Blogging for Business, Not Search

September 22, 2015/0 Comments/in blog marketing, Business writing tips/by Rhoda Israelov

Winning search has long been our main motivation for blog content writing, but, as Social Media Examiner’s Marcus Sheridan so aptly reminds us, it needn’t be. “Blogging unleashes the power of team,” Sheridan says, referring to companies where each and every person is contributing to building the company’s content base, with magic and momentum truly happening as a result.

But what if the magic isn’t happening, because no one has the time or the inclination to keep up the discipline of constantly creating content? And what if the company is just one or two people, both scrambling just to keep the day-to-day stuff going? Is there any “team magic” to be had when you’re using a freelance blog content writer? You bet. Effective blogging for business takes a blend of ideas and talents, and a professional ghost blogger becomes part of your team, working alongside you to articulate and give form to your thoughts and ideas.

“Blogging sharpens your sword,” Sheridan says. Because you’re generating new content (either on your own or through a freelancer), that forces you to stay up to date with the newest developments in your industry, to remain conscious of the competition, and explaining things in a consumer-friendly way. (The fact is that your content writer is not working in your industry can be an advantage, forcing you to see things from ‘the other side”.)

“Blogs are qualifiers,” Sheridan notes. There are generally two types of consumers, he points out: price shoppers and value shoppers. Spending sales time with unqualified leads is counter-productive sales effort for any business. Letting customers self-sort after they read your current, information-heavy content saves time and aggravation all around, he points out.

As a corporate blogging trainer, I couldn’t agree more. Blogs, I believe, can help potential client and customers make better decisions without the business owner or practitioner – or salesperson – needing to step into the conversation in the initial stages. How?

a) by suggesting questions readers can ask themselves while choosing among options.

b) by showing how different choices relate to differing results. Since people don’t like to be sold, you can use the blog to offer them help in making a buying decision.

Marcus Sheridan sums the matter up nicely: “There is much more to having a company blog than just getting more visitors to your website because Google decided to send them there.”

Blog Simply and Carry a Big Stick

September 1, 2015/0 Comments/in Business writing tips/by Rhoda Israelov

simple or complex “The canonical rule of thumb for scientists speaking to nonscientists is to talk as if you were speaking to eighth graders, because a lay audience often has a basic, and certainly not specialized, understanding of science,“ advises climate scientist Ilissa Ocko. “If you want the information to resonate with the non-scientist audience, you have to strip down to the essentials, craft a story, provide big-picture context, and consider using analogies,” she adds.

Matching our writing to our intended audience is part of the challenge we business blog content writers face. After all, we’re not in this to entertain ourselves – we’re out to retain the clients and customers we serve and bring in new ones, so we try to use words and sentences to which our target readers can relate. We may even use a readability calculator such as the Flesch-Kinkaid.

But what Ocko argues is that even when we are speaking to (or, in our case, writing to) industry partners or more sophisticated and knowledgeable readers, we will be more effective if we simplify.

She names three reasons why knowledge transfer will be more successful even when there is a “high-level”, knowledgeable audience:

Even in a room full of scientists, not everyone has the same background and expertise.
The audience (our readers) has only a small chunk of time to digest the information (this is particularly true with blogs).
People are distracted by life. The more complex the talk (read “blog post”), the easier it is to mentally check out. Speaker acknowledgement of this audience inadequacy through simpler messaging and slides will be a win-win for all.

Less is more, Ocko teaches scientific speakers. Use less jargon, less math, less text. Use more graphics, more analogies, more stories. As a corporate blog writing trainer, I couldn’t agree more with every one of those points. Our writing style should be clear and simple, direct, and easily understandable.

Writing simply will add big-stick impact to your business blog content!

Bloggers’ Tidbit Challenge

August 20, 2015/0 Comments/in idea sources for blogs/by Rhoda Israelov

Since this week, I’m reaching into the “tidbit treasure chest”, I thought I’d issue a challenge to my Say It For You blog readers. The concept is to help blog content writers continually come up with fresh content to educate, inform, and entertain readers (and at least indirectly, get the “cash register” to ring). Tidbits, I explain at corporate blogging training sessions, can be used in business blogs in a variety of ways, including:

Defining basic industry technology
Sparking curiosity about the subject
Putting modern-day practices into perspective (relative to the way things were once done)
Explaining why the business owner or practitioner has chosen to operate in a certain way

OK, time for the quiz: I’ll give you a tidbit; you tell me what kinds of businesses might be able to use this in their blog. (I promise to publish the best couple of answers in a future post – anonymously if you request that, or I’ll be happy to link to your website).

Tidbits: (Source: Money Bags)

Glass takes one million years to decompose.
Gold is the only metal that doesn’t rust.
If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water – when a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.
Kits were used in the Civil War to deliver letters and newspapers.
Nine out of every ten living things live in the ocean.
The tooth is the only part of the human body that cannot heal itself.
Caffeine increases the power of aspirin.
When a person dies, hearing is the last sense to go. The first sense lost is sight.
In ancient times, strangers shook hands to show they were unarmed.
The earth gets 100 tons heavier every day due to falling space dust.

Whether you take me up on my challenge or not, next time you’re at loss for new content ideas, reach into the tidbit bin!

Reach Into the Tidbit Treasure Chest

August 18, 2015/0 Comments/in idea sources for blogs/by Rhoda Israelov

For freelance blog content writers, the tidbit “bin” turns into a treasure chest. If you’re working on a business blog and you can include interesting information most readers don’t know, that’s gold. Even if such information appears useless on the surface, if we get creative, we can put it to very good use in adding interest to our blog. One of my favorite sources for tidbit “ore” is Mental Floss magazine.

Take these three tales recounted in Mental Floss:

1. Frank Humely, imprisoned in the Los Angeles County jail for forgery and miscellaneous other misdeeds, hatched a plan to escape. An accomplice would mail him sugar-fronted cakes with a gun and ammo hidden inside. Frank planned to shoot the guards, take the keys, and hightail it. The plan failed – the cakes attracted attention because they were so heavy…

(I can see a bakery using this story to illustrate the lightness of their own wonderful cake creations.)

2. In the 10th century, the Vikings in Denmark had a special way of singing. They made a rumbling sound from their throats, described as “similar to a dog but even more bestial”.

(I can see this story being used in a blog for a cough lozenge company, a physician’s practice that treats severe sinusitis, or a voice studio!)

3. During the Vietnam War peace talks, the North Vietnamese insisted on having a square table for the meeting room, so that all four parties would appear equal, while, for that very reason, the U.S. and South Vietnam wanted a rectangular table.

(A furniture store could do a lot with this story. I can also see this in a blog for meeting planners, or even one offered by a school architectural firm.)

Continually coming up with fresh content to inform, educate, and entertain readers is a pretty tall order for busy business owners and employees. Trivia can solve the problem. Tidbits of information can be used in business blogs for defining basic terminology, sparking curiosity about the subject, putting modern-day practices and beliefs into perspective, and for explaining why the business owner or practitioner chooses to operate in a certain way.

Reach into your own tidbit treasure chest!

Blogging Your Failures

July 30, 2015/0 Comments/in blog marketing/by Rhoda Israelov

As a blog writer and coach, I liked what Stav Ziv had to say in Newsweek about The Moth, a nonprofit dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling, now in its eighteenth year of bringing to the world “true stories told live”. Moth founder George Dawes Green believes the success of the organization comes from two elements:

There’s no “wall of artistry” or stage curtain between the storyteller and audience.
The storytellers share their own human failures and frailty.

Who are the storytellers? Over the years they’ve included big-name figures (Molly Ringwald, Malcolm Gladwell, Ethan Hawke, and Al Sharpton, to name a few). What makes for great storytelling? Green learned early on that the most important ingredient is vulnerabililty. “There can be success in the stories, but they have to be grounded in failure.”

Millionaire entrepreneur Alexis Neely agrees, explaining why she shares her own failures, and how it helps others when she does. “If the person you are learning from doesn’t share their failures,” Neely cautions, “run the other way. Now. I want you to learn the truth from me,” she adds, “and then operate your business with your eyes wide open.”

Beccy Freebody of realisingeverydream.com agrees. It’s easier to connect to someone who is or has been where you are, she explains. Seeing YOU overcome the worst parts of your life will be just the thing someone else needs to make a change in their life.

So how does all this apply to blog marketing for a business or professional practice? It brings out a point every business owner, professional, and freelance business blogger ought to keep in mind: Writing about past failures is important.

True stories about mistakes and struggles are very humanizing, adding to the trust readers place in the people behind the business. What tends to happen is the stories of failure create feelings of empathy and admiration for the entrepreneurs or professional practitioners who overcame the effects of their own errors.

Knock down that “wall of artistry” between you and your readers by blogging your failures!

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