Putting Your Business Blog’s Most Flattering Face Forward

“New research shows that the left side of the human face is generally more appealing to others than the right side,” psychology professors Schirillo and Blackburn found. Why? “Results suggested that posers’ left cheeks tend to exhibit a greater intensity of emotion, which observers find more aesthetically pleasing”.

That’s a fascinating finding, Huffington Post remarks, but does the study yield a practical take-away message for people who want to look their best? Yes, says Dr. Schirillo: "Practically, people should turn slightly so that they show more of their left than their right cheek when being photographed."

As a content marketer and corporate blogging trainer, I find this right-side/left-side research fascinating, too.  More important, I can find more than one practical take-away messages for us Indianapolis business blog content writers.

The Nielsen Norman Group did their own study on how users read web pages, finding that users often use an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe. First, users read horizontally across the upper part of the content. Next, they move down a bit and read across again.  Finally, users scan the left side in a vertical movement. The take-away? The title and first ”pow” sentence of blog content are of crucial importance in readers’ split-second decision to read more or “bounce”.

Exhibiting emotion in content marketing is a good thing. In fact, emotional impact is an essential ingredient in all good writing.  Brandon Royal, author of the Little Red Writing Book, comes back to that concept again and again. We need “close-ups”, he says, for emotional connection and impact.

Are you putting your business blog’s most flattering face forward?