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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Blog Posts and Song Lyrics – the Memorable Ones are Understandable

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Lyrics are poems meant to be heard and understood in real time, says lyricist Sean Hartley.  “A song lyric that needs tomusical notes.1jpg be studied to be understood has failed. Most lyricists strive to be simple and clear,” he adds, “to express the feelings of the heart and the head in a way that is effortless, original and succinct.”

“Over the Rainbow”, “Moon River”, and “Summertime” are good examples, Hartley says. Those songwriters used vivid, colorful language, not for the sake of sophistication, but to be more easily memorable and understandable.

I think business blog writers’ “best practices” should incorporate the same simplicity principle.  After all, social networking is a form of conversation, and, to use Hartley’s expression, if we want to do business, we need to be heard and understood in real time.

Keeping blog content relevant to the topic and up to date with what’s happening in the field – and in the news – is one courtesy we can extend to our readers. Going light on jargon and technical terms without “dumbing down” the material shows respect for  readers’ intellect – and for their time.

A Readability Index Calculator can tell you how you’re doing on simplicity. The most-used calculator is the Flesch-Kincaid, which tells you what grade in school a person would need to have reached to be able to understand your content. At Say It For You, we aim for different levels readability depending on the target audience for each client’s business or professional practice.

For any document to be easily understood, as juicystudio.com points out, the writing style should be clear and simple, direct, and familiar to the intended reader. But layout and design are also important factors in the readability of a document, juicystudio.com continues. As a corporate blogging trainer, I couldn’t agree more. Having a simple navigation path on the blog site is essential, so that viewers don’t have to play hide-and-seek to connect to your website, contact you, or get more information.

Whether it’s business blog posts or song lyrics – the memorable ones are the ones most easily understood!

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Be Sure Blog Posts Have a Bold Start and a Smooth Finish

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coffee machineRadio commercials have a lot to teach us about effective business blogging, I find.  All three of this week’s Say It For You posts are based around drive-time messages I heard recently on WIBC.

Today, let’s talk about the debut of Dunkin’ Donuts’ Rainforest Alliance certified™ dark roast coffee.

Of course, one very useful function of any business’ or practice’s blog is keeping readers up to date with new developments – new products, new services, new pricing, special offers, etc., exactly as Dunkin’ Donuts is breaking the news about its new offering. “The blogging format lives and dies on current information,” emphasizes Susannah Gardner in “Writing a Good Business Blog”.

Face it, though, I tell new business blog writers – You’re not always going to have a new product or service to promote, and there won’t always be a sale going on.  But if you take the time to follow developments in your field, you can write about those. “Take the time to follow and read other blogs that relate to your field,” Gardner advises. You can even share and comment on national or community news as those things relate to your business.

Whatever your blog topic of the day, the Dunkin’Donuts’ dark roast coffee description provides a good rule of thumb: Bold start, smooth finish.

Consultant Brian Walter suggests business owners use a formula to answer the question “What do you do?”  The idea, he says, is to play verbal ping pong, making statements that “make people want you to keep talking”. The bold start begins the process by creating surprise and interest. In blog writing, that start involves the title of the post and the opening line, in which you present a question, a problem, a startling statistic, or a gutsy, challenging statement, and in which you assure readers they’ve come to the right place.

In conversational tone,  you use the body of the post to provide information, demonstrate expertise, and provide a navigation path for readers to become consumers. The “smooth finish”, then, relates back to that opening statement, re-emphasizing to the reader the one main idea you were stressing in that post.

A bold start and a smooth finish – great formula for coffee or for business blog post writing!

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