Tying In to Other People’s News in Your Own Business Blog – C

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Tying into OPN (Other People’s News) is the theme of this week’s Say It For You blog posts. As blog content writers, of course, Bwe can always use new ideas for presenting information to readers about our company, our practice, or our industry.

Reading the daily newspaper, I teach, is just one of many strategies for blog content development. Both news and feature items can spark ideas for blog posts, while positioning your blog as the place to find interesting and valuable information. You may actually cite material from the newspaper story, relating it to new developments in your own industry, or simply use the articles as “triggers” that remind you of areas you might not have covered thoroughly in prior blog posts.

In the particular issue of the Indianapolis Star I used for this week’s blogwriting exercise, “Family ties to Panama Canal history” tells the story of Carmel, Indiana residents John Hawks and son Frank Hawks, descendants of John Frank Stevens, a chief engineer of the Panama Canal. The story chronicles the royal reception the Hawks were given when they visited Panama this past August.

As a Star reader, I loved the way reporter Michael Auslen connected the present-day Hoosier family to the milestone engineering project from the past. As a corporate blogging trainer, I couldn’t help thinking that any business can trace its connections to the history of its industry or profession.

Merely by gathering information on our topic and presenting it as part of our blog, we’re providing a valuable service, but to go the next step, we must ensure that each blog post connects the people running the business or practice to the people using the products and services. “Tracing the chain” by bringing readers back to the beginnings of the enterprise and sharing how someone’s idea turned into a business or professional reality makes for powerful blog content.

When we’re “stuck”, experiencing “blogger’s block”, Other People’s News can become just the nudge we need!

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Tying In to Other People’s News in Your Own Business Blog – B

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NewsYou – or your blog content writer – can draw attention to your doings by tying in to OPN (other people’s news), right out of the daily newspaper. This week, in fact, I’m using all three Say It For You posts to take my readers through the exercise of playing off current news and feature items from the paper (I used just one saved issue of the Indianapolis Star) to spark business blog content ideas.

“Carmel Kroger closing for major renovation”, reads the IndyStar headline. Often, business blog posts can be used for a similar purpose – announcing some news about the company or the professional practice – an expansion, a new product line, a new service being offered, or a special sale or promotion. But, of course, not every week will there be something new to announce for each business or practice.. That’s where I advise blog writers to make use of OPN, Other People’s News, as a jumping-off point for writing about their own business.

For example, the Carmel Kroger story mentions that, during the remodeling, operations will be moved into an adjacent building and continue operating according to their normal schedule. I can see the blog writer for an office moving and storage company referring to this Star article, commenting on ways they help their customers reduce “downtime” during a change of location.  Office remodelers and architects can also make use of the Kroger story to offer options to consider in upgrading business sites and retail establishments. When the new Kroger facility is finished, Indianapolis Star readers are told, there will be a food bistro featuring sushi – sushi bars and restaurants can use this news item to showcase the growing popularity of sushi in our city – in the process drawing attention to their own menu offerings!

Reading the daily newspaper is just one of many strategies for blog content development, but it is certainly a good way to spark ideas for blog posts, all the while positioning your blog as the place to find interesting and valuable information.

Tying in to Other People’s News can be a productive exercise in writing business blog posts!

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Tying In to Other People’s News in Your Own Business Blog – A

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Using blog posts to share company news and announcements makes a lot of sense. But, even if, in any givenemployment news week, you can’t find anything especially newsworthy about your own business or practice, you or your favorite blog content writer can draw attention to your doings by tying in to OPN (other people’s news), right out of the daily newspaper.

In fact, professional ghost bloggers like me are always on the alert for news items in each of our clients’ fields that we can use to spark ideas for blog posts. This week, just to challenge myself, I scanned a saved Indianapolis Star. I’m going to use all three of this week’s Say It For You posts to take my readers through the exercise of playing off current news and feature items from the paper to spark business blog content ideas.

A feature story in the “Retro Indy” section pointed out that the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra debuted at Shortridge High School n 1930, later moving to Clowes Hall, and then to the downtown Circle Theatre in 1984.

This one history “nugget” alone might be used for blog content by any one of the 20 different eateries within walking distance of the (now Hilbert) Circle Theatre, not to mention the jewelers, candy shops, telephone stores, and gift shops in the neighborhood.

And just how, you as a blog content writer might ask, would I advise using that material for blog marketing purposes?

  • Review the history of your own business. How did the founders of your business or professional practice (or you yourself) come to locate in the heart of downtown?
  • How has being located so close to the Circle Theatre helped you?
  • What changes have taken place in the downtown since you’ve been in business or in practice here?
  • What are you most proud of about downtown Indianapolis?

Reading the daily newspaper is just one of many strategies for blog content development, but it is a way of preparing blog posts that capture online searchers’ interest by blending “ingredients” that don’t seem to match (in this case the history of the ISO and the history of your own business), and by demonstrating that you’re more than just a business person or practitioner – you’re part of your readers’ community!

Tying in to OPN can be a good idea for developing variety in business blog posts!

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How Many LEGO Bricks Would it Take to Build a Blog Post?

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Q: “How many Lego bricks would it take to build a bridge capable of carrying traffic from London to New York? Have that many A variation of plastic toy bricksLego bricks been manufactured?” asks Jerry Peterson. (This is another of the absurd hypothetical questions to which author Randall Munroe offers serious scientific answers in “Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions”.)

Since myth debunking is such a great use of blogs (due to the inevitable misunderstandings about a product or service that happen in the world of business and in professional services), I find Munroe’s book a terrific idea stimulant for blog content ideas. While our blog readers may never actual pose such large-scale questions, it’s a good idea for us blog content writers to do that for them, as a way of combating common misconceptions about our (or our blogging clients’) industry or profession.

A. There have certainly been enough bricks to connect New York and London, Munroe assures the curious; in LEGO® units, the two cities are 700 million studs apart.  Of course, he hastens to add, the bridge wouldn’t be able to hold itself together or carry anything bigger than a LEGO car, but it’s a start.

Writers’ Digest advises novelists to use story starters or writing prompts. And while we business bloggers aren’t dealing in fiction, some of Munroe’s absurd hypothetical questions can function as idea prompts and help us pump up the creativity level of our content marketing. (In fact, I challenge readers of this Say It For You blog to write in ideas about how they’d go about using one of the absurd hypothetical question/answer selections I’m highlighting this week in one of their own posts!)

Still not sure how LEGO® bricks can build blog content?  Here are just a few thoughts:

  • Preschools, tutoring services, toy stores, parenting magazine publishers, child psychologists (According to the Center for Childhood Creativity, “Positive parent-child interactions – how parents and children communicate through language, shared experiences, and mutual discovery – powerfully influence how children learn, grow, and thrive.”
  • Construction engineers
  • Travel firms promoting New York-London fares.

How many LEGO® bricks would you need to build an interesting new blog post for your business or practice?

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Shooting Blogging Arrows to Shed Light

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Aiming archersQ: In the movie “300”, they shoot arrows up into the sky and they seemingly blog out the sun.  Is this possible, and how many arrows would it take?” asks Anna Newell. (This is one of the absurd hypothetical questions to which author Randall Munroe offers serious scientific answers.)

A. Longbow archers can fire 8-10 arrows per minute, with each arrow spending only a few seconds in the air, and with each arrow intercepting only about 40 cm of sunlight. In short, it would be pretty hard to make the sunblocking operation work, Munroe concludes. To be fair, he adds, if the sun were low on the eastern horizon at dawn, with the archers firing north, the shadow effect could be pretty powerful. 

Myth-debunks are a great use of blogs, I’ve found, because many of the misunderstandings about a product or service present themselves, in the natural order of business, in the form of questions and comments from readers and customers. Shining the light of day on that misinformation shines light on your own expertise. And, while readers may never actual formulate those “absurd hypothetical questions”, it’s a good idea for us blog content writers to do that for them, offering ”serious scientific answers” that debunk common misconceptions about our (or our blogging clients’) industry or profession.  A business or professional blog is the ideal vehicle for anticipating readers’ “negative assumption” questions and their misconceptions.

There’s a caveat here, however, and it relates to the danger of rubbing readers the wrong way. People generally don’t like to have their assertions and assumptions challenged, even when they come to our blog seeking information on what we sell, what we do, and what we know about. So, after you’ve debunked a myth or misconception, I suggest, throw readers some intriguing, little-known information to soften the resentment they might be feeling at having been proven “wrong”.

One misconception about blog marketing itself, observes Doug Rice of 12most.com, is that it’s all about technology. It isn’t, he says. “Content marketing is not a technological idea, but a philosophical one. It is essentially the notion that, if you give away valuable information, potential customers will see you as a valuable resource (thought leader) and, eventually, buy from you.

You might say we blog writers shoot content “arrows”, not to block out the light, but to shed light on the subject!

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