Going for a Globe or an Oscar in Your Business Blog?

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When it comes to the business of honoring those who toil in filmmaking, the two Omain rivals are the Golden Globe Awards and the Oscars. Susan Woszczyna of USA Today clarifies the differences between the two.

 

WHO DECIDES?
For the Golden Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s 93 members aim to recognize excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign. The Academy Awards or Oscars honors cinematic achievements only.  The Oscars are overseen by the nearly 6,000 member Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

One good rule of thumb about business blogging is to narrow down the target audience.  To be an effective marketing tool for your business, your blog must to be the result of a well-planned strategy aimed at a specific segment of the market.
WHAT’S THE VENUE?
The Globes prefer a party atmosphere, says Woszczyna, and the event takes place in a banquet room at the Beverly Hilton hotel, with dinner and beverages served. The Oscars, by contrast, are held at a movie theater inside a shopping mall and, according to Elena Sheppard of Arts.Mic, are “all business”.

I remember reading an article in Speaker Magazine about the Alice Cooper rock music group who developed their brand around one target audience – kids.  “If the parents hate, the kids will love it” became their motto.  Know your brand and choose everything from the style of your writing to the visuals you use in your business blog based on what “venue” you wish to be associated with.

 

ONE TOPIC OR TWO?
The Golden Globe awards include television shows in addition to films, and often are drawn to different and more obscure films. The Academy Awards leave TV to the Emmys and (at least in Woszczyna’s opinion) focus primarily on well attended and well recognized movies.

Blogging can have several different purposes, but make no mistake – blogging for business is marketing. The more focused our efforts are, the more successful the blog will be in converting prospects to clients and customers.

Are you going for a Globe or an Oscar in YOUR business blog?

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Learning the Business Blogging “Trade”

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A saying often credited to author James Bennis goes like this: “Don’t justContractor standing with toolbelt on white background learn the tricks of the trade – learn the trade.” 

In and around Indianapolis, a big hub for blog content writers and IT mavens of every ilk, there’s lots of talk about “tricks” and “tips” for creating engaging content for business blogs.  In fact, when I lead blogging training sessions or communicate with my business owners or practitioner clients, I like to share helpful “tips”.

I came across a website called “Working the Web to Win”, where three published authors put together a rather specific to-do list for blog content writers, including such basics as

  • Create a “killer” title.
  • Make them an offer they can’t refuse in the opening paragraph.
  • Provide a “quirky’ conclusion.
  • Make sure you provide ample subheads and pithy quotes throughout the article.
  • Make sure the article is visually appealing.
  • Include a call to action.

Every one of these pieces of advice is valuable, I believe, and I certainly wouldn’t categorize them as “tricks” or as taking the easy way out. I’d say “The Free Dictionary” definition of “tricks of the trade” as being those “special skills and knowledge associated with any trade or profession”, is very fitting.

Is writing an art or a trade? James Chartrand asks. “I don’t like being called an artist. I don’t really like other writers calling themselves artists, either. Come to think of it, I don’t really feel anyone with a computerized job is an artist,” Chartrand concludes.(Well! We could certainly pass some time tossing that one around, now couldn’t we?)

My own take is that “learning the trade” when it comes to blogging for business is that’s it’s all about “learning around”, getting ideas from everywhere and everyone, constantly looking to make connections between our own experience and knowledge and “Other People’s Wisdom.”

In a sense, a true business  blog content writer never stops learning the trade!

 

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Good Blogging Behaviors

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owner training puppy dogAmazing, the way Robby Slaughter’s newest book “The Battle for Your Email Inbox” is so applicable to business blog writing! All three of this week’s Say It For You blog posts are based on Slaughter’s email-related advice.

No, we cannot change the behavior of others, the author admits, and no, we’re not responsible for other people’s actions. But if, through email, Slaughter points out, we control our own behaviors, we have the power to influence the behaviors of others. What do we control?

  • When we send email
  • How quickly we reply to email from other
  • What it is that we write.

“The secret to managing the timing of your email is calmness and consistency.”

Consistency is the very backbone of business blogging success. It’s crucial for business owners and professional practitioners to understand that nowadays it’s only recently updated information that is likely to impact the success of their online marketing.

Once-in-a-while blogging just doesn’t do the trick, even if it’s high-quality stuff.  To satisfy a search engine, your blog material must be updated frequently, and I mean very frequently. 
“Before you decide to write an email, you should determine if email is the appropriate place to have the conversation at hand.”

In blogging for business, the topic of comments is one that elicits different responses from clients, largely because of fear those comments might be negative or critical. In truth, comments are actually more likely to be either negative or posted to promote the commenter’s business rather than yours.  On the positive side, social media, including blogs, help business owners control their message and exercise damage control.  But if the blog itself is not the appropriate place to have the conversation, it can be taken offline.

In certain instances, it’s better to pick up the phone or have a conversation in person, advises Slaughter.  One example is when you’re critiquing someone’s work or giving negative feedback.

Nowadays, apparently, it’s OK (or at least legal) to knock a competitor by name.  But, although one possible approach in a business blog is to compare your products and services to others’, it’s wise to do that in a positive way.

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Accentuate the Negative?

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“Eliminate the negative an’ latch on to the affirmative” was Johnny Mercer’s musical advice back in 1945.dog food Playing to one’s strengths has, in fact, been a popular fad in management development circles. As a blog content writer, though, sometimes I wonder.

The latest issue of Modern Dog magazine features eight article titles on its cover:

  • How Not to Train Your Puppy
  • Gift ideas galore
  • Big Dogs and their Puppy Counterparts
  • Winter Survival Tips
  • Great Gear
  • I’m Adoptable
  • Find a New Best Friend
  • Why is My Dog Staring at Me?

Guess which one attracted my attention the most – Yeah, gotta admit… it was the negative one telling me how NOT to train my puppy. And guess what? It’s not just me.  People are drawn to articles with negative titles, my friend and fellow blogger Lorraine Ball pointed out a year ago. Posts with negative titles stand out in a blog roll, on a Twitter feed or LinkedIn page, and the negative posts are more likely to be shared, retweeted and read.

What’s with us? Well, “edgy language draws attention”, Lorraine explains. (Lorraine’s title “Why Your Blog Titles Suck” is a bit too edgy for me, but I get the idea. I do.) Fact is, I would’ve picked “Why is My Dog Staring at Me?” before “How to Train Your Puppy”.  It was that How-NOT-to that drew my attention.

But that doesn’t jibe at all with Rich Brook’s advice on socialmediaexaminer: “The how-to is the most powerful of all the blogging archetpyes.”  Your prospects and customers have a problem and you can help them solve it by creating a step-by-step post that walks them through a solution, he says. That may be true, counters Lorraine Ball, but fear of failure is core to who we are as people, and it’s hard to resist reading material about how to avoid it.

Could it be that accentuating the negative, and only then latching on to the affirmative is the best advice for us business blog content writers?

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Help Blog Readers See Themselves in the Scenario

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Vestidos de gitana- Mujer bailando sevillanas.This week’s Say It For You blog posts are based on wisdom gained from friend Robby Slaughter’s new book, “The Battle For Your Email Inbox”.

“When information is elevated to a scenario, it becomes more obvious what to do with it,” the author explains.  “Matching elements to groupings is fundamental, he adds, so when you encounter a fact or suggestion, attempt to classify it.”

That same concept applies to blogging for business, I’m convinced.  Each claim a content writer puts into a corporate blog needs to be put into context for the reader, so that the claim not only is true, but feels true to online visitors.

I think Robby Slaughter’s description of email –“water on the open seas, everywhere and totally inescapable” – is true of blog posts.  There are literally millions upon millions of posts out there making claims of one sort or another. If we can’t help readers in their attempt to classify all that stuff, we’re not likely to be of much help at all to them.

It wouldn’t be exaggerating for me to say, based on my own experience reading all types of SEO marketing blogs, that very few manage to convey to visitors what the blogger’s claims about that company’s or that practice’s products and services can mean to them, the readers!

In fact, meaning becomes super-important when we’re blogging to describe the features of a product or service.  Sometimes I tell content writers, “Try using the phrase ‘which means that…’ to explain ways that product or services will be of help to users. Imagine those readers asking themselves, How will I use the product?  How much will I use? How often? Where? What will it look like?  How will I feel?”

I absolutely agree that information needs to be elevated into scenarios. My way of describing the process to newbie content writers is this: Painting the picture is only Step #1.  What comes next is putting the reader into the picture!

 

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