Tottoms For Burgers And Blogs

You wouldn’t imagine Food Network would have much to say that’s useful for business bloggers, but, as I found out, you never can tell. An entire Food Network episode last week was devoted  to hamburgers and the business of marketing them.  The show was called “Heavyweights”, because it traced the history of McDonald’s and Burger King and of the competition that has been escalating between those two hamburger chains for decades.

In describing the Big Mac, one of McDonald’s signature products, the show host coined a term – “tottom”.  Alluding to the three-part sesame seed bun used in each Big Mac, she explained that the middle piece of bun (it’s not a top or a bottom – it’s a “tottom”)  is what holds the whole sandwich together.  It’s actually the "tottom" that keeps the patties, the lettuce, the cheese, the pickles, and the onions from sliding over the special sauce and falling out. 

Blog posts typically include several different “ingredients”.  A good post will include some valuable information about the subject the searcher was asking about, perhaps some interesting tidbits that most people don’t know. There might be a “marketing” element to the post, where the writer is explaining that he or she has a unique approach to the problem that might be more satisfying to a customer than the solutions offered by competitors.  Then there should be some form of Call to Action, something the reader can do to get more information, obtain service, or buy the product. 

Whatever the ingredients of that blog post, it’s the “tottom” that holds it all together, just like that middle slice of bread in the Big Mac. With a blog post, the “tottom” is the unifying idea, and each and every blog post needs to have one.  That way, your readers’ interest doesn’t ‘slide away”, and they always know where you’re headed with the blog.

For hamburgers or blog posts, you can have lots of different elements at the top and at the bottom and all the way through, but it’s the “tottom that holds it all together!