Just Who Do You Think You’re Talking To

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“What’s with the New Yawk accent?” asks Arika Okrent of Mental Floss magazine, referring to the well-known tendency of New Business challengeYorkers to drop their r’s.  In the 1960s, a Columbia University grad student named William Labov, hypothesizing that the missing r might be explained by social factors, tested his theory by visiting luxury department stores and bargain basement shops. The classier the joint, he found, the more likely salespeople were to pronounce the r.

The study was repeated in 1986 by Joy Fowler, finding precisely the same pronunciation difference between high-end and low-end store personnel. That begged the question: if more r means more prestige, why are the r’s dropped at all?

A recent inquiry by Maeve Eberhardt and Corinne Downs found the answer at the famous New York bridal salon Kleinfeld’s (featured on the TV reality show “Say Yes to the Dress”). The researchers discovered that the higher the client’s budget, the more likely the salesperson is to retain the r! However, the salespeople tend to drop the r when providing emotional support!

Now, you wouldn’t drop your r’s in a printed blog, of course, but there are tests you can put your blog through to see how you’re doing in terms of readability – are you reaching the right people and doing it by using words and sentences to which they can relate?  Readability Index Calculators (the most-used is the Flesch-Kincaid) can show where your writing is on the bargain–basement-to-“classy” scale.

As content writers, we try to keep blog content relevant to the topic and up to date with what’s happening in the field and in the news. Going light on jargon and technical terms without “dumbing down” the material shows respect for readers’ intellect – and for their time. But refining the content based on the target audience is the lesson we can take from the New Yawk accent story.

 The idea, of course, is to match your writing to your intended audience. Does the site target a more educated demographic, people with specialized knowledge or expertise in a particular area, or is it meant to cater to a general audience.

A good question for us blog writers to ask ourselves might be “Just who do you think you’re talking to?“

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Different-Strokes Blogging for Business

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eLooking for ways to help your blog content appeal to different segments within your market? Look no further than the very different presidential marriage proposal tactics chronicled by Jeff Wilser, in Mental Floss magazine’s “10 Presidential Marriage Proposals”.

As a blog content writer, strive for subtlety. Harry Truman snuck in his proposal to Bess while talking about the weather:  “I guess we’ll all have to go to drinking whiskey if it doesn’t rain very soon.  Water and potatoes will soon be as much of the luxury as pineapples and diamonds.  Speaking of diamonds, would you wear a solitaire on your left hand should I get it?”

The art of writing a good advertorial, write.co explains, is getting the right balance between story and sale. Use a subtle touch in your sales message and in the calls to action in your blog.

Persistence is a virtue:
After meeting Lady Bird in Austin Texas, Lyndon Johnson needed to return to D.C. where he was working as a congressional aide. Over the next ten weeks, the couple exchanged no fewer than 90 letters before Johnson returned to Texas to give his love her ring.

A good blog requires persistence to maintain frequency. Even years ago, in the process creating my company Say It For You, I realized that the main key to business blogging success was going to be simply keeping on task.

Research your target audience, finding out what they need and like.
Richard Nixon hated ice-skating, but went skating with Thelma “Pat” Ryan and her friends because he knew she loved it.

We’re there to engage those blog readers and show them we understand the dilemmas they’re facing.  In fact, a business blog is the ideal vehicle for going right to the heart of any possible customer fears or concerns and laying the groundwork for understanding and trust.

Offer a taste of the benefits:
Dwight D. Eisenhower gave Mamie a miniature version of his class ring from West Point.  That made her want a full-sized rock.

By offering a “content-tasting” on your blog, and doing that regularly and frequently, you’ll be earning the right to convert at least some “tasters” into buyers!

In the art of business blogging, it’s important to use different strokes for different readers!

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What’s Your Blogging Type?

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Letterpress alphabet“A picture is worth a thousand words, but your font choice can make quite the statement, too,” writes Christine Birkner in Marketing News. “Font styles are messaging cues, and serve as important branding elements,” Birkner adds.

For my Say It For You blog, I chose to use Arial, a popular sans serif font. While there’s a variety of decorative fonts that look good as headlines, writingspaces.com points out, for the main font of your blog, you should pick between a serif and a sans serif body text font.  What’s the difference? A serif is the little extra curve or stroke at the ends of letters.  Sans (without) serif has no extra strokes.

“Many people feel that sans serif fonts look ‘cleaner’ and more ‘modern’, writingspaces observes, and I agree. Some say serif fonts are more readable in print, while sans serif fonts are easier to read on computer screens (once again, I agree).

Brands often use different fonts for different products. Coca-Cola, I learned, uses different fonts for Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero. For us freelance blog content writers, the font we use should match the image projected on the client’s website. If the site is more traditional, you may want to use a more traditional serif font for the blog.  If the client seems to project a more hip, modern look, that blog may be most effective in a sans serif font.

For your personal blogging purposes, Christine Birkner suggests you choose a font that is parallel your speaking style.  “If you’re happy speaking in a quiet, hushed tone, then choose a light, delicate font,” she says.  But, if you want a typeface that’s going to be in the marketplace a long period of time, choosing one that’s easy to read is important, she points out.

What’s your blogging type?

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Ideal Blog Posts: Focused, With a Sense of Forward Movement

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Back in 1960, when Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv were designing a logo for Chaseforward movement Manhattan Bank, Marketing News tells us, their goal was to find something “focused and concentrated, with a sense of forward movement.” (At the time, Chermayeff now recalls, American companies weren’t yet using abstract symbols to identify themselves.)

Blog posts, like logos, tend to be more effective when they focus on just one idea.  That idea might be:

  • Busting one myth common among consumers
  • One testimonial from a user of your product or service
  • One special application for your product
  • One common problem your service helps solve
  • One new development in your industry

For us Indianapolis blog content writers, it’s important to keep in mind that a tight focus is what helps blog posts stay smaller and lighter in scale, and much more flexible than the more permanent content on the typical corporate website.

On the other hand, in each blog post (just as Chermayeff emphasized for logos), there needs to be a sense of forward movement. One way content writers can convey that sense is through linking to another page, or by telling readers to watch for information on another product, service, or “how-to” in a coming blog post.

In business blog writing, while lack of focus can get uncomfortable and counterproductive, it’s OK to let readers know you have lots more helpful information, products, and services to fill their needs.

A business blog consists of many, many posts spread out over a long period of time, clarifying, adding, proving, restating, giving examples, testimonials, and stories, building belief piece by piece.

The goal is to stay focused, but with a sense of forward movement!

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Words That Help or Hurt a Resume or Blog

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resumeAccording to a 2014 CareerBuilder survey, 68% of hiring managers spend less than two minutes reviewing a resume, so it had better be filled with words they care to see, warns Debra Auerbach.

Boy, I couldn’t help thinking, is that ever true for blog content writing as well! In fact, according to Site Meter, the average reader spends just 96 seconds reading a blog.

Exactly what sort of words make employers cringe?  Words and terms that are vague, passive, and clichéd.  Employers would much rather see strong action words that highlight specific accomplishments.  Don’t use “I am” phrases, suggests Carina Chivulescu, director of human capital at The Expert Institute. Chivulescu prefers to see “I did” phrases, which tell her exactly what you were doing to bring value to previous employers.

Suggested action words include:

  • Achieved
  • Improved
  • Trained
  • Managed
  • Created
  • Resolved

Unfortunately, as a blog content writing trainer, I see a lot of the same sort of “fluffy stuff” on corporate blogs as Chivulescu sees on resumes, including

  • Best of breed (what does that even mean?)
  • Value added
  • Results-driven
  • Team player
  • Excellent customer service
  • Bottom-line oriented

“Instead of speaking in plain English, they (marketers) fill their conversations with overused jargon and buzzwords,” Carmine Gallow complains in Forbes.

Chivulescu sums it up neatly: “Employers (you may substitute ‘blog readers’) want to see words and phrases that clearly and succinctly define your skills, experience, and accomplishments.”

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