Cancellation Notice for Blogs

I read a lot.  If you’re a business blogger, I hope you read a lot, too.

That’s because, no matter what business, what professional practice, or what organization you’re blogging about, ideas for content are everywhere.  Only thing is, you’ve got to make you mind available in some unlikely spots to find them.

In the May issue of Discover Magazine, in the Hot Tech section, there’s a story called “Cancellation Notice.” An estimated 10 million Americans, the article reminds us, suffer from a rhythmic trembling in their hands that intensifies with action. Up until recently, the technology was focused on restraining the shaking, and the devices used were bulky and largely ineffective.  The newest technology, called Liftware, uses “active cancellation”.  In other words, it offsets the shakes, rather than trying to suppress them.

Constantly alert for ideas that can help my freelance blog content writers fill the various marketing needs of our clients, I find that mostly what’s wanted by the clients is attracting traffic and moving readers to action.  Every so often, though, we’re working as part of a “damage control” effort.

One of the themes I keep coming back to in this Say It For You blog is that corporate and organizational blogging can be used to exercise control over the way the public perceives any negative developments and to correct any inaccurate press statements.  The general concept of damage control, as fellow blogger David Meerman Scott explains, is to “get out in front” of any media crisis, rather than hiding from bad publicity.

There’s another plus to blogging a lot following some kind of negative press. Providing relevant content that is more recent has the power to supplant the negative story by “pushing down” the older content on the first page of the search engine.  And, whether you’ve realized it or not, explains John Hacker, “There is probably some negative criticism about you out there on other blogs, other websites, or even forums that you’re not going to want your potential customers to spend time reader.” Starting a blog and writing often is “one of your most valuable allies to pushing down negative search results,” he adds. 

Blogging for business takes advantage of the Liftware “active cancellation” principle.  Offset the shakes (the negative publicity items), rather than trying to suppress them!