Blogging to Tell Them What to Think About

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Thinking manHara Estroff Marano, writing in Psychology Today, says she won’t tell you what to think, but will tell you what to think about.  While in this article the psychologist is offering food for thought in the sphere of dating and self-motivation, I couldn’t help but love that line of hers, realizing how very apropos it is for us business blog content writers.

In fact, this is the very point I often stress in corporate blogging training sessions – whether you’re blogging for a business, for a professional practice, or for a nonprofit organization, you need to voice an opinion, a slant, on the information you’re serving up for readers. In other words, blog posts, to be effective, can’t be just compilations; you can’t just “aggregate” other people’s stuff and make that be your entire blog presence.

On the other hand, if you, as a business owner or professional practitioner, try telling people what to think, that’s a surefire way to lose friends and customers in a hurry. Yes, your blog is your “podium”, meaning you get to showcase your business so customers will want you to be the one to provide them with the product or the service they need. But they need to arrive at that point as a result of their own thinking.  Dr. Marano hit the nail on the head – don’t tell readers what to think; give them all the facts they need to think about.

How can blogs help potential clients and customers make better, sometimes complex, decisions?

  • By suggesting questions readers can ask themselves while choosing among many options. (Do they want ease of use? Current functionality? Future capabilities?)
  • By “mapping”, meaning showing how choices are related to consequences.  How much sooner will your mortgage get paid off if you add $100 each month to your payment. How should the prospect feel about the purchase (Relief? Trust? Premier status?)
  • By offering easy ways to make choices, so that the decisions are not pressure-packed.

You might say the art of blogging consists of supplying facts, and then putting those facts in context.  As bloggers, we’re giving them the raw materials to think about, but we need to go one step further, demonstrating why those facts matter, suggesting ways readers can use the information for their own benefit.

To the woman concerned that the man she’s been dating has been legally separated for the past twenty years, Marano suggests, “Could it be that your online friend values clinging to the comfort of the status quo?”

What are you giving your readers to think about?

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Blogs are Bricks in Decision-Making Architecture

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bFinancial planners don’t slay dragons. Instead, they do battle with biases.

Now retired from my career as a CFP®, I stay interested in behavioral finance, which is using science to move individuals in the direction of better decision-making. In fact, I see my present work as content writer for business blogs as very similar – helping readers gain access to – and process – the information they need to make good buying decisions.

In the latest issue of the Journal for Financial Planning, researchers Dave Yeske and Elissa Buie discuss “decision architecture”, a fascinating concept that goes beyond describing “the cognitive systems that people use for interacting with the world”, to actually helping individuals  support rapid – and intelligent – decision-making in the face of a changing environment.

We humans think both fast and slow, the authors explain.  The automatic system is fast, using shortcuts and relying on information that is easiest to recall. “Slow” decision-making is based on policies and principles that help us make more complex decisions.

So how can blogs, by definition short, personal, and conversational, help potential clients and customers make better, sometimes complex, decisions?

  • By suggesting questions readers can ask themselves while choosing among many options. (Do they want ease of use? Current functionality? Future capabilities?)
  • By “mapping”, meaning showing how choices are related to consequences.  How much sooner will your mortgage get paid off if you add $100 each month to your payment. How should the prospect feel about the purchase (Relief? Trust? Premier status?)
  • By offering easy ways to make choices, so that the decisions are not pressure-packed.

Linda Gorchels at the Wisconsin School of Business reminds us that, while customers don’t like being sold, they do need help in making buying decisions. “Arm them with the necessary tools to convince themselves and others that this is the correct decision.”

Blogs don’t make up an entire marketing structure, but blog posts serve as bricks in the decision-making architecture!

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Three Pieces of Animal Wisdom for Business Bloggers

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Take good advice wherever you can find it, is my thought when it comes to good blog content writing. After all, as Charlie garfieldBrown’s Snoopy warns us, “There’s no sense in doing a lot of barking if you don’t really have anything to say.”

But, really, how 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 is extraordinarily simple, yet extraordinarily difficult: We have to keep learning, constantly adding to our own body of knowledge – about our industry or professional field (in my case, about those of our Say It For You clients), and about what’s going on around us in our culture.

There’s a second compelling reason to keep freshening up content, and a second cartoon creature, Dogbert, hits that nail on the head: “This is called a yawn,” he remarks. “When you see one, stop talking about yourself.”

In creating content for marketing blogs, we should remember that people are online searching for answers to questions they have and for solutions to dilemmas they’re facing. It’s all about them as potential customers and clients, never about us (or about our business owner or professional clients).  Even before we begin to write, we need to think, “But, enough about us! It’s all about them!”

Garfield reminds us blog writers to inject a lighter note into our content. “I seek truth,” he says, “but a cookie will do”.

Humorist Jeff Fleming  explains the secret behind the Garfield humor. Humorists use serious “set-up” statements, then come in with a third statement which is not what listeners are expecting.  That “misdirection” causes surprise, which is what strikes listeners’ funny bones.

As a corporate blogging trainer, I actually advise writers against using misdirection, given the very short attention span of the average online reader. But the element of surprise can be used to wake up blog readers and keep them engaged. Putting things together that don’t seem to match is one “misdirection” technique, lending an “aha” effect when readers get your point.

Snoopy, Dogbert, and Garfield may have wisdom to share with business bloggers!

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OPA for Blog Content Writing – A

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Illustration of an Isolated BarcodeIt’s a principle used by many to build financial success – OPM. The idea: we’re not limited by our own resources, because we can use Other People’s Money. Even if we lack the financial resources to take advantage of business opportunities, explains Michael Lechter of PowerHomeBiz.com , OPM makes moving forward possible.

I like to use that same principle in blogging for business, except the resources involve other people’s advice, or OPA. This week, all three of my Say It For You blog posts will share pieces of advice that can help companies and professional practices move forward in creating high quality blog content.

“Reading from a screen is more tiring and therefore about 25% slower than reading from paper,” points out Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net. That’s why, Rowse stresses, it’s so important in writing blog content for business, to make it scannable.

Simple formatting clues, such as bolding, underlining, and bullet points, can go a long way in the scannability department, Rowse goes on to explain, and he suggests placing pictures close to the content they’re meant to illustrate. “Don’t feel you have to fill up every inch of your screen,” he cautions.  Instead, he advises, create spaces because those tend to draw readers’ eyes.

Rowse makes a point that I’ve often stressed in business blogging training sessions, which is to get to the core topic early in the post. “Don’t bury your points,” is how he puts it.  I tell newbie blog content writers that “your most important task is, as early on as possible in the content of each blog post, to convey the message to those searchers that they’ve come to the right place for the products and information they need”.

Rowse is very honest in his remarks to bloggers: offering scannable stuff is good, he explains, but hardly good enough. Another factor to consider when thinking about good content, he says, is whether it’s unique. He sees blogs every day, he admits, that have very “useful” content, but which nobody reads because there is so much of that same information to be found in other places.

Today’s takeaway piece of OPM – strive for scannable AND unique!

 

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Why-Don’t-YOU-Do-It Blog Writing

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Microphone on standWe’re all used to today’s celebrities, CEOs, and public figures who can’t spare the time to write their own books or speeches, and who hire ghostwriters. As a professional ghost blogger, I’ve become an avid reader on forms and styles of ghost writing.  “Ghosts” are behind everything, I keep learning – from classical and country music to the most popular mystery and romance novels.

The current issue of The Nostalgia Digest, a wonderful periodical I came across at the bookstore, has a story about oldtime radio show “This is New York” featuring the character Archie, bartender at Duffy’s Tavern. Reading the piece, I was reminded of the old, yet ongoing debate about who should be writing content for business blogs.  Should it be the owners of the business or practice, or a hired content creator (a “ghost”)?

Producer Ed Gardner wanted a guy to talk New Yorkese, and who would sound like a bum, not a gentleman.  He kept auditioning people, but was never happy – the accent wasn’t right or the timing would be off.  Someone in the control booth said, “Hey, Ed, why don’t you do it?” “And, by golly, he did,” relates Nostalgia writer Martin Grams, Jr.   “He filled a picture of the character (Archie) with his timing and his voice.”

So what’s the reason business owners and professional practitioners don’t “do it” when it comes to blog writing? They lack the time, the discipline, or the writing skills to do it themselves.  But can an outsider ever do “Archie” as well as the bar owner? Yes, if….. is the answer. As with any promotional materials created for a business by outside professionals, I caution owners, your blog must be in harmony with your style, your approach to your customers and your niche within your industry or field of expertise.

Over my years of working with hundreds of Say It For You client companies and practices, I found that those clients knew that writing blogs in their area of expertise was going to be a great idea for them, yet not very many of them felt they could take the time to compose and post content on a regular basis.  Still, just as Ed Gardner needed a guy to talk New Yorkese, we freelance content writers need to talk the language of each client’s target customers market , and we need to do it in the way that each owner or practitioner would if he “did it himself”!

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