Filling Your Trivia Basket for Business Blogging – Part D

No question about it – trivia can be useful triggers for business blog content ideas, making the challenge of continually coming up with fresh content to inform, educate, and entertain readers a little bit easier on busy business owners and employees and on freelance content writers like us.

This week, I’ve devoted my  Say It For You blog posts to trivia found in Albert Jack’s book, Red Herrings & White Elephants, which traces the origins of phrases we use every day.

I’ve been suggesting types of businesses that might use each piece of trivia, but now that you’ve gotten into the trivia-mining swing, I challenge you to come with your own ideas for turning each piece of trivia into a  writing “hook”.

• Let the cat out of the bag – Apparently there was a lot of cheating going on in the medieval marketplace. Having been shown a pig, a purchaser would be distracted by haggling with the vendor over price. When the buyer opened his bag at home, he’d find a cat had been substituted for the pig.
  This tidbit of information about dishonest dealing could be used by any business to emphasize its own merchandise return policy. A diamond merchant might cite its price protection guarantee, while a property appraisal website would discuss the importance of relying on a legally assigned value during a real estate transaction.

• Bite off more than you can chew – We use this expression to indicate someone has taken on more than they can manage.  This phrase comes from the 1800s, when chewing tobacco was popular. The greedy would take such a large bite of tobacco, they were unable to chew it properly.
  The metaphor of unmanageable tasks applies to just about any business, and any blog content creator can discuss the wisdom of a business owner outsourcing certain tasks, from talent recruitment agencies to building cleaning services.Back when I was just beginning my work as a professional blog writer in Indianapolis, debates on the ethics of blogging for others often raged at networking meetings and seminars.  Meanwhile, of course, more and more companies were venturing into online marketing campaigns, viewing blog content writing as just another advertising and marketing function to be outsourced. Today, outsourcing the blog marketing function is common practice.

Be an ant. Begin stocking up on provisions for the business blog writing season ahead!