Business Blogging With Trivia

Always on the prowl for fresh content, I look for different techniques blog content writers can use to help business owners present what they know, what they do best, and what they have to sell.

Fact is, when I’m offering business blogging assistance, I talk about the need to create as much fresh material as possible.  WebInkNow explains that, in blogs, content needs to inform, educate, and entertain.  That’s a pretty tall order for busy business owners and employees.  Yet, without maintaining a system for consistently posting new, fresh content to their SEO marketing blog, the tactic cannot hold its own as part of a company’s market strategy and tactics development.

Do You Know? Ultimate Trivia is a little book I came across the other day, realizing it could offer very valuable business blogging help. Reading through those trivia puzzles reminded me of a theory I have about quizzes in general, namely that our curiosity is most intense when we’re testing our own knowledge!  That’s why I believe tests, games, and quizzes are hard to resist, including those incorporated into corporate blogging for business.

Author Guy Robinson welcomes readers by saying, "This is a quiz book with three kinds of questions:  those you know, those you once knew, but can’t quite remember and it’s driving you mad, and those you can’t answer but you’d really like to know."

Here are just a few of the trivia questions from the book and what types of businesses might use a trivia question like that in its business blog:

DO YOU KNOW WHICH?

Q: Which dates furthest back in history: Popcorn, Tulips, Cockroaches, or Elephants? 
A: Cockroaches.
Blog: Pest control company

Q. For which instrument did Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart never write a concerto: Trumpet, Violin, Bassoon, Clarinet?
A. Trumpet
Blog: Music store, Music school, Band uniform house

DO YOU KNOW WHO?

Q: Who was the inspiration for Billy Crystal’s "Saturday Night Live" character Fernando, famous for the catchphrase "You look maahhhvelous!": Sammy Davis, Jr., Fernando Lamas, Ricardo Montaban, Crystal’ s uncle Fred?
A: Fernando Lamas
Blog: Beauty salon, Cosmetic surgeon, Weight loss company

DO YOU KNOW WHAT?

Q: A garden with soil pH of 4.5 needs what for balance: Something alkaline like limestone or ash, Something acid like gypsum or sulfur, Sand, or Compost?
A: Something alkaline
Blog: Landscape company, grounds maintenance company

Busting myths, offering fascinating but very useful information, and above all allowing readers to test their own knowledge, can showcase the expertise of the business owner while using the irresistible force of curiosity.

Robinson ends his intro by saying, "In these pages, you can show your stuff, refresh your memory, and maybe learn something along the way." Much as bloggers for business want to add more things online searchers can do (click through the shopping cart, download a white paper, submit a request, BUY!), as a longtime professional ghost blogger, I’d have to say starting with Robinson’s three would be a terrific strategy for all of us blog content writers!