Things-You-Don’t-Know-About Blogging For Business

Of all places to find an example of good business blog writing strategy – the Hot Hollywood section of a women’s magazine I picked up at the hair salon! But that’s just where I found myself reading Cheryl Hines’ “25 Things You Don’t Know About Me.”

Strange thing is, I’ve never even seen an episode of " Suburgatory", and what I didn’t know about its star was – well, everything.  As someone who provides blog writing services in Indianapolis, though, I realized how compelling it can be when someone offers to share stuff-I-don’t-know-about information.

On the face of it, it seems elementary – the first rule for how to write a blog is to share information about the business or about the professional practice or organization. In fact, the very purpose of the blog content is to showcase the accomplishments of the business or practice and the products and services it brings to customers.

But the Cheryl Hines title promised more than that – it offers to make readers privy to “special”, personal, little-known information. The insight I had was that, whether you’re doing business-to-business blog writing or writing SEO marketing blogs for a professional or a retail business, taking online searchers “behind the scenes” makes for content that is more compelling.

And, with business blog writing being generally shorter and less formal than websites, blog posts are the perfect vehicle for showcasing not only the business, but the history and the personalities of the people who implement that business’ or that practice’s unique approach.

Blog posts, I teach in corporate blogging training sessions, should include stories about how you solved client problems in the past and lessons you've learned that you'll be applying for the benefit of new customers and clients. Taking it even further, sharing early struggles and early mistakes can help readers identify with the humans “behind the curtain”.

Awhile back, I wrote one of these Say It For You posts about a Columbus restaurant named Schmidt's. I’d learned that the restaurant is run by the fifth generation of the Schmidt family.  That's exactly the stuff a good blog would share, I emphasized, including interviews with the oldest and youngest living Schmidts (complete with photos).  A skilled freelance blog writer would share tales of early Columbus days when the Schmidt German settler ancestors first arrived. 
 

Different kinds of online content writing, to be sure, appeal (or not) to different types of readers. Truth is, I have little practical use for the fact that Cheryl Hines sometimes buys a candy bar at the 7-Eleven and then splits it with the clerk, or even that she claims I’d want her on my team for Charades. Still, I’ve got to admit – after reading those 25 very human, very personal pieces of info I hadn’t known about her, I am far more likely to check out Suburgatory!