Cancellation Notice for Blogs

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I read a lot.  If you’re a business blogger, I hope you read a lot, too.

That’s because, no matter what business, what professional practice, or what organization you’re blogging about, ideas for content are everywhere.  Only thing is, you’ve got to make you mind available in some unlikely spots to find them.

In the May issue of Discover Magazine, in the Hot Tech section, there’s a story called “Cancellation Notice.” An estimated 10 million Americans, the article reminds us, suffer from a rhythmic trembling in their hands that intensifies with action. Up until recently, the technology was focused on restraining the shaking, and the devices used were bulky and largely ineffective.  The newest technology, called Liftware, uses “active cancellation”.  In other words, it offsets the shakes, rather than trying to suppress them.

Constantly alert for ideas that can help my freelance blog content writers fill the various marketing needs of our clients, I find that mostly what’s wanted by the clients is attracting traffic and moving readers to action.  Every so often, though, we’re working as part of a “damage control” effort.

One of the themes I keep coming back to in this Say It For You blog is that corporate and organizational blogging can be used to exercise control over the way the public perceives any negative developments and to correct any inaccurate press statements.  The general concept of damage control, as fellow blogger David Meerman Scott explains, is to “get out in front” of any media crisis, rather than hiding from bad publicity.

There’s another plus to blogging a lot following some kind of negative press. Providing relevant content that is more recent has the power to supplant the negative story by “pushing down” the older content on the first page of the search engine.  And, whether you’ve realized it or not, explains John Hacker, “There is probably some negative criticism about you out there on other blogs, other websites, or even forums that you’re not going to want your potential customers to spend time reader.” Starting a blog and writing often is “one of your most valuable allies to pushing down negative search results,” he adds. 

Blogging for business takes advantage of the Liftware “active cancellation” principle.  Offset the shakes (the negative publicity items), rather than trying to suppress them!

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Business Blogs Help Readers Put Theory Into Practice

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“Colleagues tell me that stories and examples work best in helping students understand how to put theory into practice,” says Elizabeth Natalle in “Teaching Interpersonal Communication”. So, for every concept Natalle teaches in class, she gives an example in the form of a scenario or story. For variety, she sometimes has groups of students analyze a case study.

We blog content writers would do well to follow Natalle’s example, harnessing the power of storytelling to bring out the points we’re trying to make in our posts. And we should do it for the same reason: stories and examples help readers understand the information we offer and relate to what we’re saying.

If one secret of successful business blog writing is, in fact, telling stories, the trick to finding story ideas may be, as Malcolm Gladwell says in What the Dog Saw, “to convince yourself that everyone and everything has a story to tell.” In fact, a big, big part of providing business blogging assistance to my Say It For You clients is helping them formulate stories.  Those stories have the power to forge an emotional connection between them and their potential customers.

The setting of a business’ story refers to where it is (where the plant, the distribution area or the professional practice is actually located). The setting also includes the backdrop of the market and the industry or field in which that business or practice operates.

The history of the company or practice makes up the “plot” or story line. The story unfolds as the owners and employees answer questions such as “What do we do?” “How?” “Why?” What does ‘success’ look like to us?” “What values do we stand for?”

I call it the training benefit. Whether owners are doing their own blog content writing or working with a freelance blog writer like me, in the process of verbalizing positive aspects of their own business, helping readers relate to them and trust them, leaders are constantly providing themselves with training about how to tell their own story!

Elizabeth Natalle is on to something: For interpersonal communication (and that’s exactly what blogging for business is designed to be), nothing beats a good story!

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Who Really Writes The Songs That Make The Young Girls Cry?

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Country Music picture As a business ghost blogger for hire, I take an interest, not only in the work of colleagues in that small but growing profession, but also in the doings of “ghosts” in other fields.  Take country music, for example (being a square dancer these many years has bred in me a love for country tunes). The relative importance of lyrics versus melodies in songs of any type can be debated, but you’ll have to admit that, with country songs, storytelling and “plays on words” constitute a big part of almost all the best-loved country songs’ special appeal.

Leafing through Southwest Airlines’ Spirit magazine on a recent trip, I came upon an entire feature story about Nashville, Tennessee country music stars and the songs that made them famous.  Writer Elaine Glusac comments, “The truth in this town and a secret to most music fans is that songwriters, not performers, are largely responsible for those storytelling songs about love, Grandma, whiskey, and divorce.”   Unlike on the coasts, where soloists write their own material, she explains, “in Nashville it’s the writers who feed the stars”.

Writing, adds Glusac, is generally acknowledged to be an individual sport.  But, in Nashville’s culture, they work as a team. “It’s called co-writing”, she explains.  Now, isn’t that exactly true, I thought, about the way in which a business uses a ghost writer to bring its message and tell its story to as many customers and clients as possible using the power of the Internet?  When I think about it, it’s uncanny how similar a good blog is to a good song.  The best country songs, explains the Spirit article, are short and powerful.  “When you’ve got so few words to deliver the emotional punch, each word must be laden with meaning.” Ditto and then some for blogs!

For those who can’t get to Nashville to hear lyrics sung to steel guitars, more than two thousand U.S. radio stations bring country music to 56 million listeners per week.  The amazing thing is, the World Wide Web can put your business in touch with an audience even bigger than that.  You gotta know when to blog ’em, is all!

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