More This, Less That in Corporate Blog Writing

Whether in lifestyle choices or blog writing for business, some simple additions and subtractions can make for a healthier result. In “More This, Less That”, Readers’ Digest tells us that adding peppermint, veggies, and yoga to our lives will do us good, while adding long hours at our job can raise our odds for a heart attack.

So, from the point of view as a professional ghost blogger providing corporate blogging training, what do I think are the blog writing “more-this-less-that” parallels to those lifestyle recommendations?

More focus, fewer words.
Eating smaller servings is certainly a favorite recommendation by nutritionists.  Even in meeting planning, says Kristen Arnold, president of the National Speakers Association, “there’s a global trend towards fewer and smaller meeting with more focused content.” When it comes to blog content writing, sticking to one main idea per blog post keeps the content tightly focused.

More examples, fewer claims.
A liberal sprinkling of testimonials and anecdotes in blogging for business gets the point across more poignantly than all the claims you can muster. Careerbuilder.com warns against using words that are “unsupported claims of greatness” instead of accomplishment-based statements. Showing, rather than crowing, will get you’re a lot farther in blog content writing.

More care, less scare. (More “we believe”, less “we offer”.)
Blogging is the perfect vehicle for “being yourself”, expressing the passion business owners have for their work. I teach content writers in Indianapolis to blog in answer to the question, “If you had only 10-12 words to express what value you want to bring to clients and customers, what would those words be?” 

Less SEO, more flow.
One of the obvious business motivations for maintaining an SEO marketing blog is to draw traffic and meet “strangers” who need what you know and what you have but don’t know you. Still one of guidelines I stress in offering business blogging assistance is that the content isn’t likely to get read unless it’s readable.  The sentences must flow naturally and conversationally, (Strings of keyword phrases tied together with prepositions are unlikely to win you friendsl).

“Real” and “fresh” may be qualities as important in corporate blog writing as they are in nutrition and lifestyle!