Say It For You Reads Around – Part Two

This week, I’m using my Say It For You blog posts to share ideas I got from “reading around” in a few of my favorite tidbit-type books. That’s because one sure-fire strategy for idea generation, I’ve found, consists of scouring other people’s blogs and articles, magazine content – and books. That strategy seems to work no matter what business, what professional practice, or what organization you’re blogging about.

Part of learning how to write a blog, I explain in business blogging training sessions, is offering usable, interesting information. On the one hand, the information needs to be highly relevant to the reader’s search.  On the other hand, how can you sustain blog content writing over long periods of time, yet avoid dishing up the same-old, same-old stuff?  The trick, I think, in corporate blogging for business, is to find lesser-known information that can add interest and demonstrate the business owner’s or professional practitioner’s special expertise.

One of the chapters in The 5 W’s: Why? by Erin McHugh offers an answer: use the famous and the less-famous.  Mchugh lists inventors with whom all of us are familiar, such as Isaac Newton, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Alva Edison. But in addition to listing the invention for which each man is best-known, the author lists the less well-known accomplishments of each..

Readers all know that Isaac Newton discovered the laws of gravity.  Few know, however, that Newton invented the reflecting telescope.  Readers already associate Eli Whitney with the cotton gin, but seldom associate Whitney with the inventing of mass production principles.  Stories of Benjamin Franklin’s experiments with lightning are legendary, but did you know he invented bifocals? Were you aware Edison invented the mimeograph machine?

For anyone providing blog writing services, the ability to accomplish two goals in each blog post can make the difference between engaged readers and those who bounce quickly away, having found nothing new and exciting.

• Establish common ground, confirming to readers they’ve come to the right place to find the products, services, and information they need, and that the people in this company or practice are knowledgeable and passionate.
   
• Offer lesser-known information, adding a layer of “new” to themes you covered in former posts, or perhaps a new insight you’ve gained about that existing information.

As a professional ghost blogger, I continue to use reading around to help me illustrate points about my topic.  How can you put your own reading around to use, combining the old with the new  to tell the story of your company, your practice, or your organization?