Adding Background Color in Your Blog

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Most business blog posts make claims.  The claims may be understated, exaggerated, or exactly on the money, but still – a claim is a claim. The problem is, often blog visitors don’t know how to "digest" the claims you’ve "served up".  They simply don’t have any basis for comparison, not being as expert as you are in your field.

What I’m getting at is that every claim needs to be put into context, so that it not only is true, but so that it feels true to your online visitors.

As an example, I found a paragraph in a news magazine talking about Subaru.  The piece starts out with a fact: "A report released this week by Subaru of America shows the company sold 23,667 vehicles last month." (As my grandmother used to ask, "So, do I eat this with a fork or a spoon?")  Since I’m not in the car sales business, I had no way of judging how good our how bad 23,667 sales was for Subaru – compared with what?

Fortunately, the report went on to put the number into context in two ways:

  • 23,667 cars sold represents a 35% improvement over the same month last year.
     
  • 23,667 cars sold is the best May sales total in Suburu company history.

Now I, as the reader, can begin to relate to the number 23,667, because it has a background context. 

As a professional ghost blogger and blogging trainer, though, I know there’s more to do with claims.  After the claim has been given background "color", readers must be shown how that claim has the potential to help them with their problem or need! (It’s the old sales maxim about how customers don’t care about the features and benefits of a product or service until and unless they know how much you care – about them!

There are something like ten million blog posts out there making claims of one sort or another as you’re reading this one. Based on my own experience as an online reader, I’d venture to say fewer than 10% of them put their claims in context, and only the very top few manage to convey to their blog visitors what the claims can mean for them!

Add some winning background color to the claims in your blog posts!

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Help Fnu Lnu Searchers Find You!

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Fnu Lnu, a term used by authorities to identify unknown suspects, is actually an acronym for First Name Unknown, Last Name Unknown, a John Doe, as it were. When you’re selecting keyword phrases to use in your website and blog content, it’s useful to remember that you are the fnu lnu in the equation.  Online searchers don’t know your name – or the name of your business!

In fact, unless your business name is precisely the service or product you provide ("St. Louis Cosmetic Dentistry" or "Cincinnati Heating Services Specialists" or perhaps "Best Doggie Care in Des Moines"), at Stage #1 of their search, what the majority of consumers are likely to have typed into the search bar are words describing:

  • Their need
  • Their problem
  • Their idea of the solution to their problem
  • A question

Blogging for business, then, means introducing yourself to strangers.  Not that it isn’t a good idea to email links to your blog posts to existing customers and clients, but, for developing new relationships, your blog will be your central prospecting tool.

To convert those "strangers" to friends and customers, then, address your blog posts to them, and write about them.  Fact is, they’re going to care about your name only if and when they know you care about their problems and needs, and that you have just the means to take care of them.

Because of the relevant, recent, and frequently posted content you’ve been delivering to the blogosphere, search engines have delivered prospects to your fnu lnu door.  Now that they’ve arrived, introducing what you sell, what you do, and what you know about – with your business name attached! – is what you get to do as the reward for all that diligence.

This is the stage when "Aha!-I’ve-Come-To-Just-The-Right-Place", readable, engaging blog content counts most. Getting from fnu lnu to Joey’s Body Shop, Maggie’s Hair Salon, or Hendricks Bankruptcy Law Office – that’s the getting-to-know-you business blogging goal!

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When the Wise Speak to Business Bloggers

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The "101 Tips from the World’s Most Famous Authors" aren’t specifically directed towards business bloggers, but many of them might be.  Ernest Hemingway, for example, advised using short first paragraphs (‘nuf said).

Mark Twain had the idea writers ought to substitute "damn" for "very".  Since editors would likely delete the "damns", the writing would be left as it should be.  What this means for bloggers – let the information about what you sell, do, and know about make its own impression without help- from "very"s.

While there are differences of opinion on the use of exclamation marks, F. Scott Fitzgerald thought they’re "like laughing at your own jokes."

"Show, don’t tell," is the creative writing advice of Anton Chekhov.  "Don’t tell me the moon is shining.  Show me the glint of light on broken glass," he explained.  In the case of business blogs, along with text, the "show me" can consist of photos, graphs, clip art, and videos to boost reader engagement and response.

When Stephen King teaches aspiring writers to "read a lot and write a lot", he might well have been addressing bloggers for business.  My version (as a blogging trainer): Reading + writing = blogging. King explains reader helps writers find their own style.  In blogging, reading other blogs can help you scope out your own blogging niche.

Anais Nin observes: "The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we’re unable to say." A professional ghost blogger needs a "third ear" to hear not only what the business owner says, but to pick up on the intangibles of the business’ culture that owner has created – and then translate that into blogs!
 

 

 

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Like Business Blogging, Voice-Overs Take More Than Just a Great Sounding “Voice”!

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Talent advisor Jason Davis defines voiceover as "the art of using the voice to sell, inform, or entertain on radio and TV, narrations, and cartoons." While my own voice, I fear, is far too nasal to make for great listening, I’ve developed an interest in the art ever since someone dubbed me the "voiceover lady" in describing my work as a professional ghost blogger.

On second thought, Davis might not rule me out as a voiceover trainee. In answer to a wannabe’s question, he explains that while clear speech is essential, it takes much more than a great-sounding voice to succeed in voiceovers. In fact, he adds, the skill lies in "the ability to take someone else’s words (the script) and make them sound believable and sincere".

What really resonated with me was what Jason Davis added next in explaining voiceover:  It takes "a strong desire to do this and the ability to persist".  " Bingo!" I thought. "That’s exactly true of business blogging, where, I’ve always said, one of the requisite qualities is "drill sergeant discipline". Since frequency of posting new content is important in achieving web rankings, perseverance comes very much into play.

Back to Davis’ basic definition of voiceover as using the voice to sell, inform, or entertain, he might have been referring to business blogs. Blogs, in many ways, represent the "voice" of the business. In blogging for business, providing visitors with valuable information takes the lead, with any "selling" happening as a result. The more engaging and informative the content in the blog, the more likely it is for "click" – to the shopping cart or contact page – to happen.

I admit I was startled when an acquaintance labeled me "the voice-over lady".  The more I think about it, though, the more appropriate a label that seems for a professional ghost blogger!

 

 

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Your Ghost Blogger is Your Voice-Over Talent

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There I was, mixing-and-mingling at a Dance Kaleidoscope fundraiser a couple of weeks ago. Nibbling hors d’oeuvres, I was enjoying a chat with a small group of people when a young man approached.  Recognizing we’d met somewhere before (but not remembering my name), he offered, "I’ve met you – you’re the voice-over lady!" Well, that impromptu opener certainly suggested an interesting perspective on what I do as a professional ghost blogger!

The dictionary definition of voice-over is "a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television, film, theatre, or other presentation. The voice-over may be spoken by someone who appears elsewhere in the production or by a specialist voice actor."

A ghost blogger is a specialist – in writing, and in particular, writing for the Web, posting short, engaging pieces using keyword phrases with consistency over extended periods of time. Most business owners lack the time to keep up that effort.

A ghost blogger serves as a "reporter". Television news, according to Wikipedia, is often presented as a series of video clips of newsworthy events, with the reporters describing the significance of the scenes shown through voice-overs. A skillful ghost blogger for business offers blog visitors a more personal and even a more analytical perspective on the information they might find on the company website.  The information may be available through the website, but the ghost blogger’s challenge is to helps readers understand the "So what?" and why the information could be meaningful for them.

A ghost blogger is a translator.  Television voice-overs are used in several European countries as an alternative to dubbing entire dialogues, to make the program material more understandable in different localities (Wikipendia).In a way, I think, business ghost-bloggers "translate" the corporate message into terms with which target audiences can best relate.

Anyway, I think my young acquaintance may not have been far afield in his description after all.  Next time you introduce your professional ghost blogger – go ahead and say, "Please meet Rhoda, our company’s voice-over talent!

 

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