Help Blog Readers Know the Difference Between Related and Causal

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Man Hand writing Cause and Effect concept with markerIn statistics, variables are considered related if, when the value of one increases or decreases, so does the value of the other (even if it’s in the opposite direction). But does that mean one caused the other?  Not necessarily.  Only after investigating whether one action causes the other, explains the Australian Bureau of Statistics, can we “put in place policies and programs that aim to bring about a desired outcome.”

The article gives three examples of questions about whether the difference between two things is simply incidental versus one causing the other:

  • Is there a relationship between a person’s education level and their health?
  • Is pet ownership associated with living longer?
  • Did a company’s marketing campaign increase their product sales?

In writing blog content, citing causal statistics certainly is one method used to capture readers’ attention.   “Insomnia costs U.S. $63 billion annually in lost productivity“ is a great opener for a furniture store blog about mattresses, for example.  And if the content also contains a human interest story about how Jimmy’s lack of sleep caused him to flub an all-important job interview, that combination packs a real punch with blog readers.

Statistics can actually serve as mythbusters.  If there’s some false impression people seem to have about your industry or about a product or service you provide, you can bring in statistics to show readers that the numbers they’ve been hearing about may be related, but that one factor is not the cause of the other. From there, you can offer more relevant solutions to their issues.

In everyday life, people routinely make causal claims that would require a counterfactual analysis to confirm, says explorable.com. “Thanks to a new diet, your neighbor lost thirty pounds. But did your neighbor not also take up jogging? To assess the claim that A caused B we need to consider a counterfactual: What would have happened if A had been different? To evaluate whether your neighbor’s dieting caused his weight loss, we need to consider what would have happened had he not dieted, and so on.”

In the natural course of doing business, misunderstandings about a product or service often surface in the form of customer questions and comments. Addressing misinformation in a company’s blog shines light on the owner’s special expertise, besides offering information that is valuable to readers. De-mystifying matters can make your blog into a “go-to” source for readers seeking information in your field.

How can you use myths and “counterfacts” to enhance your credibility as a business owner?

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Does Your Blog Use Those Uncouth Bacilli?

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Germans call them “little goose feet”, Hungarians refer to them as “cat claws”, the Danish as “goose eyes”.  In America we call them Cquotation marks, and, as you can see, they’ve been quite useful devices even this short distance into today’s Say It For You blog post. (Quotation marks can be used to denote technical terms, terms used in an unusual way, or other expressions that vary from standard usage.)

It’s interesting that famous author and playwright George Bernard Shaw disliked quotation marks, calling them “uncouth bacilli”. Shaw seems to have been referring to the core use of quotation marks, which is to mark the beginning and the end of a quoted passage (something somebody else said). Since we blog content writers often quote things other have said in order to reinforce our points and add value for readers, it’s important for us to become familiar with this form of punctuation.

Gardner and Shane Birley, authors of Blogging For Dummies, remind us to respect copyrights, cautioning us that “Anything and everything you see on the Internet is protected by copyright. It’s more than OK to quote another person’s blog post if you take only parts of it and don’t take the credit for creating it.”

I always explain to newbie blog content writers how important it is to avoid plagiarism and to properly attribute statements to their authors.  Linking to another blog that was the original source of a point you’re emphasizing in your own blog helps everyone – the readers, the authors, and you, I add.

Nick Schaferhoff of Torque bemoans the fact that “copied content runs rampant online”. Plagiarism, he explains, consists of not merely using the language and thoughts of another author without authorization, but then representing that author’s work as one’s own. Sometimes it’s “lazy plagiarism”, he says, done almost by accident.

Of course George Bernard Shaw didn’t have the vast content stores of the Internet to contend with. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t appreciate the value of those “uncouth bacilli”, the quotation marks that clearly force authors to think about where material originated.

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Blog Simply and Carry a Big Stick

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simple or complex“The canonical rule of thumb for scientists speaking to nonscientists is to talk as if you were speaking to eighth graders, because a lay audience often has a basic, and certainly not specialized, understanding of science,“ advises climate scientist Ilissa Ocko. “If you want the information to resonate with the non-scientist audience, you have to strip down to the essentials, craft a story, provide big-picture context, and consider using analogies,” she adds.

Matching our writing to our intended audience is part of the challenge we business blog content writers face. After all, we’re not in this to entertain ourselves – we’re out to retain the clients and customers we serve and bring in new ones, so we try to use words and sentences to which our target readers can relate. We may even use a readability calculator such as the Flesch-Kinkaid.

But what Ocko argues is that even when we are speaking to (or, in our case, writing to) industry partners or more sophisticated and knowledgeable readers, we will be more effective if we simplify.

She names three reasons why knowledge transfer will be more successful even when there is a “high-level”, knowledgeable audience:

  • Even in a room full of scientists, not everyone has the same background and expertise.
  • The audience (our readers) has only a small chunk of time to digest the information (this is particularly true with blogs).
  • People are distracted by life. The more complex the talk (read “blog post”), the easier it is to mentally check out. Speaker acknowledgement of this audience inadequacy through simpler messaging and slides will be a win-win for all.

Less is more, Ocko teaches scientific speakers.  Use less jargon, less math, less text. Use more graphics, more analogies, more stories. As a corporate blog writing trainer, I couldn’t agree more with every one of those points. Our writing style should be clear and simple, direct, and easily understandable.

Writing simply will add big-stick impact to your business blog content!

 

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Blog About Both Kinds of Goodwill

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Fountain pen writing GoodwillWhen you’re looking to buy or sell a business, Troy Patton of Archer Investments explained at the Financial Planning Association, one really important factor to weigh is goodwill.  How much of the business’ goodwill is “enterprise” and how much is “personal”?

Professional business valuator Linton Kotzin agrees. “Segregating the intangible value of a company between personal and enterprise goodwill is becoming increasingly relevant,” he says, explaining that personal or professional goodwill attaches to a particular individual, while enterprise goodwill is derived from the characteristics of the business itself, regardless of who owns or operates it.

Content marketing through blogs needs to consider both those aspects of the company’s – or the professional practice’s goodwill. There are many different possible forms a blog post can take, of course. Hubspot, in fact, lists no fewer than 44 “fantastic types of content”, including:

  • How-to’s
  • Case studies
  • Charts and graphs
  • FAQs
  • Question/answer sessions
  • Guides
  • Glossaries
  • Opinion pieces
  • Surveys
  • Quotes
  • Quizzes
  • Book summaries

Patton’s presentation on valuing a business or practice, though, made me realize how important it is for us blog content writers to focus on creating “goodwill value” on both the enterprise front and the personal front.

Blogging for business has the potential to reach different groups, including new (recent transaction) customers, repeat customers, other companies’ customers, potential customers, and strategic partners (including vendors, colleagues, professional associates).

All of those readers need to know about enterprise value. In other words, have they come to the right place to find the particular kind of service or product they need, and is that product or service competitively priced and of good quality?

But that’s only the half of it. It’s the personal goodwill that’s going to invite readers to “connect” and “buy in”. If you’re to enjoy any success in content marketing through business blogging, I’m convinced, personal goodwill needs to be operative. Not only must searchers see your blog as a go-to source for ongoing information (the enterprise value of the business), but they need to feel engagement with the people who provide the product or service. Of course, the typical website explains what products and services the company offers, who the “players” are and in what geographical area they operate. The better websites give at least a taste of the corporate culture and some of the owners’ core beliefs.

Blog about BOTH kinds of goodwill!

 

 

 

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A Good Blog List is a Work of Art

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“A good list is a work of art,” says Jessanne Collins, Editor-in-Chief of Hand check mark the listMental Floss  magazine. Collins herself, she admits, is biased.  A list-maker by nature, she claims to have a to-do list with 17 subdivisions. And of course the magazine, which nine times a year presents facts and trivia in a humorous way, is filled with lists.

While my Say It For You blog can hardly compete with Collins’ 10 million users a month, I’m a list fan in my own right, because including lists in the content of a marketing blog can be a super strategy for engaging interest and providing information readers with value.

A short list of things readers are likely to type into their search bar which could bring them to your blog include:

  • Their need
  • Their problem
  • Their idea of the solution to their problem
  • A question

OK, now those visitors have arrived, it falls to you as a blog content writer to think of lists that might:

…engage the interest of online readers who have found your blog post
…provide valuable information to them
…clarify what you have to offer to fulfill their need

“There’s something nice about the way any topic or task can become digestible when it’s neatly organized in a list, Collins avers. (As a corporate blogging trainer, I couldn’t agree more.) But the editor goes on to say that she and her staff take pains to make sure each list is comprised of items readers truly need to know about. Once each item is “vetted”, she says, the real fun of list-making begins: fitting the entries together. “We want to make sure our lists educate and entertain, but also – and this is critical – bring something new to the table and surprise you.”

A good list can transform a business blog post into a work of art!

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