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Motivating Others Through Our Blogs

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“Motivating others requires a connection to people’s deep desires. It’s not just about loading them up with a lot of how-to information,” write Steve Chandler and Scott Richardson in 100 Ways to Motivate Others.

Since as blog content writers, we’re trying to motivate readers to take action, what lessons can we learn from this book of 100 ways? I’ll choose just a few pointers offered by the authors that I found most relevant:

1.  “You can’t motivate someone who can’t hear you….In order for someone to hear you, she must first be heard…Tune in before you turn on.”
I remember, years ago, listening to a speech by radio host Michael Medved in which he told us that we need to listen to our clients with “three ears”.  That’s because we need to hear what they say, hear what they’re not saying, and even discern what they don’t even know how to say!

If we as blog writers can go right to the heart of any possible customer fears or concerns (which we’ve learned through deep research into our target market!) we have the potential to breed understanding and trust.

 

2   Stop criticizing upper management. “Maybe you do this to win favor and create bonding at the victim level, but it won’t work…The word ‘they’ solidifies the impression that we are isolated, misunderstood, victims.”
The authors are talking about managing employees, but the same lesson can be applied to the attitudes we convey about our competitors. Other providers are viable alternatives for our customers, and readers don’t like to be “made wrong” for checking out what our competition has to offer.

Although one approach in a business blog is comparing your products and services to others’ it’s important to emphasize the positive rather than “knocking” a competitor.  That means that, rather than starting with what the competition is doing “wrong”, use the power of “We” to demonstrate what YOU value and the way YOU like to deliver your products and services.

 

3.  “ Do the one thing… The truth is, there is only one thing to do, and that is the one thing I have chosen to do right now. If I do that one think as if it’s all I have to think about, it will be extremely well done.”
In blogging, doing the one thing takes the form of what I call “the Power of One“ –  addressing, in each blog post, one message, to one audience, targeting one outcome.

It’s here that blog posts have a distinct advantage over the more static website copy.  Each post can have a razor-sharp focus on just one story, one idea, one aspect of your business.  The more focused out efforts are on connecting with a narrowly defined target audience, the more successful the blog will be in converting prospects to clients and customers.

There are, no doubt, at least 97 other ways to motivate readers through our blogs, but these three make for a good start!

 

 

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Blog to Foster the Human Connection in the Digital Age

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??????????????????????????????????????????????Have you ever wondered why handmade items are looked upon as superior, while machine made pieces are often deemed inferior? And is that still true?

“Perhaps it used to matter if a dress was handmade or machine made, at least in haute couture, but now things are complete different,” said Karl Lagerfield at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Spring 2016 exhibition.

Not everyone agrees. Julie Heller, owner of an appointment-only designer vintage store EraLuxe gallery, admits that the scope of what makes a garment valuable is changing. As technology advances, handmade pieces will be associated with added value – mostly because, she says, of “society’s nostalgia for the craftsmanship of the past”.

Hazel Clark, research chair of fashion at Parsons, agrees. “We are seeking connection in many walks of life – including in our clothes, says.  That sense of the individual in the process is important, a sense of a relationship with the person who has made the item.

Does this discussion about creating connection relate to blog marketing? In every way. “How would most people describe their relationship with your company?” asks Corey Wainwright of hubspot.com. Is the relationship purely transactional, make you just a place they go to get something they need, or do you elicit more personal feelings? “When your audience is reminded there are real life humans behind the scenes,” it becomes easier for them to trust your product or service, Wainright concludes..

On your website and in your blog, you can get your point across really well with clear, concise, straightforward copy.  But, Wainright explains, if you can get your point across and humanize your brand, you have the potential to delight readers. Two ways, among others, to achieve that effect, he says:

  • Infuse a sense of humor into your content once in a while.
  • Publish photos of your team being themselves.

One interesting perspective on the work we do as professional bloggers is that we translate clients’ corporate message into human, people-to-people terms.  People tend to buy when they see themselves in the picture and relate emotionally to the person bringing them the message.

Blog readers may be connecting with you digitally, but it’s up to you to foster the human connection!

 

 

 

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Highlight the Team in Your Business Blogs

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“Highlighting your team is a great way to bring your readers behind the scenes and let them see the team camaraderie. This kind of transparency builds trust with your readers,” says Any Porterfield in socialmediaexaminer.  “Your team can help you keep things informal, fun and relatable,” she adds.

Since I work as a professional ghost blogger, I’ve obviously needed to abandon most of my generational bias towards long, individually composed business letters and long phone conversations and come into the world of electronic marketing tools.  But there’s a reason  I gravitated towards composing blogs rather than website copy.  In a way, blogs are the humanizing factor in the online communications family. The blogs are where you meet the people running the business or professional practice.

One interesting perspective on the work we do as professional bloggers is that we are interpreters, translating clients’ corporate message into human, people-to-people terms. In fact, one reason I prefer first and second person writing in business blog posts over third person “reporting” is that I believe people tend to buy when they see themselves in the picture and when can they relate emotionally to the person bringing them the message.

“Getting down and human” in business blogs is so important that it becomes a good idea for a business owner and professional to actually write about past mistakes and struggles. After all, it’s much easier to connect to someone who has been where you are.

It’s interesting – blogging is an essential customer acquisition tool in our increasingly web-based world, but very few business owners can spare the time to post relevant, new material with enough consistency and frequency to have much of an effect. As blog content writers, our Say It for You team is providing that service, which seems like a contradiction to the idea of the readers meeting the actual team of employees who are providing the product or service..

Not really. Even if your hired gun “ghost blogger” is doing the writing, employees themselves can provide anecdotes and information, and different blog posts can feature different employees and owners.

Humanizing the blog by bringing readers behind the scenes helps keep your company or professional practice relatable. The old saw still applies: People want to do business with people!

 

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Don’t Let Your Blog Readers Get the Wrong Idea

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Undo Red Button Correct Fix Go Back Revise Mistake Error“Sometimes, our very human fears and insecurities cause us to talk about ourselves in ways that don’t reflect the truth of who we are. We choose language that hides our strength…and this gives other people the wrong impression of us,” writes Annika Martins in postivelypositive.com.

Business blogging is one way we have of “talking about ourselves”.  And, whether it’s the business owner or professional practitioner herself doing the writing, or whether we professional blog content writers have been hired to do the job for them, we need to make sure we ”talk” in ways that give readers the right impression.

That’s because impressions matter, and, even more important, they last. I read an interesting anecdote about Abe Lincoln that illustrates the point. According to biographer Carl Sandburg, Lincoln bet a gambler that he could lift a barrel of whiskey off the floor and hold it up while he took a drink out of the bunghole. Lincoln actually did that, winning the bet.  But decades later, Stephen Douglas, while debating Lincoln, implied that Abe had a serious drinking problem!

Does this sort of thing happen today? Well, duh! “Anyone can post a bad review online and hurt your business,” observes the coauthor of the book Niche Dominance. “Business owners need to be proactive in developing their online reputation,” he advises.

There is little that you can do to get a negative online review removed, advises Ashley Bennett of instantshift. Accept it, she says, for what it is and then focus on the positive aspects of your business, putting a spotlight on your positive achievements online to displace the negative reviews. This can take a while, but start creating more listings that talk about new products, services, news, discounts, and partnerships. You can do this via social media posts, blog posts, or even press releases.

Every feedback, whether negative or positive, comes from somewhere, says Donald Latumahina of lifeoptimizer.org. Something you said or did made the person react this way. Is there any truth behind it, and would this be an alternate perspective you missed out originally? Is it something you should look into?

When I’m helping business owners and professional practitioners craft their messages, damage control can become a very real issue. As a corporate blogging trainer, I know how crucial it is for them to convey to their customers, as well as to the online searchers who are their prospects, the kind of message that will alleviate mistrust and create confidence. Blog posts, I believe, are especially valuable tools when it comes to “impression” challenges.  Blog content is current, talking about “now”, not “then”. Plus, customers’ customers’ concerns and fears are being dealt with out in the open, “in front of other people”. That gives the remediation more weight with readers.

Don’t let blog readers get the wrong idea about you or your company or practice.  Not for long, anyway!

 

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