Business Blogs and Resumes – Sisters Under the Skin

Business blogs and resumes have a lot in common, I reflected during a recent session for Butler College of Business sophomores.  Then again, not every one of the recommendations students were given for composing resumes is a good fit for blog content writing.

“Although there’s no one correct way to write a resume,” the workshop handout begins, “there are strategies to promote your abilities and to grab a reader’s attention.” Amen to that one, I’d say.  SEO marketing blogs are all about grabbing and holding readers’ eyeballs.

Resume writing tips that Indianapolis freelance blog content writers would do well to follow include:

• “Keep sentences short’ and begin with varied action words.”
   
• “Use clear and forceful language that stresses achievements rather than duties.”
   
• “Since most employers “skim” resumes rather than read them, your resume cannot be an exhaustive list of everything you’ve ever done.”

  Each blog post needs to have a laser-sharp focus on one central idea. Online readers’ notoriously short attention span is one factor that dictates focus in blog content writing.
   

• “Quantify your accomplishments – dollars saved, dollars generated, percentage increases in effectiveness and quality improvement.”
   
• “Proofread yourself and others do that as well.  Read backwards to catch mistakes.”

On the flip side, the advice I’d offer business bloggers diverges from some of the resume-building tips:

“No personal pronouns.”

As a corporate blogging trainer, I stress exactly the opposite: First person business blog writing has one enormous advantage – it shows the people behind the posts. In first person, blogging for business can reveal the personality of the business owner or of the team standing ready to serve customers.

“Use telegraphic style, omitting ‘the’, ‘an’, ‘and’.”

While I mention in corporate blogging training sessions that bullet points in general are a good fit for blogs (notice how I used bullet points in this very Say It For You post), entire blog posts written entirely in telegraphic style wouldn’t have a natural, conversational flow.

“Many inexperienced resume writers make the mistake of cutting and pasting descriptions of their past job duties.” On this one, I’m in total agreement: Like powerful resumes, the key to powerful SEO marketing blogs is to present experiences and capabilities as accomplishments, describing the personality more than the job.