Bibi Makes a Point on the Side of Humor in Blogging for Business

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Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in JerusalemJust after I’d posted Monday’s Say It For You blog urging blog content writers to use humor with caution, my friend George shared the following link to what he calls “a truly original ad”.  George was right, I think you’ll agree – the video really got me laughing – and thinking…

WAIT!  Before you click, let me provide some background (most of you will need to go with the subtitles ; I was able to understand the Hebrew).  This is a campaign ad for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, nicknamed Bibi.  Netanyahu represents the right-wing Likud party. The challengers are Isaac Herzog (nicknamed Buji) of the Zionist Camp and Tzipi Livni of the Kadima party….

OK, you’ve seen the video, so what happened here?   Monday, I quoted Jason Miller saying that humor is an effective way to connect  with an audience and humanize your brand or company.  This video sets a very common scene of parents waiting for the babysitter to arrive. The incongruity of having the Prime Minister serve as a sitter lends humor.

Of course, the blog content writers I advise are not writing politically related copy. In fact, politics is one of the subjects best avoided in blog marketing for a product or service, I advised. But this video clip, where politics was the very topic of the piece, managed to make a few very pointed statements about the two opponents: Herzog would be too quick to give away  the rugs in the apartment (territory) and Tzipi is not visible enough and an infiltrator (she would have moved before the parents came home.).

“It’s them or me,” is the parting line of Bibi’s explanation to the parents, watching out for the future of your children. When the parents arrive home and say ” Shalom” (hello, meaning peace), Bibi says, ” Not unconditionally!”

Got to admit – this video was made up of  a soft, yet very pointed jabs at the Bibi’s political opponents, yet presented such an everyday, human situation, so funny and endearing.  Loved it!

Still, let’s face it.  What’s the likelihood of our being this effective with humor on an ongoing basis in our blog posts? In fact, this video made me think of a sort of moral dilemma when it comes to blog marketing (actually to any kind of marketing).  We want to clarify the ways we stand out from the competition.  But how can we get the point across that readers should want to choose us?

My friend and colleague Thaddeus Rex at National Speakers Association tells us to get readers to laugh at the competitor’s negative, but emphasize your positive.

 

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Humor Can Be a Hot Potato in Blogging for Business

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“It’s no surprise that using humor in advertising is an effective way to connect with your audience and Afraid girlhumanize your brand or company,” observes Jason Miller of Social Media Examiner. “Just because your company is serious doesn’t mean all marketing has to be,” he adds.

As a corporate blogging trainer, I must admit I was relieved to see that Miller added an important caveat: “Being funny is a risk…Some people might not appreciate your company’s brand of humor!”  Bill Faeth, writing in the Inbound Marketing Blog, agrees. The reason comedies are typically outnumbered by dramas, he explains, is that being funny enough to make hundreds of people laugh without offending anyone is actually really tough. You can poke fun at yourself, Faeth suggests. Almost anything else, especially competitors or where they live – probably a no-no.

On the other hand, (one of the functions of a business blog, I have taught business owners and professional practitioners IS to offer different aspects of an issue before explaining why they are on one side or the other of that issue), Hope Hatfield of LocalDirective.com  points out that humor is a hook, having the same impact as a strong headline to grab the audience’s attention. Humor’s an icebreaker, she adds, but only so long as you carefully consider your target market, focusing the humor around a problem your company can solve.

No matter how funny your marketing messages are, don’t forget that the goal is to educate your prospects about your products and services. “You want to make sure that you don’t lose the message in the humor, Hatfield cautions.

Research at the Saimaa University of Applied Sciences on the impact of humor in advertising on consumer purchase decisions concluded that, while humor is an effective method of attracting attention to advertisements, it does not offer an advantage over non humor at increasing persuasion.

So what do I think the bottom line is for using humor in blogging for business? Well,…barring politics (including company, city, state, national, and international), religion, ethnic groups, physical appearance, food preferences, insider information, and anything anyone might conceive as risque – go right ahead.  But keep the humor centered around your own weaknesses and around the consumers’ problem you’re offering to solve.

 

 

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Practical Plan for Quilters Words for Blog Content Writers as Well

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Quilt with Fan of BlocksPlan. Shop. Cut. Sew.  These are the four steps in a practical plan McCall gives quilters.

  • Plan. That’s the real secret behind corporate blog writing sustainability. At the very outset of the blogging initiative, define a few basic “leitmotifs” or themes to form the backbone of your writing, including beliefs you hold about your industry that you think are important to convey to readers, and specific ways you successfully serve customers and clients.
  • Shop. Then, to help you flesh out these themes on an ongoing basis, one truly practical planning tip is to keep a blog idea file, online or in a paper folder. In this folder would go articles you cut out of newspapers or magazines (I’ve used just such a one in today’s Say It For You post), notes on ideas gleaned from a seminar, radio, blogs and book. Ideas are everywhere – you simply need to stay in “shopping mode”.
  • Cut.  “If your copy tells too many irrelevant stories, you will lose your prospects’ attention and interest,” fellow blogger Michel Fortin reminds us. And, whether you happen to be a freelance blog writer like me or are blogging for your own business, it’s clear that blog posts have a simple advantage over more static traditional website copy.  While each post should have a razor-sharp focus on just one story, one idea, one aspect of your business or your professional practice, there’s no need to toss those extra pieces of “material“ – simply save them for another post.
  • Sew.  Writing blog content to help market a business or professional practice is very much like sewing the small, different colored squares of a quilt together into one sustained, coherent thing of beauty. First of all, the pattern is varied, yet repeating.  Remember, the more frequently your content mentions the keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business, the better your chances of your site being found for those very phrases. Maybe even more important, 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.

McCall’s  practical plan for quilters works for blog content writers as well!

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Smaller Targets, Better Hits in Blogging for Business

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Smaller target“No business can be all things to all people. The more narrowly you can define your target
market, the better,” according to Entrepreneur. com. “Rather than creating a niche, many
entrepreneurs make the mistake of falling into the ‘all over the map’ trap”, ” the authors continue.
In fact, they advise, these days the trend is toward smaller niches.

In a way, business blogs are the perfect marketing tool for niche markets. Remember that  you, the business owner, are not going out to find customer through your blog content. Blogs
work the other way around, through “pull marketing”. The people who find your blog are those  who are already online looking for information, products, or services that relate to what you
know, what you have, and what you do!

The other day I came across an excellent example of targeting a niche within a niche. AARP
Magazine had a full page article called “In Your 50s: 3 Supplements to Take Now”. Just think
about that for a moment. AARP is an organization for seniors, and today their magazine is
enjoyed by readers in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, not just their 50s. But in that issue, the focus
was on one niche within their readership.

Do you suppose the AARP editors worried about “turning off” the other 4/5 of their reader
demographic? Not at all. Those readers will expect to have their needs discussed in another
issue of the magazine.

In fact, that’s what I love most about blogging as a communications channel. Each post
can have a razor-sharp focus on just one story, one idea, one aspect of your business.
Other important things you want to discuss? Other segments of your market you want to
address? There will always be later blog posts!

Blogs are smaller, shorter and more centered around just one idea than e-zines or newsletters
or even web page content. And blog posts will stick around forever. Blogs can link to other blogs
and web sites, turning mini-power into maxi-power, and increasing exposure to the search
engines.

In darts, narrowing the target would make it harder to hit. In blogging for business, smaller targets can make for better “hits”!

 

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Blog Three Times the Potassium of a Banana

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バナナ　カットフルーツDave Cook, fellow member in one of my early morning business networking groups, was telling us about a nutrition product he represents that’s made out of moringa leaves. Listening to him, I was sure he’s been reading my blog posts about putting statistics into perspective for readers.

Moringa leaves, I learned, have 4x the calcium of milk, 3x the potassium of bananas, 2x the protein of yogurt, 4x the Vitamin A of carrots, and 7x the Vitamin C of oranges. There were other statistics (the product contains 46 antioxidants, 36 anti-inflammatories, Omegas 3, 6, and 9.)

It wasn’t so much the numbers that were packing the punch in these claims, I realized, but the comparisons with things already familiar to readers. My networking friend is not a blogger, but because he made those comparisons in his presentation to our group, everybody was able to relate to what he was saying.

We business bloggers are, in a very real way, interpreters. Effective blog posts, I teach, must go from information-dispensing to offering perspective.  Before a reader even has time to ask “So what?” we need to be ready with an answer that makes sense in terms with which readers are familiar. I call it blogging new knowledge on things readers already know.

Later that day, I heard the Dean of Butler College of Business use numbers in his talk to parents of prospective Butler scholarship students who were visiting to check out our campus. He began with zero (number of graduate teaching assistants that lecture in College of Bus. classrooms), and worked up through average class size (29) to the number 94 (% placement rate after graduation).

There are several strategic ways to use numbers to educate your blog readers and demonstrate your own expertise, I teach. 

  • Numbers help debunk myths. If there’s some false impression people seem to have relating to your field or your product – bring on the numbers to prove how things really are.
  • Statistics can provide factual proof, by showing the extent of the problem your product or service helps solve.

Does your blog post have three times the potassium of a banana?

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