The 2009 annual report for the Indianapolis charity Art With a Heart is set up to resemble a children’s book. The content of the report itself could serve as a wonderful
model for the most adult among Indianapolis bloggers.
As a professional ghost blogger who trains blog content writers, I was fascinated by the Art With a Heart “What we do” page. There are two sections on the page. The “We are…” section is one sentence long; the “We believe…” section contains seven short, powerful paragraphs.
Unfortunately, I realized, almost all SEO marketing blogs appear to use a ratio that is the exact opposite, with the majority of the corporate blog writing devoted to describing “what we do”, in other words, to describing all the services and products the company or organization offers. Too little space seems to be devoted to “what we believe”.
When I'm offering business blogging assistance, I emphasize that the best website content – and the best corporate blogs – give online readers a feel for the corporate culture and some of the owners’ core beliefs about their industry and the way they want to serve their customers. Those intangibles are precisely what makes a company stand out from its competitors. Those “we believe” statements can turn out to be the business’ most powerful calls to action.
There are many details in the projects and programs offered by Art With a Heart, yet their annual report manages to express them all in one statement:
“We are encouraging Indianapolis youth through success in art.”
I’d ask business owners and the freelance blog writers who tell their stories - Can you find the one statement that expresses the core of what the business brings to the world?
Now, (I add in corporate blogging training sessions), tell me what you BELIEVE!
By the way, here are a few of the things Art With a Heart believes:
…that we can positively affect some of the city’s neediest children emotionally, intellectually, and creatively.
…that the processes used in creating art, such as planning, problem-solving, analysis, synthesis, and self-evaluation, will be used again and again by our students throughout their education.
…that the success and pride in accomplishment these students experience will develop into a desire to enhance their own surroundings…
Indianapolis blog writers composing content for businesses might challenge the premise of this Say It For You blog post. After all, Art With a Heart is a charitable organization. Can this core-beliefs-over-core-products-and-services emphasis really be as appropriate and effective when the content is about a for-profit business, with the goal being not only to win hearts, but to make the cash register ring?
Give me your thoughts.....
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Most professional bloggers are acutely aware of search engine optimization. This requires the use of key words and phrases that others will use when trying to find your content.
Although "what we believe" statements have emotional impact, they don't represent what people are actually typing in to Google. We don't pour our beliefs into search boxes. Instead, we type our goals.
Furthermore, the beliefs of otherwise unrelated organizations are actually quite similar. Good companies and non-profits should be characterized by honesty, integrity, ethics, commitment, customer service and other positive qualities regardless of industry. That makes it difficult to differentiate them on search results.
I don't think that bloggers can aggressively adopt this point of view, at least not without sacrificing their search engine position.