Never Give a Business Blogging Party If…

/0 Comments/in /by

Mickey FriedmanNovelist Mickey Friedman offers this advice about entertaining:  "Never give a party if you will be the most interesting person there."  Since I offer corporate blogging training, it occurs to me that the same advice might apply to business blog writing.

Blog content writers need a touch of humility – and a touch of realism.  Our ideas are not necessarily the most interesting to all of our readers, at least not all of the time.  "Inviting others to the party" by quoting their thoughts and ideas can spice up the "party" immensely.

The way Friedman’s advice applies to corporate blogging for business is simply this: It’s not enough to write blogs (or even to hire a blog writing service to do it for you).  It’s important for whoever is doing the business blog writing to "invite others to the party" by first reading what others are saying on the topic and then by sharing the best "finds" with readers of your SEO marketing blog. 

Lorraine Ball of Roundpeg wrote in a guest post on the Say It For You blog: "I am constantly testing new techniques to build buzz and drive traffic."  In offering business blogging assistance, I emphasize the importance of actually "inviting people to your party" by using social media to spread the word about your corporate blog writing.

In planning the "refreshments" for your "party", think outside your own expertise.  (Remember, you don’t want to be the most interesting person there!) As an Indianapolis blog writer, I try to season each blog post with information from other sources, so that I’m not always talking only about myself and my business.  After all, there are so many interesting people and ideas to introduce to readers at Say It For You "parties"!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Loading Up Your Corporate Blog Writing Quiver

/0 Comments/in /by

Comic strip writers Parker and Hart ("Wizard of Id") might have been thinking of business quiverblog writing in their cartoon about firing a bow.  "OK, recruits, I’m going to teach you the proper way to fire your bow and arrow," the lesson begins.  "Checking that the bowstring is good, identifying your target, reach into…" Here’s where things start to go wrong, and why, after a big "Yeow!", the next Wizard directive is "OK, let’s talk about how to load your quiver."

In corporate blog writing, identifying the target audience is a crucial preparatory step which dictates everything to follow, including the writing tone and style, the length of the posts, the blog content, which keyword phrases to include, and what the Calls to Action will be. 

Even with all those preparations made, blog content writers need to maintain a full content "quiver" (with the arrows pointing in the right direction!).  In corporate blogging training sessions, I’m constantly hearing that the biggest challenge business owners face is sustaining their SEO marketing blog over long periods of time.

One way for anyone writing a business blog or providing blog writing services to "load up" with content for future posts is to stay current in the "now".  Reading, bookmarking, clipping – and even just noticing – new trends and information relating to your business field goes a long way towards keeping the quiver stocked with content ideas.

When a prospect or customer poses an interesting question, make note of that question to use in a future blog post. When a customer service or product issue arises, handle it post haste, of course, then jot yourself a note to talk about it again in your blog. If you notice a "factoid" circulating about your industry, a common misunderstanding by the public about the way things really work in your field, be sure to take note and refute that myth in a future blog post. Of course, if you see an interesting advertisement or billboard, take note so that, in a future post, you can show how that applies to situations that arise in your industry. 

Become a collector of word tidbits and information trivia.  For years now, I’ve made a habit of saving notes on everything from song titles to food labels in order to keep my freelance blog writer’s quiver full of information – all "pointing" to  my own business blogging service Say It For You,  as well as to each of the various businesses for which I’m a content writer in Indianapolis.

So, like the Wizard of Id, I’d caution: Check that your bowstring is good, identify your target, and …let’s talk about how to load your content quiver!


Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Acing the Blog Content Writers’ Tidbit Challenge at Port-to-Port

/0 Comments/in /by

graduation capAs a content writer in Indianapolis, I can think of few professional pleasures that top having a fellow blogger take one of my ideas and run with it.  Damon Richards of Port-to-Port Consulting has done just that, and four times over, composing a different blog post for each of thetidbits listed on my Say It For You blog.

Damon helped me prove a point I stress in corporate blogging training sessions: Blog content writers need never worry about "getting stuck" for new material to use in presenting their own products, services, and viewpoints.  Aside from their understandable lack of time to compose blogs, business owners often express the fear of running out of ideas.  My response is that ideas are everywhere – once you get in the habit of listening, seeing, and jotting down "tidbits" of information.

It’s interesting.  At Ivy Tech Community College, where I tutor in the English lab and conduct workshops on writing college papers, I find that students often have a hard time knowing the difference between the Topic and the Thesis of a paper.  I offer them the example of "Graduation Cap Tassels" as a topic.  Their thesis needs to answer the question "So, what about those graduation cap tassels?  Is moving the tassel from one side of the cap to the other an outmoded custom, or is it a venerable tradition, without which a graduation wouldn’t be a graduation?"

Relating that to my little corporate blogging training exercise, the "tidbit" is your topic.  (Of course, in any SEO marketing blog, the over-arching topic is the business itself, but the tidbit forms the topic for this one blog post. The tidbit might be a slogan from a bulletin board or magazine advertisement.  It could be a line from a song, a photo, a fact, a statistic, or a storefront sign.  If, in writing for business, bloggers were to keep an "ideas folder" (either digital or an actual file folder), a good portion of the work of composing a blog post would already be done! What would remain to write would be the thesis, answering the question of how that tidbit of information relates to your business and your industry.

Damon Richards took the tidbit about redheads needing more anesthetic at the dentist and used it to explain that some of his technology service clients need more handholding and are more resistant to change in technology.  He used the tidbit about blue lobsters to discuss rare but not unexpected glitches that occur with computer hard drives.  In short, Damon used the tidbit topics to highlight aspects of his own business practices.

A good part of providing business blogging help to my clients, I’ve found, is providing reassurance that corporate blog writing can be sustained over months and even years without ever running out of ideas! 

The Say It For You blog writing tidbit challenge deadline isn’t until June 15th. There’s still time for YOU to use a tidbit or two to explain what you do, what you sell, and what you know about!


Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Corporate Blog Writing Sales Momentum Do’s and Don’ts

/0 Comments/in /by

Sit through a humdrum sales presentation?  Craig Davidson would rather be poked in the momentumeye with a sharp stick, he asserts in Employee Benefit Advisor magazine.

Of course readers who find their way to your business blog content don’t need to sit through anything.  It’s too easy to "click away" and seek information, products, or services somewhere else.

"Sales momentum", as Davidson defines it, is "the process of creating and maintaining excitement in a buyer with the goal of making a sale."  And, after all, isn’t that the goal of blog content writers in any SEO marketing blog strategy?

Davidson’s Do’s and Don’ts list is one I plan to use in corporate blogging training sessions:

  • Don’t …be boring and pointless.  Blog content writers should aim to engage and to focus attention, in other words to get to the point!
  • Don’t… talk too much. Extraneous material is as distracting and non-helpful in blog content writing as it is in sales presentations.
  • Don’t…practice consultative selling, at least not at the beginning of the encounter. Give the buyer a clear read on what makes you different. Business blog writing needs to focus on the What’s In It For Them!

The one Davidson DO that bloggers for business absolutely must heed is:

Do…stay on message.  "The best sale is a presentation on a singular topic." As an Indianapolis blog writer offering business blogging assistance, I think this particular "do" says it all.  The best writing for business creates individual blog posts that stay on a singular topic, with leitmotifs or ongoing themes tying together the different posts over time.

Writing for business, just like sales presentations, is all about maintaining sales momentum!


Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Is Your Corporate Blog a Cheetah Or a Thompson’s Gazelle?

/0 Comments/in /by

gazelle"Marketers often forget that the main reason people use the Web is for content…Search engines organize content and direct people to it," explains Ted Demopoulis in What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting.

Often, the questions I field from business owners during corporate blogging training sessions have to do with "speed" and intensity. Basically these entrepreneurs and managers are asking how long and how hard they will need to work at blog content writing in order to "win the race", with winning measured by their blog’s appearance at or near the top of Page 1 on a Google search.

Although I hasten to disclaim any expertise in SEO technology (Say It For You provides business blog writing services and business blogging assistance, working with the company’s advisers on search engine optimization and with their web designer), I can put the question about how long and how hard in context:  In a recent issue of the children’s magazine TIME for Kids,  I found the most wonderful metaphor for business blogging.

Under "Top 5 Fastest Land Animals," the article lists the African Cheetah as the clear winner; the animal clocks 70 miles per hour! Also in the top five, and also from Africa, the Thompson’s gazelle clocks in at 10 miles per hour.  The author’s observation is very telling for anyone planning an SEO marketing blog or anyone needing business blogging help: "The Cheetah is faster, but the gazelle has more staying power."

In my four years as  professional ghost blogger and corporate blogging trainer, I’ve observed the same phenomenon with corporate blogs.  Putting a lot of new, relevant content online within a condensed time frame can produce Cheetah-like indexing results.  That can be particularly true in local markets where the blogging company’s competitors are making few efforts to enhance their online presence.

On the other hand, the majority of corporate blog writing efforts have tended to taper off rather rapidly, and, with no staying power, companies find that those coveted spots on Page 1 can be easily lost. Thompson’s Gazelle-like blog copy writers, by contrast, maintain the discipline of creating new blog content over weeks, months, and years.

Does your corporate blog have staying power?


Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail