Blog Content Writers as SME’s

“You do not want to be a product or service in search of a need,” warns Jack Kwicien in Employee Benefit Advisor. So, what DO we want to be?” blog content writers in Indianapolis might ask.  “You want to address a critical need and be perceived as subject matter experts,” explains Kwicien.

According to About.Com, “a Subject Matter Expert is an individual who understands a business process or area well enough to answer questions from people in other groups who are trying to help.” Actually, the term SME (pronounced “smee”) is not new to me: When I was a developmental editor for Pearson Education, the course writers would turn to the SME’s for specialized knowledge to put into student textbooks..

I can see Kwicien’s advice being helpful not only to employee benefits providers, but to business blog writers in Indianapolis. The Think eBiz Blog agrees. “The blog should not be sales oriented…This follows the business networking notion of give and give….Provide good useful information and establish trust and credibility – sales will follow,” Think eBiz Blog concludes.

In corporate blogging training sessions, the part about providing good, useful information is one important lesson I need to get across to newbie blog content writers. I keep coming back to the idea that business blog writing should be conversational and informational, not sales-y. The fact is, readers understand you’re writing for business purposes. In fact, the reason those readers found your site in the first place is that what you sell or what you do is a good match for their needs.

Kwicien’s advice can be of great business blogging assistance.  You want to be perceived as a subject matter expert offering usable information and insights. Remember that in corporate blogging for business, the blog content itself constitutes a Call to Action!  Once readers feel assured that you know your stuff and that you care about offering good information and good service, they might be ready to take action before they even read all the way into the blog post!

In blogging for business, to work on making sales, work on being SME’s!