You’d-Be-Surprised Blogging for Business

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While strange-and-unusual lists help spark readers’ curiosity and keep them moving through our blog Pinatapages, as blog content writers we can’t stop there. We need to take readers to the next step, which is telling them about surprising things they can do and accomplish (with our professional help, of course!).

For example, it’s all well and good for David Moye to write in the Huffington Post about Strange Things That Get Sent in the Mail. Strange and unusual tidbits most readers wouldn’t be likely to know can make for engaging blog content.

It’s just that strange and unusual simply isn’t enough. Unless the information is somehow tied to the reader’s problem or need, unless the blog content explains why the writer cares about that information or why that information could make a difference to the reader, there can be no Call to Action.  You’d be surprised how many businesses and practices create valuable content for their blog without going that extra step!

Online searchers must be assured they’ve come to the right place to find the information, products, and services they need. Without guidance, those searchers are unlikely to make the connection between the startling statistic, the strange-and-unusual tidbit, or the new information – and the actions they ought to consider taking!

Let’s compare that Moye article about strange things that get sent in the mail to one offered by Michele Porucznik on BuzzFeed.com called “21 Things You’d Be Surprised You Can Actually Mail”. (First off, the personal pronoun “you” takes the topic from theoretical curiousness to stuff the reader can USE!  While the average reader might never be inclined to put stamps on a coconut, a potato, a flip-flop, or a sombrero, it nevertheless offers ideas readers might use for a birthday gift or a business promotion.

You’d-be-surprised blogging for business focuses less on the surprise and more on the YOU!

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Strangest-Things Blogging for Business

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You wouldn’t believe some of the strange things that get sent in the mail, says David Moye, writing in the Huffington Post. In fact, Moye explains, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not runs an annual Strange Mail Contest.

The 2014 contest winner, for example, was a 19-pound tree trunk with a horseshoe embedded in it.  Ripley vice president of exhibits and archives Edward Meyer chose the entry not only for its size and weight, but also because of its uniqueness. Runners-up included a prosthetic arm, an animal skull, a mailbox, and a roll of toilet paper.

Mental Floss Magazine’s latest issue lists “14 Unusual Items You Can Get at Libraries”, including:

  • umbrellas (Cornell U. Library offers umbrellas than can be borrowed)
  • American Girl dolls (the Arlington Public Library has eight dolls available to borrowers)
  • Surfboards (Inverloch Library in Australia)
  • art for your office (Aurora Library in Illinois) has 30 sculptures available to borrow for up to 8 weeks)
  • knitting needles (Morse Institute Library in Natick, Mass.)
  • puppies (Yale Law Library)

While all these things are available for temporary use, for us blog content writers, the real and “permanent” takeaway, I believe, is that strange and unusual tidbits tend to engage readers’ curiosity and interest. If we open our minds to it, I’m convinced, we can make very good use of on-the-surface-useless information. The whole idea is to provide information most readers wouldn’t be likely to know, and then tie the tidbit to our own topic.

What are some of the strangest things you’ve encountered in your business or practice?

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More Words About Images for Your Business Blog

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“Don’t put that stock photo on your website,” begs Peter Wolfgram of Roundpeg. “You didn’t have to do time is moneyit,” he says. “You could have taken that picture yourself. You could have shared your unique people and culture with a picture taken by your unique self.”

Over the past two weeks in my Say It For You blog, I’ve been discussing the use of images in business blog posts. The Roundpeg newsletter piece about using original vs. stock photos happened to coincide with my choice of topic at the time, making we think all the harder about the whole visual component in blogging for business.

“What we see has a profound effect on what we do, how we feel, and who we are,” Mike Parkinson of Billion Dollar Graphics asserts. Parkinson quotes famed psychologist Albert Mehrabian, who demonstrated that no less than 93% of communication is nonverbal.

There’s no question that visuals are one of the three “legs” of the business blog “stool”, along with information and perspective or “slant”. I’m not sure, on the other hand, that I agree that all OPI’s (Other People’s Images) are a bad thing. Yes, photos of you and your team members are part of “getting real” and introducing your company or practice to readers, so they get to know the people who will be serving them.

The other category of images for sale, though, is clip art, and I happen to like many of those images a lot. And, no, they’re not original to my clients’ businesses or to mine, and they are not able to – or intended to – show the products and services offered.  What those images do accomplish is capturing concepts, which helps me as the content writer, express the main idea I’m trying to articulate.

Since I’m a corporate blogging trainer as well as a blog writer, I’m keenly aware there’s another piece to this whole stock art question. That piece is time. While business owners know that blog frequency impacts customer acquisition, (see HubSpots’s State of Inbound Marketing.), most have a very hard time sustaining their content marketing efforts even without the additional burden of generating original photography. Sure, finding a good stock or free image takes time, too, but good stock clip art can offer a reasonable compromise.

My advice: definitely go ahead and use visuals to add interest to your blog. When it comes to photos, try for originals, and for concept pieces, OPI’s are AOK.

 

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Images You Can and Cannot Share in Blogging for Business

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I certainly don’t need to be sold on using images in blogging for business. (This post, believe it or not, is actually #1135 on my Say It For You blog, and in every single one of the 1,134 others, you’ll find a photo or image of some kind.)

In fact, one of Debbie Hemley’s 26 Tips for Writing Great Blog Posts is using mages. Pictures have the power to:

  • Pique interest
  • Aid in learning
  • Evoke emotions

Engaging blog posts, I teach, need to contain more than well-structured sentences. Just as public speaking maven Jim Endicott teaches speakers that every oral presentation needs three elements to be effective (delivery, content, and visual presentation), I believe there are three “legs” to the “stool” of blog content creation:

  • Information
  • “Voice” (the way the message comes across, the opinion slant)
  • Image

There are so many awesome images you can post on your blog,” says Megan Wilson.  But what is OK to post and what is not?  Megan’s design agency and Vound teamed up  to create a graphic to clarify many of the confusing aspects of copyright infringement,  and Megan invited me to share this information with my Say It For You readers.

 

 

Copyright Infringement: Images You Can and Can’t Share on Your Blog

Copyright Infringement: Images You Can and Can

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Blogger Writing Basics

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The ideas highlighted in this week’s Say It For You blog posts were sparked by Tony Rossiter’s Effective Business Writing in Easy Steps.  “Whether you’re drafting a lengthy company report or sending a short email to colleagues, it’s vital to get it right,” cautions Rossiter, defining “right” as meaning clear and concise prose, in a style that’s acceptable to your readers.

Different layouts fulfill different purposes, Tony Rossiter explains, such as:The word Write on a cork notice board

  • Attracting attention
  • Saving space
  • Selling something
  • Summarizing a topic
  • Raising questions

Good, clear layout is essential, the author cautions.  “Remember that every line on every page is the result of someone’s conscious layout decision.”

Layout applies to business blogs in different ways, with one of those being the Calls to Action.

  • There should be more than one CTA, so as to appeal to different readers who might be at different. Stages in the sales cycle. Those ready to buy can do that right away. Those who need more information before making a decision can choose to pick up the phone.  There should be something for those not quite ready for even a phone conversation – they might be guided to watch a video or read an article, for example.
  • The CTAs themselves can be in different formats, with some in the text, some in separate “boxes”, and with different CTA’s linking to different landing pages or sign-up pages.

If the purpose of the blog post is to attract attention at first glance, you may wish to use special formatting:

  • Put the opening sentence in bold or in italics
  • Use the first sentence as the entire first paragraph
  • Center the first sentence (rather than justifying it to the left with the rest of the text)

The content of the opening sentence, in addition to the formatting, can be designed to grab readers’ attention:

  • Begin with the conclusion, using the remainder of the blog post to “prove” the validity of that bold assertion
  • Raise a challenging question in the opening sentence, then use the post to propose an answer.

Every line on every page should in fact be the result of YOUR conscious content and layout decisions!

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