all people want the same type of things “done unto them.”, and that is clearly not the case. We’re like pet cats bringing dead mice to their owners. The cats consider the mouse a gift and expect their owners to be pleased, but instead, they’re horrified.

Hurt feelings, misunderstanding, disputes, and conflicts arise from the disconnect between how we treat others and how they would like to be treated, Klueck concludes.

Precisely the same conundrum applies in blogging for business, we’ve learned at Say it for You. “A blog’s target audience is the group of people who will find its content most helpful,” writes Mo the blog coach. “Putting specific demographics on your audience helps you to think of them as a real person with real problems and not abstract people.” In other words, the more you can learn learn what your target readers want “done unto them”, the more successful your blog marketing is likely to be.

“If your marketing is not getting enough people into the pool, you’ll find the problem is in one of three places. You’ve either got the wrong STORY, the wrong STUFF, or the wrong AUDIENCE,”  iTeam CEO Thaddeus Rex once told me. “No marketing succeeds if it can’t find the audience that already wants to believe the story being told,” is the way Seth Godin puts it.

Understanding what blog visitors want “done unto them” will ultimately affect every aspect of your blog, including what it looks like, the style of writing, the length and frequency of posts, and how you present calls to action.

In blogging for business, remember the Golden Rule conundrum!

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Picking an Outfit – for an Interview or a Blog Post

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“We all make judgments about the people we come into contact with within the first few minutes of meeting them,” ZipRecruiter observes in IndyStar. “In fact, we tend to assume that people who dress well are more competent, even if they aren’t.”

Interesting, I thought. Two pieces of the how-to-pick-a-job-interview-outfit advice ZipRecruiter offers can be easily adapted to business blog content writing…After all, as content writers, our goal is to make a good impression on visitors to our – or our clients’ – websites..

Observe others
To get a sense of how you might want to present yourself, do some people-watching. For each person that passes, write down the first adjective that comes to mind – professional, confident, stylish. Decide which words you’d like to be associated with and mirror that look.

Business blogging is one way we have of “talking about ourselves”, and we need to make sure we use words in ways that give readers the right impression. One way to “see” ourselves from the point of view of visitors is to visit others’ websites, including those of competitors. Is the “vibe” welcoming and empathetic? Brash? Don’t copy, simply get a sense of how different websites appeal to visitors, and emulate the tone that seems to best reflect the impression you’d like to make on visitors to your site.

Of course, as Neil Patel points out, you can also use “competitive intelligence” to gain insight into which keywords are helping your competitors’ rankings online.

Strike a pose
In the right outfit, you’re more likely to “strike a power pose” and put your best foot forward. Look for fashion at affordable prices or reach out to a friend or family member who can lend you an outfit.

In blog marketing, as I teach at Say It For You, the visual elements are as important as the content itself. The main message of a blog is delivered in words, of course. Where visuals come in, whether they’re in the form of “clip art”, photos, graphs, charts, or even videos, is to add interest and evoke emotion. You should take pride in your blog’s appearance, ease of navigation, and correct grammar.

Whether for a job interview or a blog post – it’s important to pick an outfit!

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Grammar in Blogging – Getting a Grip

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“Jobs are lost for typos on resumes…. Friends lose respect for each other… Semi-colons cry themselves to sleep at night,” quips Kris Spisak in Get a Grip on Your Grammar.

Well,, While I wouldn’t go so far as to myself to sleep at night over grammar, one of our mantras at Say It For You is that “good grammar affects the effect of a business blog”.

While I reassure content writers that, if their marketing blog posts are filled with valuable, relevant, and engaging material, the fact they wrote ‘a lot’ when they should have said ‘many’ or substituted ‘your’ for ‘you’re isn’t going to be a content marketing deal breaker.

On the other hand, in corporate blogging training sessions, in which the business owner and professional practitioner attendees largely serve as their own editors, I urge no-error erring on the side of caution.

Spisak emphasizes 3 common aspects of content writing:

“Don’t show off your smarts”.
Be inclusive – your readers will appreciate it if your avoid industry jargon. I agree. Jargon, Jargon is a handle-with-care writing technique, all the more so in blogging, where readers are impatient to find the information they need without any navigational or terminology hassle. On the other hand, once you’ve established that common ground, reinforcing to readers that they’ve come to the right place, you can add lesser known bits of information, including terminology.

Don’t use filler words.
Expressions such as “Actually,” “basically”, “literally”, “just about”, and “honestly” add nothing to your readers’ understanding of your message. I agree. “Tighten up” your blog content writing to increase its impact.

Go ahead and use the singular “they”.
To demonstrate how much simpler life can be if writers allow themselves to use “the singular ‘they’”, Spisak uses the following uber-awkward sentence: “A child will fall and hurt him or herself if he or she doesn’t tie his or her shoes.” It’s OK to use “they” and “their” when you want to be smooth, not gender specific, he reassures purists.

As a blogging trainer, my own favorite recommendation to business owners as well as the freelance blog content writers they hire to help bring their message to their customers) is simply this: Dress your blog in its best. Prevent blog content writing “wardrobe malfunctions” such as grammar errors, run-on sentences, and spelling errors.

After all, getting a grip on grammar is an important part of getting your message across!

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Create Tension in Blogging for Business

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“Even a small amount of tension in your writing can move it from flat to fascinating,” Mary-Kate Mackey tells writers in Write Better Right Now. Just as bending a flat metal rule into an arc, she advises, think “arc” in setting up questions in readers’ minds. In a well-written paragraph, each sentence launches from the last, with paragraphs positioned along the larger arc of the whole piece.

Because our Say It For You team focuses its writing on blog marketing, I particularly appreciate one marketing example Mackey offered. The assignment – a travel agency pitching the town of Lily Pond, Arkansas.

The first version lacks tension:
“The small town of Lily Pond offers much for anyone willing to leave the interstate.” That’s a yawn, Mackey says – lots of places have lots of amenities to offer.

A better version, one with tension:
“FUN THIS WAY – That sign doesn’t exist on the interstate exist for Highway 58. But it should.”

Richard Anderson’e Powerful Writing Skills makes the same point about conveying a sense of enthusiasm through your writing. “Don’t be satisfied with putting down data and results or observations and opinions,” Anderson says.“ Find a way to make this information meaningful to your reader.”

But, really, can that be done? Can we, over months and years, continue to “have something to say” related to our field, keeping our blog posts relevant over long periods of time without losing reader excitement and engagement?  The answer (extraordinarily simple, yet extraordinarily difficult): We have to keep learning, constantly adding to our own body of knowledge – about our industry or professional field (and in the case of our content writing team, about those of our clients).

One interesting parallel is found in ballroom dancing, my own beloved hobby over the years. “Dancing would be impossible without a certain amount of tension,” explains danceforums.com. “In time and with practice you will learn to match your leader’s arm tension: when it’s relaxed you will be relaxed, when he is increasing his tension, you will fill it, you’ll match it, and you’ll know he’s up to something,” an instructor explains to females..

In blogging for business, a simple arc gets readers to want to know – What’s the consequence of this tension? What is the business owner or practitioner leading me to? What’s at the end of the arc?

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Break Full Articles Apart in Blogging for Business

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When it comes to blogging, we at Say It For You firmly believe in the Power of One:

  • One message
  • One outcome
  • One audience
  • One writer
  • One client

    A very well-written article that appeared recently in the Indianapolis Business Journal reinforced for me an important difference between nonfiction articles and blog posts, with each post having a razor-sharp focus on just one idea or concept, one aspect of a business or practice. With apologies to George Lesmeister, CEO and founder of LGC Hospitality, I’m going to use his article to illustrate how a single topic article can provide the fodder for several very focused, very effective blog posts.

The overall premise of the Lesmeister piece is that a large pool of job candidates till now be actively seeking employment, those job seekers are going to be choosy. The author offers several pieces of advice to employers about ways to provide a good hiring experience for candidates.

Statistics:
“While Indiana’s unemployment rate spiked to 17% during the pandemic, it’s now 3.9%). Our sector (Lessmeister’s staffing firm specializes in the hospitality industry) lost the largest number of jobs.” What’s more, the author adds, “A May estimate shows some 116,000 job openings in Indiana.”

In teaching business owners and professional practitioners how to create content for blog posts, I stress the power of using statistics in blogs:

  • Statistics can serve as myth-busters, dispelling false impressions people may have regarding your industry.
  • Statistics grab visitors’ attention.
  • Statistics can be used demonstrate the extent of a problem opening the door for your to show how you help solve that very type of problem.

My point: This one portion of Lesmeister’s article (the unemployment statistics) can constitute an entire blog post.

Best practices:
The author’s admonition that “Respect is a two-way street” would make for an engaging blog post title. Workers see help-wanted signs, go inside to apply, fill out an application, and never hear back, Lessmeister laments. Certainly an entire blog post might focus on best practices within your industry or profession.

One thing I suggest stressing in blog posts is best business practices.  While a goal of any marketing blog is to help your business or practice “get found”, once that’s happened, the goal changes to helping online readers appreciate the specific ways you choose to run your enterprise.

  • Specific solutions and advice
    “Even if a job candidate does not have experience in one particular area, evaluate the soft skills during the interview process. …Can the applicant quickly be trained to make an impact?”

    Solve a problem, own the customer, sales trainers like to say. That’s because people are online searching for answers to their problems or solutions for dilemmas they’re facing.  If your business has been consistently posting content, those people are going to find you, because your posts provide the solutions they need. Providing a powerful online “voice” to solutions to searchers’ problems is the essence of content writers’ work!

    Out of just this one article might come many different, powerful blog posts:

  • busting one myth common among consumers of their product or service they’re marketing
  • offering one testimonial from a user of that product or service
  • describing an unusual application for that product
  • describing one common problem their service helps solve
  • updating readers on one new development in that industry or profession
  • offering a unique opinion or slant on best practices

Break full articles (your own or others’) apart for blogging for business!

 

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