A Case In Point In Your Blog

For online searchers, nothing beats landing on a blog that has just the information, the products, and the services they were looking for. That’s doubly true when readers get the “people like me” effect, convinced they’ve come to the right place to talk with business owners who understand their needs.

I think that’s why, back in Journalism 101 class, we were taught to “put a face on the issue” by beginning the article with a human example  A story about rising food prices, for example, might begin with “Susie Hellenbecker’s putting things back on the shelf. With the price of cereal and fruit so high, she’s decided there’s no longer room in the budget for those, or for her favorite salad dressing.” 

Stories of all kinds (“case studies”, customer testimonials, famous incidents from the news, Hollywood, folklore – you name it) help personalize your blog post and add to the “rainbow connection” atmosphere. Even if your professional ghost blogger is doing most of the writing, employees and customers can provide anecdotes with which readers can identify. And, if someone writes a great comment on one of your posts, turn that into a story, too! There’s nothing like a good anecdote to drive home a point in your blog.  If you don’t have a true tale that’s a perfect fit for your message, try Anecdotage.com.  You’ll find thousands of funny stories about famous people on this website.

Let’s say, in my Say It For You blog-about-blogging, I want to stress how important it is to properly attribute any material that isn’t yours to its proper source.  Here’s a “case in point” I can use to help blog readers relate to that idea:

         Famous financier Otto Kahn, known for his patronage of the Metropolitan Opera, saw a sign hanging above a run-down store: ABRAM CAHN, COUSIN OF OTTO KAHN.          Kahn’s  lawyers threatened the owner with legal action.  Several days later, Kahn personally visited the store to see if the offending sign had been removed.  In place of the old sign was this one: ABRAM CAHN, FORMERLY COUSIN OF OTTO KAHN.

Another anecdote on the site is from baseballer Yogi Berra: "If the people don’t want to come out to the park," Berra once philosophically declared, "nobody’s gonna stop them."

No need for that philosophical attitude. With all the engaging, fresh content you’re putting in your posts, readers are going to want to come out to your blog!