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How Not to be Passive in Your Posts

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In “The Tyranny of the Verb To Be”, Tobias Buckell describes how, as a new writer, he “almost destroyed himself” trying to eliminate passive verbs from his material. What’s so terrible about the passive voice? Buckell asks. Isn’t it time to stop worrying about “staying active”? Some of our overuse of passive voice, he believes, comes from academic writing, which removes the narrator from English papers.

“While tense is all about time references, voice describes whether the grammatical subject of a clause performs or receives the action of the verb,” grammarly.com explains. It’s the difference between “Chester kicked the ball” (active) and “The ball was kicked by Chester” (passive). “If you’re writing anything with a definitive subject who’s performing an action, you’ll be better off using the active voice,” rhw grammarly author advises. “Using active voice for the majority of your sentences makes your meaning clear for readers, and keeps the sentences from becoming too complicated or wordy,” the Purdue Online Writing Lab agrees. .Sometimes, though, the active voice is simply awkward, Alice Underwood of grammarly explains, as in “People rumor Elvis to be alive”, as opposed to “Elvis is rumored to be alive”.

As writers, we teach at Say It For You, we need to decide (in each sentence and phrase) what – or who – matters most in each particular sentence – do we want to emphasize the action itself or the doer of the action? When it comes to actual “voice” in terms not of grammar, but of messaging, in a business blog, it’s important to have “voice variety”. That can come from writing some of the content in I-you format, with other posts written in third person. If a company person or a customer is being interviewed, the content can be written in the “voice” of the interviewee or that of the interviewer. “Third person narratives so often mimic the ‘beige voice’ of an objective reporter,” William Cane says in Write Like the Masters. With first person, he advises, “it’s usually easier to be intimate, unique, and quirky.”

In the grammatical arena, the most important thing, Bucknell concludes, is to test each sentence to see whether its SVA (subject, verb, object) arrangement could be written in a more interesting way. Achieving interesting writing is not as simple a matter as changing all the verbs to active, he realizes. “But looking carefully at all those ‘to be’ sentences might not be a bad way of diagnosing places where we have the opportunity to push ourselves a little more artistically,” he says.

Of course, as blog writers, we want to come across as passionate, never passive, towards our topics and towards our readers.

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Blog Posts – Info in a Flash

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“There’s nothing like flash fiction to teach you how to write an engaging story ” Breathe Magazine tells readers looking for “activities for a happy and healthy mind”. Author Kit de Waal, judging a microfiction writing contest, says she looks for “a whole story that gives me depth and breadth, with a beginning, middle, and end, but not necessarily in that order.” The best microfiction, she adds, gets people talking and starts ideas in their heads.

While marketing blog posts are nonfiction, some of the tips offered by de Waal and other microfiction contest judges certainly apply.

  • “Focusing on a single idea is a really good technique.”
    When it comes to blogging, we at Say It For You firmly believe in the Power of One (one outcome, one audience, one writer, one client, and – one message per post, with a a razor-sharp focus on just one story, one idea, one aspect of your business.
  • “Pieces without a beginning, middle, and end don’t work.”
    In business blog writing, for the opening, you may choose to present a question, a problem, a startling statistic, or a gutsy, challenging statement. Later, on the “back end” of your post, your “pow” closing statement ties back to the opener, bringing your reader full circle.
  • “Editing and revising is the hard part, but it is important. Work with language and imagery.”
    The second hardest part of blog writing is cutting your own work down to size, cutting out the non-essentials.

  • “Readers must be made to think and talk about what you’ve told them.”
    For blogs, the “first take” message is crucial, showing online readers they’ve come to exactly the right spot to find the information they need.

  • “Choose three words at random and weave them into a story.”
    Blog readers tend to be scanners, and searchers will select the most important words, the ones relating most directly to what they came online to find in the first place. Choosing those keyword phrases should hardly be random, instead being the result of research about your target audience.

  • “Find your ideas in weird sources.”
    In order to create a valuable ongoing blog for your business, it’s going to take equal parts reading and writing.You need to keep up with what others are saying on your topic, plus keep up with your marketing and selling skills, as well as finding unusual or little-known facts that you can use to to explain your own (or your clients’) products, services, and culture.

“Flash fiction attempts to condense a story into the fewest words possible, telling big, rich, complex stories quickly and concisely, Catherin Sustana writes in ThoughtCo. Marketing.  blog posts, while not fiction, are a means of providing readers with valuable information, and doing it “in a flash”.

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In Each Post, Remember the Raison D’Etre

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“The first thing I do when I create a magic effect is forget about the method,” says Joshua Jay in How Magicians Think. “How it works comes later.” In fact, the last part of developing the trick will be the hardest, Jay says: its raison d’etre (reason for being). Why am I doing this in the first place? “I’ll cut this rope in half and put it back together…I’ll float this silver ball in front of a cloth.” Why? Who cares? The best magic, Jay says, has an emotional hook: “I’ll show you how to win when you play blackjack.” (Now they’re interested!)

Sure, the overall purpose of performance magic is to entertain. But what fascinated me as a Say It For You blog content writer was Joshua Jay’s central thesis: Each trick (each blog post) must have its own reason for being or raison d’etre.

What’s more, “great magicians don’t leave the audience’s thought patterns to chance,” Jay says. You might not suspect that he has a pigeon tucked into his right sock, but then again, why would you? In this sense, the author explains, magic is a collaboration between the magician and the audience. When it comes to blogging, Dan Roam’s book for speakers, Show and Tell . is helpful. As presenters, the author says, we need to ask ourselves: for this topic, for this audience, and for myself, which truth should I tell?. Roam suggests presenters ask themselves the following question: “If my presentation could change them in just one way, what would that change be?”

As blog content writers approaching our reader audience, what are we trying to accomplish in this one blog post? Is it:

1. changing their information, adding new data to what they already know?
2. changing their knowledge or ability?
3. changing their actions?
4. changing their beliefs, inspiring them to understand something new about themselves or about the world?

As you begin each blog post, forget about the method. What’s the raison d’etre?

 

 

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Your Blog is Part of Your Customer Feedback Loop

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According to one Forbes study, 86% of consumers will actually pay more for a better customer experience, Devin Pickell, writing for helpscout.com, reminds business owners and practitioners; one of the best ways to put your customer first, Pickett urges, is implementing a customer feedback loop. Constantly collecting feedback from customers and readers and following up on that feedback allows you to improve areas causing user frustration and do more of what’s working well. Customers need to “feel heard”.

Agreed. As part of the business blogging assistance I offer through Say It For You, I’m always talking to business owners about their customer service.  The challenge is – EVERY business says it offers superior customer service! (Has any of us ever read an ad or a blog that does NOT tout its superior customer service?)  Fact is, individual blog posts can become a valuable part of each content writing client’s own customer feedback loop.

  •  Blog content should include stories specifically illustrating why your company’s customer service exceeds the norm.
  •  Surveys and self-tests can be used in blog content to find out what negative, “pet peeve” experiences may have caused reader to contemplate changing providers.
  • Messaging must offer the opportunity for personalized service – both before and after a purchase (yes, even in the online product purchase world of today).
  • Customers value the ability to gain new insights and learn new skills. Blog posts that take the form of tutorials and step-by-step instructions tend to be valued by readers.
  •  In Journalism 101, I was taught to “put a face on the issue” by beginning articles with a human example  A case study takes that personalization even further, chronicling a customer or client who had a certain problem or need, taking readers through the various stages of how the product or service was used to solve that problem. What were some of the issues that arose along the way? What new insights were gained through that experience, on the part of both the business and the customer?
  • The navigation paths on your blog site had better to be “easy to digest”. I caution new clients. You may have hired us for business blogging assistance, but keep thi important factor in mind: At the very moment that an online reader decides they’re ready to learn more, that they have a question to ask, or that they’re ready to take advantage of your products and services, you must make it convenient for them. They may want something, but not enough to spend extra energy to find it!

Whether you use survey tools, life chat, social media monitoring, or analytics tools, HelpScout reminds owners, what’s important is that you actually collect feedback so that you know what you’re doing well and what to improve upon.

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Blogging One Aspect at a Time

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Latest trends
“Make your first blog post all about the latest trends for the coming season and you’ll be providing relevant content,” George Todorv of Thrivemywaycom tells wanna-be fashion bloggers. In fact, whatever your industry or field, blog readers are likely to enjoy learning about current trends. A recent issue of The Old Farmer’s Almanac mentions “flavors we’re craving”, including maple syrup with edible glitter and flash-frozen cups of coffee. In the field of home décor, the Almanac mentions walk-in closets being converted to offices, and multifunctional, flexible rooms. Using your business blog to describe recent trends is especially appropriate for businesses in industries undergoing changes – new legislation, new discoveries, new technological advances.  But, whether your topic is clothing, food, or interior design, readers like to feel “in the know” about what’s popular.

How-tos
“Articles about how to upcycle clothes and use them to create new outfits will always go down well,” Todory continues. In fact, as Neil Patel observes, more than one billion Google searches per day are in the form of a question, so outlining all the steps a reader needs to accomplish what they’re trying to do is a great blog content tactic.

Ideas, concepts, and opinions
“Talk about sustainable vs. fast fashion and you’ll be connecting with what people want,” Todory suggests, alluding to the variety of styles and approaches in any category of business. In fact, blog posts, to be effective, can’t be just compilations of even very useful information. It is opinion that humanizes a blog and differentiates a business, professional practice, or organization from its peers. One aspect of blogging is to put your own unique slant on best practices in your field.

In the news
“Use your fashion blog to deliver a commentary on the latest styles on show at places like Paris Fashion Week and the Met Gala”, Todory suggests, alluding to the tactic of tying blog content to current happenings in the community and beyond, showing readers that you’re “with it”.

These are just four ideas from the list of 21 different types of blogs Thrivemyway mentions. As we well know at Say It For You, there are dozens and dozens more. Just remember to blog one aspect at a time!

 

 

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