Good-and-Good Blogging for Business

The six-student presentation at the Hasten Hebrew Academy the other evening was definitely “good and good”. Principal Miriam Gettinger explained why that expression could be used to describe an effective sermon (her husband’s a rabbi).  In fact, I couldn’t help thinking, “good and good” should be the standard of excellence in any communication, perhaps particularly in blogging for business.

A sermon with good content that is nice and short? That’s good and good. A sermon with good content that drags on interminably? That’s good and bad. Any sermon with poor content but that is mercifully short – well that might be described as bad and good.  Worst of all is a sermon with poor content that is too long – that’s bad and bad, Gettinger pointed out.

“How long?” is one question I hear a lot at corporate blogging training sessions. Typically the business owner or freelance blog content writer is referring to the recommended length of blog posts, or, sometimes, the question refers to the blog post title.

As a longtime professional ghost blogger, working to create marketing blog content for a variety of Say It For You clients, I think the “good-and-good” standard applies. Of course, the most effective length for any one blog post is whatever it takes to hit the main points of the one topic that is the focus for that post.

When it comes to effective blogging for business, we need to “know our size”, exercising “portion control” in the length of paragraphs, of blog titles and of entire blog posts. Blogs need to be conversational rather than billboard-style, and be sprinkled with enough keyword phrase use to attract targeted online traffic.

First and foremost, (the first “good”), the content, needs to be helpful to target readers. Then, make each blog post as short as possible, but no shorter.

You might call that a recipe for “good-and-good” in blogging for business!