Glass-Breaking and Myth-Busting in Business Blogs

April 23, 2015/0 Comments/in blog marketing, idea sources for blogs/by Rhoda Israelov

So you’ve found some interesting material in a funky magazine called Mental Floss. Question is, as a freelance blog content writer, what do you with it? After all, how could a brief history of people who worried that they were made of glass help in blog marketing for your – or your client’s – business or practice? Gather round….

By way of background, awhile back I came up with a remedy for blog content writers when they get stuck thinking up new ideas to keep their business blog posts engaging. I advised leafing through popular magazines to spark ideas that can help business owners and practitioners explain what they do and how and why they do it. OK, so how about those people who thought they were made of glass?

In the 1400s, King Charles VI of France, convinced he was made of glass, wore special clothes to avoid breaking into pieces.
In the 1600s. a play (Thomas Tomkis’ Lingua) and a novel ( Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s Doctor Glass-Case) featured characters who were afraid to move or to be near people for fear they would break into pieces.
The History of Psychiatry chronicles a 1600’s man who wore a cushion on his derriere to prevent breakage.

One very important function of blog writing for business is to debunk common myths. Business owners can use their blog not only as a way to dispense information, but to address misinformation. All those now funny misapprehensions about glass were understandable when the technology was new. After glass had become cheap enough for ordinary people to use it for windowpanes, the delusions, Mental Floss editors explain, began to “slide into obscurity”.

In the natural course of doing business, misunderstandings about a product or a serve may surface, especially if the technology behind the product or service is new.

Dentistry:
Do amalgams used for fillings cause mercury poisoning?

Beauty:
Does makeup cause acne?

Internet security:
If you don’t open an infected file, can you get infected?

Jewelry:
Have diamonds have always been the symbol for marriage?

Life expectancy:
In the past, didn’t 9 out of 10 people die before age 40?

Home décor:
Should small rooms be painted in pale neutral colors?

I explain to newbie content writers in Indianapolis that citing statistics to disprove popular myths gives business owners the chance to showcase their own knowledge and expertise. Myth-busting comes with a caveat, however. The trick is to engage interest, but not in “Gotcha!” style. Business owners and professional practitioners blogging for business can showcase their own expertise without putting readers “in the wrong”.

What myths need busting in your business or practice?

Spoon-feeding the Why’s to Business Blog Readers

April 16, 2015/0 Comments/in blog marketing, idea sources for blogs/by Rhoda Israelov

“Because the baby slept all night….” “Because he emptied the litter box…” “You don’t need a big excuse to give a great gift,” read the sign at the end of the cafeteria checkout line.

Even though I’m constantly stressing to business blog content writers that blog posts are NOT ads, there’s a lot we can learn from advertisers. After all, we have stuff to sell – whether it’s products, services, or ideas, and whether it’s for our own or our clients’ businesses or practices. And, that MCL sign notwithstanding, we have to make sure our prospects, the ones reading the blog content, see that they have good “excuses” to buy.

Fellow blogger Michel Fortin names five types of “why” you can tell buyers. (Fortin’s alluding to ad copy, but his list is a good outline for using proof in your business blog posts to build belief in your – or your client’s – services and products.)

Why YOU:
Why did you target this particular market (the one represented by this potential buyer)?

Why ME:
The “me” is the business or the professional practitioner (or the ghost blogger as his or her voice). What is our expertise and experience? Why do we care?

Why THIS:
What are the specific solutions you provide? Why is your product or service designed in the particular and unique way you describe?

Why NOW:
What reasons can you offer the reader to act now – (missing out on something important, preventing further damage, expected scarcity of the product, etc.)?

Why THIS PRICE:
Your blog can make clear where you fall price-wise in your market and why your business has chosen that pricing niche.

You may not need a big excuse to give someone an MCL gift card, but only blog believers become buyers!

For Business Blog Content Writers, the Practice is in the Doing!

April 16, 2015/0 Comments/in Business writing tips/by Rhoda Israelov

“How much time does it really take to get great?” A lot, according to Mental Floss’ Magazine’s “Genius Guide to Success”, if you judge by the routines of various prodigies.

Mathematician Paul Erdos put in 19-hour days, publishing 1.525 academic papers.
Jonas Salk spent 16 hours a day for seven years researching the polio vaccine.
Tightrope walking Nik Wallenda practice 3-4 hours every day before walking between Chicago skyscrapers.
Stash of Guns ‘N Roses practiced 12 hours a day.
Jerry Seinfeld practiced 200 times before his first comedy set on The Tonight Show.

In contrast to that reality, admit the Mental Floss authors, a 2014 study showed that practice accounts for only 12 percent of mastery.

After almost ten years of blog content writing and training others to write corporate blog content, I’d have to say the old saw about practice makes perfect definitely applies. There’s a difference, though. For content writers, practicing consists of actually writing and posting, not in getting ready to do that at some later time!

Years ago, in the process of explaining the way my company Say It For You came about, I talked about the “drill sergeant discipline” needed by blog content writers. What I meant was that, while all my business owner clients knew that writing blogs in their area of expertise was going to be a great idea for them, not very many of them felt they could take the time to compose and post content on a regular basis. I also knew that the main key to business blogging success was going to be simply keeping on task.

Going back to the example of Jerry Seinfeld’s practicing 200 times before his Tonight Show appearance, Seinfeld understood drill sergeant discipline as well. He’d figured out that the way to be a better comic was to write better jokes, and that the way to do that was to write jokes every single day. For every day he writes, Jerry puts a big red X on his wall calendar, and all that matters is not breaking that chain of X’s.

That’s a good model for blog content writers, I’d have to say. Far too many business owners start out strong with their blogging, but months or even weeks later, begin to fizzle. On the other hand, we bloggers get more of a “shot” with readers than we think. In any one post, we have hardly as much “on the line” (pun intended) as a Nik Wallenda. Sure, we strive for high quality in every single post, but there’s always tomorrow or next week to complete the thought, clarify, and bring in more information.

We’re lucky. As content writers, we get to practice AND perform at the same time!

The Way to a Blog Readers’ Heart is Through a Story

April 14, 2015/0 Comments/in blog marketing/by Rhoda Israelov

“Stories can be short quips or quick examples that help customers understand why they should care,” says international communications coach Karen Friedman. Stories are must-haves for speakers, Friedman observes.

As blog content writers, we need to pay attention to the research findings Friedman shares about the power of stories. In a study performed at the University of Pennsylvania, subjects were divided into three groups. Participants were each given $5 and told they would be learning about a certain charitable organization. After the presentation, they would be given the choice of contributing all, some, or none of their $5 to that cause.

Group A was shown lots of data, including how long the charity had been in existence, the size of the organization’s budget and staff, their funding sources, and the like.
Group B heard a story about the plight of a young girl and how she was helped by that organization.
Group C was given both the data and the story.

The results? Those in Group A gave the smallest amount. Group B participants, who’d heard the story, gave the largest amount. And Group C? Apparently the data neutralized the emotional effects of the story, because those in the C Group gave a very small amount.

Friedman reminds her speaker trainees of what Oscar-winning producer Peter Gruber said: “Hits are made in the heart, not in the head.” She urges salespeople to “think of the story you want people to hear”.

As a freelance SEO copywriter, I couldn’t help thinking that if the power of story is to be directed towards the marketing strategy and tactics development of any business, there’s nowhere that power is a better fit than in corporate blog writing. Blog posts must be effective by presenting stories that in themselves are calls to action for readers.

If you are using blogging as a key tool in your marketing strategy, make sure you’re harnessing the emotional power of story.

What’s the First Step to Writing a Blog? Writing!

April 7, 2015/0 Comments/in blog marketing/by Rhoda Israelov

“What’s the first step to writing a joke?” asks Kumail Nanjiani, actor on HBO’s Silicon Valley. “Realizing that writing is work,” he concludes. “You write and you write and you rewrite.” In short, he explains, you develop a work ethic.

Asked whether he emulates Stephen King (who won’t stop until he’s written 2,000 words that day), Nanjiani replies that his own rule is to write first thing in the morning, for at least ten minutes.

That’s a good model for blog content writers, I’d have to say. Far too many business owners start out strong with their blogging, but months or even weeks later, begin to fizzle. Daily blogs become weekly blogs, and pretty soon, months go by between blog posts.

In fact, my company Say It For You was founded to provide professional writing services to business clients, where the owners’ attention was constantly drawn away from content creation because they were putting out fires, making sales, and dealing with personnel issues.

Nanjiani actually has a second content creation job, in that he hosts a podcast for X-Files fans. To prepare, he goes through several steps, all of which could be valuable for business blog content writers (whether those are the business owners or professional practitioners themselves, or freelance content writers they’ve hired).

“I look up reviews to see if there are aspects I’ve missed.”
“I look up interviews with the writers.”
“I look at Google message boards to see what people were saying at the time each episode aired.”
“I look for discourse on the Internet” that happened later on.”

That’s precisely the depth of preparation that it takes to sustain a marketing blog over long periods of time. Reading, bookmarking, clipping – and even just noticing – new trends and information relating to your business field goes a long way towards keeping the blog “quiver” stocked with content ideas.

Nanjiani knows he needs to look for ongoing “discourse” – to find out what’s being said online, NOW, about his topic (in his case, the X-Files)?

Blogging for business means knowing what’s being said by competitors, what’s trending, what aspects of your field are being discussed. It’s much more than just studying analytics reports – it’s asking the questions so as to become part of the answer.

What’s the first step in writing a blog? Blogging!

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