Federal Food Guidelines For Blogs

In the U.S., processed foods are required to list ingredients on their labels, and the ingredients have to be listed in order of their weight in the final product. So, if tomatoes are listed first, that’s the main ingredient; if sugar heads the list of ingredients, that means there’s more sugar than any other substance in that product. It’s quite a simple concept, and one that’s paralleled in the way search engines evaluate and index blog posts.

When a search engine is visiting a website or blog, it reads the information on it, measuring the relevance of the material it finds to what the online searcher appears to be looking for. When the key words (which match what the searcher typed in) appear in the title of the blog post and towards the beginning of the text, it’s assumed that those are the “biggest deal”, indicative of what that blog post is mainly about.

There’s a second parallel I found between blogs and food labels. If a label says “Reduced Calories),that means that food product must contain one third less calories than a comparable, non-reduced-calorie food. By definition, blogs should be “reduced calorie” compared with corporate websites.  Blogs should contain at least a third less content than a promotional brochure or a website page, and should focus on one idea having to do with the business – highlight one product, one service, debunk one myth, one comparison, one testimonial from a customer, one true story, one link to a news story.

As a professional ghost writer of blogs, to me a “sugar free blog” is one that goes light on the hard-sell, and one that offers valuable free advice.

As blogging consultant Mack Collier points out, most companies spend too much time blogging about themselves.  The way to make blogs exciting, Collier advises, is by finding your "bigger idea".  In other words, rather than touting your company’s pet grooming product, blog about the proper way to groom pets. In business blogging, best to keep things lean and syrup-free!

There are no federal guidelines, I learned, for the use of the word “natural” on food labels. Many foods whose labels say “natural” contain artificial preservatives, artificial coloring, or artificial flavors. To me, "natural" in business blogging means to keep the tone informal, yet informative, giving your readers a “taste” of your personality, as well as the special personality and culture you’ve created in your culture.

In fact, the special challenge I love about my profession of ghost blogging is to capture the special flavor of each business in their blog posts!  In fact, one of my clients described it as follows: "I cook my own stew, and my ghost blogger adds the condiments, spices, and flavoring!" 
 

 

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Ghost Bakers And Ghost Bloggers Keep Legends Alive

Ghosts inhabit the kitchen as well as the blogosphere.  I don’t mean to burst anybody’s bubble, but Betty Crocker, whose face has adorned cake mix and flour packages for ninety years, never lived. She is, and always has been, a sales promotion, one of the most successful ever.

Things all started in 1921, when the Washburn Crosby Company, a forerunner of General Mills, was running a contest to complete a jigsaw puzzle of a flour milling scene. Thousands of entries came in, many with questions about baking problems. The company’s advertising manager thought it would be appropriate to have a woman answer those letters.  He chose the last name of a recently retired executive of the company, William Crocker, with Betty as a fictitious, friendly-sounding first name. A woman employee with a nice handwriting was chosen to sign “Betty Crocker.” Pretty soon “Betty Crocker was doing the nation’s first cooking show over the radio.  That show, the “Betty Crocker School of the Air”, ran for twenty four years!

By 1936, the company needed a face to go with the name. A portrait was commissioned blending the facial characteristics of several of the women employees (they didn’t have PhotoShop back then!). Over the years, “Betty” changed, becoming younger in 1955, more professional in 1980, and multicultural in 1996.

The point is, through the personality of Betty Crocker, Washburn Crosby Company and its successor General Foods Company were able to bring to millions of women a trusted kitchen friend.

As a ghost writer and ghost blogger, I’m sometimes asked how we do it.  How can we ghost bloggers write for business owners and professional clients without being trained in those fields ourselves?  A ghost blogger uses a “third ear” to understand what the client wants to say and to pick up on the client’s unique slant on his/her business or profession.

I’m the “Betty” for my business owner clients, answering their customers’ questions, and helping create a more personalized marketing conversation online. Often business owners and professionals, even if they enjoy writing blogs, lack the time to keep up enough “frequency and recency” to win the Internet search.

As I said in an earlier blog post, while I may not be a doctor, a lawyer, an auto mechanic, a telephone technology expert, a travel guide, a gourmet chef, or a tax expert – as a ghost blogger, I can still play one!  Just ask my ghostly colleagues Mrs. Butterworth and Aunt Jemima!
 

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In Business Blogging, Which Counts Most – Content Or Couture?

PR consultant Mikal Belicove, writing in May’s Entrepreneur Magazine, encourages readers to "Start a blog for your business". Belicove runs through a list of blogging platforms, including:
 

Free hosted platforms:

  • Blogger
  • Live Journal
  • Vox


Premium hosted platforms:

  • WordPress
  • TypePad


Stand-alone platforms:

  • WordPress.org
  • Movable Type
  • (My Say It For You blogs are hosted by Compendium Blogware.)

Bellicove concludes his mini-tutorial by saying "As you blog, keep in mind that content is king.  Always post fresh, original, and relevant content, and your blog will soon build a loyal following."

(I was taught at a sales seminar to replace "Yes, but.." with Yes, and…), so here’s my "Yes, and.." on the subject of blog content:)
 
There’s a thing called "bounce rate", which is a metric search engines use in ranking blogsites.  Once having found your site, how long do readers stay there before "bouncing" away to someone else’s site?

With thousands of blog posts under my belt, one lesson I’ve learned is that if the typeface in your blog is too small, if the lines are too closely packed, if paragraphs are overly lengthy, those things are off-putting to blog visitors.   Illustrations, bolding, italics, bullet points – all the "couturier" touches are important in holding readers’ attention.

So, when all is said and done, which counts more – content or couture?  A great blog post will incorporate BOTH!

 

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In Business Blogging, No Need To Wait Until The Very End

When Mensa members were asked to recall the best piece of advice they’d ever received, Pam Olsen came up with one we business bloggers don’t really need to follow:

"When assembling a large project, wait until the very end to tighten the screws!"

Bloggers don’t need to wait until the very end. As Chris Baggott, CEO of Compendium Blogware explains, that’s because "search engines put high value on pages that are frequently updated."  Baggott compares blogs to traditional websites, whose content tends to be only infrequently updated.

The end of one blog post is hardly the end of the blog, and it will hardly be laborious to "loosen the screws" in order to add to your message, update it, or correct it. As web designer John Raleigh explains, "Blogs make it pretty easy to get the job right."

The beauty of blog marketing is not only that it tends to beat websites in "winning search", it’s that you can do well today what you may not have done so well yesterday or the day before.  And, since blog posts appear in reverse chronological order, your best blogs will be the ones searchers see first!

Put your best blog foot forward today and every day, of course.  But bloggers for business can say along with Scarlett O’Hara of Gone With The Wind, "Tomorrow’s another day!"

 

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One More Blog Link For The Road?

Beginning strong is important for business blogging.  Using key words and phrases in the title of the blog and early in the text shows readers they’ve come to a source of information that matches the inquiry they typed into the search engine.

But, very much like a speech, where you have only a very few seconds to capture the rapt attention of your audience at the beginning, but where having a strong finish is important as well, that’s how it is with blog posts.

Speech coaches advice against memorizing your speech – with two exceptions: the opening line and the closing line.  Jack Valenti, author of Speak Up With Confidence, says, "The conclusion of a speech is one of the most powerful elements, often cementing all that you have said…Memorize that last paragraph."

I receive a monthly email newsletter from professional speaker Todd Hunt. The latest issue had a great anecdote that really brings out the importance of a strong finish in any encounter.  A colleague had taken Todd to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.  Their server, Trevor, diligently refilled their drink glasses as needed.  "Nothing unusual about that", says Hunt.  But, after they’d paid the check, the server asked, "Would you like another Diet for the road.?" That extra bit of customer service, remarks Hunt, probably cost Cheesecake Factory a nickel at most.  But now, Todd’s telling his thousands of newsletter subscribers about the restaurant’s exemplary client service!

Business bloggers can take a tip (pun intended) from this restaurant tale.  At the very end of each blog post, put in just one more "soft" CTA (call to action):
"To find out more about _________, click here.
 "To sign up for _________, click here."

Try this technique for your business blog for the next few weeks.  Let me know how it works for you.  I’ll be curious to to hear about the results.

And, hey, to learn more about how a professional ghost blogger can help drive more traffic to your business website, click here!

 

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