How Not-So-Bright Ideas Can Brighten Business Blogs (Part One)

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Ig Nobel Prizes honor bad ideas, or more correctly, achievements "that make people laugh, and then make them think." (Ig Nobel winners are invited to a gala at Harvard U., then have the chance to lecture at MIT.)

One of my favorite reads, Mental Floss Magazine, highlights some of these "Not-So-Bright-Ideas in Science". I couldn’t help thinking that business bloggers can take some to-to-do tips from the not-so-mad Ig Nobel scientists.

Ig Nobel Medicine Prize:
Warned as a child that cracking his knuckles would cause arthritis, Donald Unger embarked on a sixty-year experiment to prove his mother wrong.  After cracking the knuckles of only his left hand twice a day, he discovered that his two hands remained physically the same, calling into question whether other parental beliefs are flawed.

Any business blogging tactic had better be able to justify the effort and expense in a much shorter time than sixty years! Through studying the analytics and making adjustments to website landing pages, calls to action, and overall marketing strategy, business blogging "experiments" need to make a beeline –  to your business’ bottom line!

Ig Nobel Mathematics Prize:
In response to the hyperinflation plaguing his country, Zimbabwe Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono printed currency ranging from one cent to one hundred trillion dollars. While the bank notes had absolutely no measurable effect on inflation, Gono’s tactic was awarded a prize for "giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers".

While good blog posts can and should be entertaining, most online searchers are not pursuing a recreational activity, but instead on on a fact-finding mission, looking for information on products, services, and specialized know-how. The material you serve up in your posts needs to be not only valuable, but and actionable.

(At this point I’m going to follow my own bright idea about "pushing away from the table" and saving some the material for another day and a Part Two post on Not-So-Bright Ideas… )

 

 

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Business Blogs – Not Obvious To Persons Of Ordinary Skill And Knowledge

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You have a chance of being awarded a patent on your invention only if your idea is "not obvious to persons of ordinary skill and knowledge", I learned the other day, when intellectual property attorney Charles Reeves spoke at my Circle Business Network group.  In fact, this "non-obvious" requirement is one of the most difficult steps in the patent process, according to Webpatent.com, yet "it’s a critical hurdle for inventions to clear".

Business bloggers face originality challenges as well.  Of course, printed materials involve copyright law rather than patents.  Susannah Gardner and Shane Bailey, authors of Blogging for Dummies, point out that "Anything and everything you see on the Internet is protected by copyright."  In an earlier blog I advised avoiding plagiarism by properly attributing statements to their authors (see "Ties That Tell the Truth In Blogging").  You can do that with direct quotes, by paraphrasing others’ remarks, or by creating links in your blog posts to other websites (just as I’ve done in this post).

When it comes to business blogging, though, I think there’s more than legality to observe, and more to learn from the rule about patents. We know Google and friends’ "Feed me!" refrain means that, to move higher in search rankings, blogs must provide fresh, relevant content. Perhaps even more important, though, bloggers need to introduce fresh ideas simply in order to engage readers’ interest.  But, with the sheer volume of information on the Web on every topic under the sun, how do we keep providing new material in our blog posts week after week, month after month, even year after year?

And aren’t most of our readers "persons of ordinary skill and knowledge"?  How can we continue to offer information in ways that will not be "obvious" to them? Here are just two ideas:

  • Bring in less well-known facts about familiar things and processes. Edible Chicago magazine featured Burton’s Maplewood Farm in Medora, Indiana, explaining that there are two grades of maple syrup.  "We offer an ‘A’ grade syrup that is typically used on a dish…pancakes, waffles, crepes, etc. and a ‘B’ grade syrup that has more antioxidants and is preferred by most of our Chicago chefs."
  • Suggest new ways of thinking about things readers already know.  For example, before hearing the Charles Reeves presentation, I’d known that many products and processes were patented, but was unaware how originality was measured by the "non-obviousness" standard.

"I didn’t know that!" is the first response you’ should be aiming for from blog readers, followed by "So how can I use that information to my advantage? I’d better find out more!"

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The Press Release Side of Business Blogs

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In How to Write Powerful Press Releases, Judith Welsh shares ten tips for success.  Accounting Today Magazine calls the book" a valuable resource for selling yourself, your product, or your service," Since business blogging is designed to accomplish exactly those three things, I thought, let’s see how the tips apply to the writing of effective business blog posts.  (In keeping with my own advice on Monday about keeping posts short by dividing content into more than one "installment", I’m going to discuss only the first five tips today.)

Make sure the information is newsworthy.
Since online searchers are already in the market for what you have to sell, what you know about, and what you know how to do, simply focus your blog post on providing useful, relevant information on your topic.

Tell the audience the information is intended for them.
By using keyword phrases in the title and in the first sentences of the blog post, you can assure readers they’ve come to the right place to get information related to their online inquiry. 

Ask yourself, "How are people going to relate to this and will they be able to connect?"
One suggestion is to open your blog post with a "grabber" question such as "Have you been concerned about……..? Now, there’s a solution….".   Or, "Have you tried and tried to find…..  At ACB Company, we’ve found a way….."

Make sure the first ten words of your release are effective, as they are the most important.
Since online searchers tend to be scanners rather than readers, you have only a few seconds to engage their interest and attention, so that they do not "bounce" away to other websites or give up their search altogether.

Avoid excessive use of adjectives and fancy language.
Direct, simple, businesslike language is a good idea for most kinds of business writing, and that goes double for blogs. Publicity Insider.com uses a press release for KitchenAid coffee makers as a positive example of this kind of writing:

"Flat brew baskets help maximize flavor extraction from the coffee grinds,while refined shower heads provide optimum steep time."

Business press release or business blog – in a way, the goals as shown in these five tips is the same: 

Demonstrate the particular expertise and history of your company or your professional service and how you differ from the competition in approach, product, expertise, or price.

 

 

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Why Not To Be Negative In Blogs

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(Can you see what happened here?  Now you’re focused on the word "negative".  Had I titled this blog post "Being Positive in Blogs", I would have focused your thoughts on ways to make a positive impact.

Business blogging, of course, is all about "up".  To be found on a search engine by more potential customers and clients, your blog needs to move "up" in search engine rankings and appear on Page One of Google (and Bing and Yahoo). Even more important, blog titles and content need to focus on the positive results customers can expect from selecting your products and services.

Copywriter and consultant Michael Fortin says that most of the copy he critiques disobey the cardinal rule of selling, by failing to use "upwords", Fortin’s acronym for:
 

  • Universal
  • Picture
  • Words
  • Or
  • Relatable
  • Descriptive
  • Sentences

To "up" sales, "up" words, Fortin says. Words need to paint vivid pictures in readers’ minds, rather like icons on a computer desktop. In order for our minds to translate words and phrases into something we can refer back to, we need a visual equivalent in words.

Leave out the "buts", advises Fortin, and substitute "ands".  Rather than saying "It’s a great concept for a website, but it’s going to take at least a month to put together" (a negative in the customer’s eyes), say "It’s a great concept for a website and it will take only thirty days (imagine getting that whole wonderful job accomplished in only thirty days!) to get it up and running."

When I train business owners and their employees how to develop content for their blog posts, I try emphasizing the positive in a different sense as well. Although one approach in a business blog is to compare your products and services to others’, it’s important to emphasize the positive rather than "knocking" a competitor. Rather than starting with what "they" (the competition) is doing wrong, devaluing other company’s products and services, use the power of WE to demonstrate what you value, and the way you like to deliver your services.

To "up" online rankings, blog "up"!

 

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Half-A-Slice-Better-Than-One Business Blogging

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There are almost as many different opinions about the best way to write blogs as there are on recipes for "absolutely the best" apple pie. Much of the debate centers around the ideal length for a blog post, with one touted rule of thumb being to keep the post short enough so readers don’t need to scroll down to read it all.

Based solely on my own years of experience as a professional ghost blogger for business and in writing this Say It For You blog on the topic of business blogging, my answer to the length dilemma is simple: Make each post as short as possible (to get your idea across), but no shorter.

Fellow blogger Jameiah Earle, in Literary Kicks, calls pieces of fiction having fewer than 1,000 words "micro" or "flash fiction". When it comes to blogging for business, Inbound Marketing authors Halligan and Shaw stress that "people searching on Google are actually looking for something" and have a specific goal. As you make decisions about your blog posts (including how long each post should be), your goal must be to satisfy theirs, reassuring readers they’ve come to exactly the right place.

Here’s one practical suggestion for keeping your blog copy "tight" and on target:  If you’ve explained the first of several:

  • reasons why a certain thing is important…..
  • myth-busting facts about your industry…
  • customer stories or testimonials you have to share…,

just "push away from the table", as your diet coach might advise.  Leave some of your thoughts on the subject for another blog post, splitting your content into more than one "installment". Each part of the "mini-series" should be able to stand on its own, yet a post might be continuing a thought from an earlier blog post, or promising more on the subject to be expressed in future blog post.

Small business consultant Lorraine Ball, invited to be a guest blogger on Say It For You, explained that using Twitter with its 140-character limit  has made her a better writer overall, training her to look at every word and consider the value it adds to a sentence.

Unlike Twitter, blogs, at least theoretically, are subject to no length limits.  However, when it comes to business blogging, it might be a good idea to slice up the "pie", and that half a slice is better than one!

 

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