Posts

Shrinking Blog Paragraphs Like a Strip of Bacon

/0 Comments/in /by

Fried bacon strips“When I see a paragraph shrinking under my eyes like a strip of bacon, I know I’m on the right track,” says Peter DeVries, American author and novelist known for his satiric wit. Paragraphs, says Richard Anderson in Powerful Writing Skills, are like rest stops, giving our eyes and minds a break before going on to the next matter.

Minimalism in blogging, I think, includes making posts readable and easier to look at, and short paragraphs are part of that. In fact, short paragraphs are part of the formula I teach newbie Indianapolis blog writers:

  • Choose one main idea as the focus for each blog post.  I call that the Power of One. (More to add? Save it for future posts.)
  • Compose an opening sentence that’s a “grabber”, so that readers just have to find out what you meant.
  • Explain, clarify, illustrate, discuss your one main point, using a few short paragraphs.
  • Issue your parting “shot”, a snappy exit line that sums up the thought you want your readers to remember. This one tip, I’ve found, can be of enormous business blogging help.

Paragraphs do not all need to be the same size, Anderson stresses.  In fact, they can be as short as one sentence or even one word. But each paragraph, with the exception of the opening one, needs to be tied in some way to the one that came before it, and each should begin and end with important pieces of information. “You don’t need to sum up what you’ve said before going on to the next paragraph; use a transition that makes the reader want to hurry on to that next paragraph,” he advises.

It’s interesting that Richard Anderson tells writers to use only indented paragraphs. “Our eyes have been trained to recognize each new indented paragraph as a chunk of new information to process”.  (In formatting business blog posts, I prefer to use block paragraphs, with the spacing between the paragraphs signaling that a new chunk of information is being presented.)

But whether you choose indented paragraphs or space-separated block format, Anderson’s next piece of advice is very valid, and perhaps particularly valid for online content: “Enormous blocks of print implant the image of a difficult subject in your readers’ minds….Generally speaking, the shorter the paragraphs and the fewer the number of ideas contained in them, the easier they are to read.”

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Bacteria Help Put Blog Content in Perspective

/0 Comments/in , /by

bacteria Biomass is what scientists use when there’s no way to do an exact count, Bill Chapell explained in an NPR radio broadcast five years ago, referring to the “fact” that The Day We Hit 7 Billion (October 31, 2011), was actually impossible to prove; it is impossible to count all the world’s people alive at any particular moment.  So, he says, the experts estimate by calculating biomass. Biomass is determined, Chapel patiently explains, by multiplying an estimated population by its members’ average weight.

Fascinating stuff, but what does biomass have to do with blog content writing? Wait…wait…wait for it – it’s all a matter of perspective. Get a load of these comparative biomass numbers:

  • Whales – 20 million tons
  • Chickens – 40 million tons
  • Sheep – 65 million tons
  • PEOPLE – 350 million tons
  • Termites – 445 million tons
  • Cattle – 520 million tons
  • Fish – 800 million tons
  • Ants – 3,000 million tons
  • BACTERIA – 1,000,000 million tons (yes, you read it here!)

When Chapell was interviewing researchers at the World Wildlife Fund in Washington, D.C. about biomass, one researcher had this to say: “Of course, within each human there are animals.  So, our own parasites outnumber us!”

We business bloggers are, in a very real way, interpreters. Effective blog posts, I teach, must go from information-dispensing to offering perspective.  Before a reader even has time to ask “So what?” we need to be ready with an answer that makes sense in terms with which readers are familiar. I call it blogging new knowledge on things readers already know.

The typical website explains what products and services the company offers, who the “players” are and in what geographical area they operate. The better websites give at least a taste of the corporate culture and some of the owners’ core beliefs.  It’s left to the continuously renewed business blog writing, though, to give readers a deeper perspective with which to process the information. The facts, those raw ingredients of corporate blogging for business, need to be “translated” into relational, emotional terms that compel reaction – and action – in readers.
Remember the bacteria, and put your blog content in perspective for readers!

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Are You Suffering Your Blog Action or Performing It?

/0 Comments/in , /by

For Or Against Signpost Showing Pros And Cons

“What is passive voice and why are we often told to avoid it?” novelist and Writer’s Workshop Senior Editor Emma Darwin asks her students. Here’s Darwin’s simple explanation:

  • When the action of the sentence is being performed by the subject of the sentence, it’s in active voice.
  • When the action is being done to the subject of the sentence by someone or something else, the sentence is in passive voice.

In general, explains Brandon Royal in The Little Red Writing Book, the active voice is preferred, because it is:

  1. more action oriented
  2. more direct
  3. less verbose, cutting down on the number of needed words.

Since one of the very purposes of business blog writing is to showcase the accomplishments of the business owners, as a general rule we bloggers need to focus on “staying active” in our content using sentences that have energy and directness.

Is there ever a time when the passive voice would be the most effective way to write? Yes, when the performer of the action is unknown or unimportant, Royal explains. “The world’s largest pearl was discovered in the Philipines in 1934.” (The discovery is important, but the discoverer is unknown.).

Let’s practice…

Choose two pieces of information about your business or practice. First, select on where you or one of your employees performed a special service. Write an active voice sentence about that.

Then, choose a fact that is important or interesting for your readers to learn about but which does not highlight any particular person. Write a passive voice sentence about that.

Here are my two examples from the blogging world: (Can you tell which is which?)

“6.7 million people blog on blogging sites and 12 million people blog via social networks.”

“Today blogging is used widely by businesses as part of their marketing strategy.”

Are you suffering your blog action, or performing it?

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Blogging to Bolster Your Point of View

/0 Comments/in , /by

perspektive

“Indiana is growing – but we can’t neglect transit as a quality of life and economic development priority,” Michael Huber CEO of the Indy Chamber and Steve Sullivan, CEO of MIBOR Realtor Association agree. Both are in favor of raising taxes in Marion County to improve transit  services.  Huber and Sullivan use several tactics to strengthen their argument in favor of our investing in a transit system:

Offering details and explanations of the proposed plan:

  • New rapid-transit lines
  • All-day, high-frequency bus service
  • Weekend and crosstown service
  • Tax would be an additional 25 cents for every $100 of income, less than $10 a month for the average household
  • Who will benefit? Low-income households, senior citizens, people with disabilities, healthcare and hospitality workers who have evening and weekend hours, employers who want to attract employees

Statistics:

  • Marion Country gained 4000 residents in 2015
  • Indianapolis is the nation’s 14th largest city, but our bus fleet ranks 84th
  • Brookings Institute ranks Indy as 64th out of the 100 largest metros in transit services

Motivational statements:

  • “It’s a vote to bring new investment to struggling neighborhoods…”
  • “Better service connects people and jobs, and creates self-sufficiency.”
  • “Transit creates upward mobility and independence for those who rely on it most.”

“I just do not get it,” says Mitch Roob, Executive VP of Keramida Environmental, taking a stand on the other side of the debate. “How would a train-like bus benefit more than a very small portion of the community?  Is it equitable to charge someone for a service they likely never will use or for that matter even see?”
To bolster his argument against taxing Indy residents to fund a rapid transit system, Roob employs three tactics:

Statistics: 
Dallas invested more than $8.2 billion in a system that today carries only 4% of the area’s daily work commuters
Atlanta’s transit system ridership is down 15% from 2001

Turning opponents’ arguments against their case:
“Advocates suggest that “transit-oriented development” will spur development in the proximity of the transit corridor”. If so, says Roob, transit will add value to real estate, and the incremental property tax can pay for the service.

Emotional appeal – painting a picture:
“Trains and buses are not happy places.  Somber, hurried passengers cast their wary glance away from the strangers next to them whose personal space they have inadvertently but necessarily invaded.”

Which side makes a more powerful statement.  Truth is, both articles are impactful because both sides take a stand on the issue and then use various tactics to bolster their stance in the eyes of readers. Whether it’s business-to-business blog writing or business to consumer blog writing, the blog content itself needs to use opinion to clarify what differentiates that business, that professional practice, or that organization from its peers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail

Are the Words in Your Blog as Valuable as the Products and Services They Describe?

/0 Comments/in , /by

excited young woman and boyfriend giving her ring
“The industry realized the words they used to describe diamonds were as valuable as the stones they pulled from the ground,” Alina Simone writes in “Do You Know What This Is?” in Mental Floss Magazine. Simone was discussing the DeBeers Company’s 1938 advertising blitz aimed at pulling the diamond market out of its Depression-era slump.

“On the market, a diamond is much more than a meta-stable allotrope of carbon – it’s everlasting love,” Simone explains. The reality of the situation, she adds is the fact that DeBeers stockpiled huge surpluses of diamonds, artificially maintaining high prices. Meanwhile, De Beers chairman Nicky Oppenheimer admitted in 1999 that “diamonds are intrinsically worthless.”

The Mental Floss story is focused on Diamond Foundry, a California company using an atomic oven to blast “seed diamonds’ with hot plasma, causing the crystal latticework of the diamond to extend.  Essentially, the Silicon Valley company is hot-forging, in a process that takes a mere two weeks, jewelry-grade diamonds that would take eons to form naturally.

While blog marketing is (or at least should be) more advertorial than outright advertisement, we content writers can take a tip from the DeBeers people, who put the three elements of rhetoric to work enhancing the value of diamonds in the eyes of buyers:

  1. Ethos (a form of argument based on character or authority, showing the product or service is endorsed by a celebrity or by someone in uniform)
  2. Pathos (a form of argument based on fear, desire, sympathy, or anger)
  3. Logos (a form of argument based on facts and figures)

Over the 40 years following 1938, De Beers increased its advertising budget from $200,000 to $10 million, using words to create value, selling the concept of diamonds as:

  • Forever
  • A girl’s best friend
  • A must for engagements
  •  A gift for anniversaries A perfect Valentine’s Day gift

It’s hard to imagine, writes Lindsay Kolowich of hubspot, that it’s only been three-quarters of a century since diamonds became the symbol of wealth, power, and romance they are in America today. How did N.W. Ayer, the company De Beers hired as publicists, help make that happen?  By creating entertaining and educational content, Kolowich says – ideas, stories, fashion, and trends that supported the product but wasn’t explicitly about it.

In 1999, AdAge named the De Beers slogan “a diamond is forever” “The #1 slogan of the century.

Are the words in your business blog at least as valuable – if not more so – than the products and services they describe?

 

 

 

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedintumblrmail