How Not-So-Bright Ideas Can Brighten Business Blogs – Part Two

Continuing my thoughts from last week on the subject of business bloggers learning good ideas from bad ones, here are three more "to-do’s" from the stories of the not-so-mad scientists who earned Ig Nobel awards.

Ig Nobel winners, you’ll remember, are honored for achievements “that make people laugh, then make them think.” And, while my ghost blogging clients and I may not be invited to the gala at Harvard University, I figure anything that stimulates our thinking and continues the flow of creative ideas to use in our blog posts has to be good for the cause.

Veterinary Medicine Prize
Agriculture professors from Newcastle University in England found that dairy cows called by name product 68 gallons more milk per year. It’s important, concluded the scientists, to know each cow as an individual.

Blog writing, to be effective, must be not only conversational, but targeted towards the needs of a specific audience, so that online searchers have that special feeling of “Aha! I’ve come to the right place!”

Physics Prize
Anthropologists from three universities studied the spinal columns of women to find out why pregnant women don’t tip over. They discovered that women have three wedged lumbar vertebrae to accommodate the extra weight of a baby.

Blog posts are short, informal pieces, but a small business owner’s or professional practitioner’s blog can have a hefty effect on blog marketing results.

Public Health Prize
Three inventors in Chicago created a bra that doubles as two separate gas masks to protect against radioactive particles, soot, smoke, or viruses.

Blogs are ideal multi-tasking tools, with the content perfect for trade show brochures and handouts, for inserts into packages shipped to customers, as links in email follow-ups.

Just the other day, a reader asked whether I’d mind sharing where I get my ideas for blog posts. I think today’s blog post is a great example of my answer – everywhere!  When I train business owners and employees to create blog content, I like to emphasize that at least half the time that goes into creating a blog post is reading/research/thinking time!