In Blogging For Business, Beware of the Mondegreen Effect

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A blog content writer like me’s always on the alert for interesting expressions.  The four candlesother day I learned a new word listening to PBS radio: mondegreen.

A mondegreen, I found out, is the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase.  A listener hears one thing, when the speaker actually had something totally different in mind.  
 
That statement got my attention, because the blog writing services that I and the other freelance SEO copywriters  at Say It For You provide are an important part of each client company’s branding and corporate identity.

The very last thing any one of us would want is to be misunderstood.  And, even though the blog posts are read rather than listened to, I can see how easy it could be for the mondegreen effect to creep into the text of the blog.  After all, the consumers reading the posts are not trained in whatever the company’s specialty is, and could understandably misunderstand:

  • the significance of the data presented
  • the advice and the intent behind it
  • the directions for use of the product

    fork handleAmusingly, PBS radio explained that there’s an entire generation of children who thought that, besides Rudolph, Santa had another, meaner, reindeer named Olive. (They misheard "all of the other reindeer".)  Of course the mondegreens in the pledge of allegiance are rife among children: "I led the pigeons to the flag".) And, when a speaker isn’t clear about fork handles, even an adult listener could think she means "four candles".

When I’m offering business blogging assistance, I like to suggest myth-busting and origin-tracing as content ideas, ways to offer useful information while at the same time showcasing the expertise of the business owner in his field. In that vein, here’s the scoop on the origin on the term modegreen:

Writer Sylvia Wright invented the term in 1954, based on a Scottish poem she’s misheard as a child:

  Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands
  Oh, where hae ye been?
  They hae slain the Earl O’ Moray
  and laid him on the green.  (Get it?)

If ever there was a lesson about the importance of clarity in corporate blog writing, it’s in this PBS item about mondegreens.  The danger, of course, is that online readers will misunderstand your message, coming away with an impression of your company that is the opposite of the one your marketing strategy and tactics development was designed for.

When it comes to web-based communication, words and pictures are a business’ only tools.  Above all, then, corporate writing for business must make itself clear!

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Blogging for Businesses: Special Guest Post by Nick Semon

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Today’s blog post is by friend and business owner Nick Semon of Insulation Stop. Since I specialize in corporate blog writing and corporate blogging training, it’s always rewarding to be able to share real life blogging success stories.

Insulation StopImagine this.  You go into your local store to buy something and all you can see are products on the shelf with names and prices.  There is nobody to talk to and no other information available, just products on shelves and prices.  Today, that’s what a business is without an accompanying blog. 

For e-commerce businesses, the bulk of material on our websites is dedicated to products and their related prices and descriptions.  But where do you find the room to communicate directly to your consumer repeatedly, on a wide range of topics?

Blogging is the perfect answer.  Blogging allows businesses an informal and efficient way to communicate a wide variety of ideas and topics.  And for consumers, it’s a medium they are looking for.

For an e-commerce business, it allows you to be more than just a store with products and a shopping cart.  In today’s internet world, there are multiple companies selling products in any given market.  You need to separate yourself from the sea of websites and be more than just another online store. 

At InsulationStop.com, a leading distributor of radiant barriers and reflective foil insulation, we have dedicated a large majority of our marketing efforts to blogging to our customers.  We find it a great way to share all kinds on information with our customers, on a wide variety of fronts. 

Maybe it’s an article about a zip code calculator that shows you the correct amount of insulation to use for your local climate.  Or, maybe it is an article showing you less energy consumption via a customer’s utility bill after using our insulation products.  Our blog has become a great way to communicate to our customer base. 

Our customers expect a hassle free shopping experience.  They don’t want to see a bunch of clutter when purchasing their insulation.  Blogging allows us an area to communicate much needed information away from the store front but still very much integrated into our business. 

Blogging also allows our customers an opportunity to comment on our articles and get answers to their questions, all the while adding more value to future visitors.  We view our blog as an unparalleled tool to communicate with our customers, and our customers have more than once expressed their appreciation for our efforts.  This makes us feel good because the only reason we blog is for them.   

Nick, I particularly liked your point about blogging being an informal and efficient way to communicate ideas. In providing corporate blogging assistance, I urge blog content writers to maintain a conversational tone.  And, while it’s wonderful that your customers appreciate your blog content, many business owners focus their efforts on attracting "strangers".  Their strategy is designed to attract new customers through an SEO marketing blog. The truth is, as you’ve brought out so well in this piece, blogs are good tools for both new and existing customers!
 
– Rhoda


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Old Wives’ Tales and Corporate Blog Writing

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BLACK CATJust this past Monday in my Say It For You blog, I talked about the power of storytelling in corporate blog writing.

Stories, I teach in corporate blogging training sessions, help make facts and statistics real to readers. Sometimes, though, in writing for business it makes sense to turn that advice on its head. 

What I mean is this: myth-busting, in other words showing why a commonly accepted story isn’t true, can be a very good strategy for blog content writers to use. In fact, myth-busting is a technique I discuss often with clients who’ve requested business blogging help.

What I’ve found over the years is that in the process of de-bunking myths, bloggers for business can accomplish three important things:

  • Offer readers little-known information that is interesting
  • Put the business owner’s unique slant on why that information is important to know
  • Position the business owner as having expert knowledge in his/her field.

    What I also found is that, whenever I want to teach myth-busting as part of offering business blogging assistance, there’s no lack of old wives’ tales from which to choose. Today’s selection comes from the website whimsy.org.

  • WHEN ANY FOOD IS MIXED, IT SHOULD BE STIRRED CLOCKWISE
    Reasoning: All functions of importance should be performed in an east-west direction (from sun-worship)
    Which blog content writers might use this:  Grocery company, diet supplement company, cooking website.
  • BREAKING A MIRROR WILL RESULT IN SEVEN YEARS OF BAD LUCK.
    Reasoning: Early man, on seeing his image reflected in water, believed it represented his soul.
    Which blog content writers might use this:  Home decorators, makeup artists, beauty salons.
  • BLACK CATS CROSSING YOUR PATH ARE UNLUCKY.
    Reasoning: Norse legend tells of the chariot of Freya the witch, pulled by black cats possessed by the devil.
    Which blog content writers might use this: Pet stores, Halloween stores.

    AN ITCHING FOOT PREDICTS A JOURNEY TO SOMEWHERE NEW.
    Reasoning:  Who knows?
    Who might use this?  A podiatrist, a shoe store.

  • YAWNING CAN LEAD TO EVIL SPIRITS ENTERING THE BODY UNLESS YOU COVER YOUR MOUTH
    Reasoning: Death is calling you, so you block it out with your hand.
    Whose blog content writer might use this?  A dentist, a doctor, a manners expert.

OK, your turn! I’m issuing a challenge to readers to share myths and old wives’ tales you love to "bust", related to your business!

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Creating “Killers” in Corporate Blogging for Business

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frequencyInc. Magazine offers tips on designing an e-mail newsletter that "won’t have customers reaching for the Unsubscribe button." Point by point, I couldn’t help thinking, this article could very well be used as a manual for my Say It For You corporate blogging training sessions. In fact, in talking about writing for business, writer April Joyner mentions blogs, suggesting that "a newsletter is a great way to drive traffic to your blog and your social media content".

When it comes to newsletters, Joyner advises sending "often – but not too often". "No business owner wants to gain a reputation as a spammer," she acknowledges. "But," she cautions (and here’s where there’s a very strong tie-in with blog writing) "if you communicate too infrequently, customers may become less likely to remember your brand and less receptive to your sales pitches."

In offering business blogging help, I need to stress the importance of recency and frequency in posting.  First of all, when it comes to any SEO marketing blog, frequency  is one of the critical factors in vying for search engine rankings. Of course, the opposite, infrequency, will have a detrimental effect in terms of a company’s marketing strategy and tactics development.

Of course, anyone offering blog writing services would offer a loud "Amen!" to Inc. Magazine‘s advice about "getting personal".  Blog content writers, just like e-newsletter creators, need to cater to target customers’ interests – and use the blog to reveal their own unique slant on their industry.

"Though the ultimate goal of an e-mail newsletter is to boost sales, be careful that your missives don’t become a relentless bombardment of pitches.  The best newsletters provide expert information that benefit readers," says Joyner. In fact, the best help I can possibly provide to any business owner is embodied in that advice:

As a professional ghost blogger who also teaches blogging for business, I’d consider that the main mission of blogging is to provide expert information that benefits readers!

(Sound almost too simple? It isn’t, but that’s truly the secret behind "killer" blogs!) 



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Tell to Win in Corporate Blogging for Business

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We don’t typically think of storytelling as a professional discipline, but Hollywood producer Peter Guber thinks we should. In his new book Tell to Win, Guber examines the storytellerway people use stories to do business.

As a professional ghost blogger offering not only blog writing services but also training in corporate blog writing, I realized immediately that what Guber calls a "purposeful story" is an absolutely ideal vehicle for blogs. 

A purposeful story, explains the author, might be anything from a joke you tell to make someone laugh to a story about someone who had a heart attack (to scare the listener into taking better care of her health). In salesmanship, he adds, the goal of your story must be to show what is in it for the listeners – the audience must win.

One Journalism 101 lesson is to "put a face" to an issue, beginning each article with a human example, in other words, a story.  In business blog writing that  might be a customer testimonial, an incident from the news, or even a tale out of folklore. The point, I stress when offering business blogging help, is to make what you do, what you sell, and what you know real to blog readers.

An SEO marketing blog might be meant to "win search", but once online searchers have arrived, what needs winning is their "hearts", and blog content writers can achieve that with storytelling.  A realtor’s blog might tell how Sam and Susie improved curb appeal by planting tulips at the entryway to their home; a dry cleaning blog might tell of a decades-old wedding dress restored for a granddaughter to wear.

When asked by a reporter how someone in sales and marketing can turn a garden-variety sales pitch into a purposeful story, Guber’s answer was "It’s so simple, it’s embarrassing, and yet a lot of people overlook the basics." You, the storyteller, he says, must first know what your own intention is and be transparent about it in order to establish trust.

Often corporate blogging clients get too hung up on company branding and corporate identity, when in fact, corprate blog writing needs to tell the story of the owners (Why did you choose to do what you do? What are you most passionate about in delivering your service to customers and clients? What are you trying to add to your industry?), plus stories about customers.

Stories in blogs are stories about people. And, funny thing that’s as true today as ever – people want to do business with people. 


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