Indianapolis Blogger

 “Your age is your business; your face is my business,” is the mantra for Lisa Nesbitt, director of Mary Kay Cosmetics in Indianapolis.

There’s a similar relationship between me and my Say It For You clients. You’re a business owner or a professional practitioner (doctor, CPA, attorney).  The products and services you offer are your business. As your professional ghost blogger, conveying your message to online readers and clients is my business.

Most business owners and professionals are clear that the potential benefits of corporate blogging are substantial, but for one (or sometimes all) of three reasons, they haven’t been able to make their blog keep happening: no time, no motivation to make it a priority, no talent to apply to business blogging.

This using of professional copy writers to create business blog content, is it smart business?, asks Robin Hale of writers-elite.com, answering her own question in a decisive affirmative. In fact, without delegating the task of bringing your voice and your brand value to a target audience, she warns, you “can’t expect to grow beyond the limited number of tasks you can accomplish on your own. Ghost writers, bloggers, and even ghost tweeters are valued resources that will clear your plate and allow you to further carry out the plan and growth of your business,” she adds.

Does that mean those making use of a business blogging service provider can take the attitude of “Wake me up when it’s over”?  Of course not, as I stress to business owners in the course of Indianapolis corporate blogging training sessions.

Mary Kay asks its customers to select the statement that reflects how they like to express their values:

• I go for earthy shades that reflect nature and add a soft hue to my natural skin tone
• I like a polished look overall with shades that enhance my skin tone
• I like to play with vivid colors that contrast with my skin tone.

Based on the client’s own unique tastes and preferences, the cosmetic professional creates the palette. In similar vein, whenever I’m sitting down with business owners as we’re preparing to launch their SEO marketing blog, together we select several recurring themes or blog leitmotifs to appear and reappear over time in their blog posts. The discussion centers around their expertise and their knowledge of their target market.  I and my writers are merely converting those discussions into business blog content.

The interesting thing I’ve found over the years of business blogging is that the very exercise of thinking through the themes and the ideas for the blog helps train the business owner or practitioner to articulate those same things when they’re talking to their customers!  I call this “magic” the “training benefit” of corporate blogging. In a very real sense, as I handle the blog content creation that is my business, it helps you do your business better!

“Did you know that…?” can be four winning words when starting a conversation – or beginning a business blog post. 

After all, when a business owner (or a professional ghost blogger writing on her behalf) shares a little-known fact about an everyday thing, not only does that showcase the business owner’s expertise, it can bridge gaps and break down barriers. 
 

Why? Tidbits are “neutral ground”, and readers tend to drop their resistance and their fear of “being sold”.

In corporate blogging training sessions, I encourage Indianapolis blog writers to use etymology, (the history of words), to offer interesting information relating to their industry. A florist, for example, could take a tip from Richard Lederer’s piece in the Mensa Bulletin about the anthology of flowery words.

As a homeowner, for example, I’ve looked upon dandelions as weeds. Still, I was fascinated to learn (there’s the “Did you know that…” effect again) the English used to call the yellow, shaggy plant a “lion’s tooth” because of its jagged, pointy leaves.  The French translated “lion’s tooth” into “dent-de-lion”, which, said with an English accent, becomes “dandelion”!

Internet vocabulary has evolved with such speed, its etymology is on steroids. One tidbit I’m fond of sharing with Say It For You clients is (did you know that…?) before the term “web log” became “blog”, writers would refer to their work as “zines”? Today, there are kittyblogs, anonoblogs (anonymous), miliblogs (military), kittyblogs (about cats), and even splogs (spam blogs).

Etymology impacts SEO marketing blogs in more ways than one. As an Indiana blogger working to help clients "win search", I realize that not only may online readers not know the name of my clients’ business, they may not even know the correct terminology for the product or the specialized service they need! All those readers can do is describe the desired result, or resort to “kadigans” such as thing-a-ma-bob or whatchamacallit.

Business blog content writers can anticipate that very problem, working from back (the history and etymology of business terms) to front (the end results that buyers can anticipate).
 

 Whether you’re trying to get your home ready to sell or trying to get a start on corporate blog writing for your business, you’re sure to hear a lot of advice about keeping things “fresh” and “new”. 

Well, paint and flowers may do it for curb appeal, but, when it comes to business blogging, it’s not so easy, is it? In corporate blogging training sessions, I'm constantly hearing that the biggest challenge business owners face is sustaining their SEO marketing blogs over long periods of time.

I couldn’t help relating that dilemma to a humorous Reader’s Digest anecdote I came across the other day:

 My 85-year-old uncle and his wife were sitting quietly in their living room, each in their matching recliners.  After a while, my aunt asked, “How come you never  talk to me anymore?” My uncle replied, “I told you everything I know a long time ago!”

“A simple technique to update the look of your shop is to move things around,” says Karen Lee, “captain” at EcoEtsy. “Take a few items that are hidden away on page 4 of your listings and move them up to the front page….Shift items from the bottom of the page up to the top. Tweak descriptions,” Lee advises. “Seasons change, and so do trends…  Every so often, ensure descriptions are up to date and relevant for shoppers.”

 Indianapolis blog content writers can use the same tactic by calling attention in a business blog to “old” information that hasn’t been highlighted for awhile, reminding readers of an “old” point, but presenting it in a new light.

While building a loyal reader following is a result to be desired, most Say It for You corporate blogging clients, particularly in the early to middle stages of a business blogging initiative, want business blogging help focused on two business goals:  Getting “found” and getting their cash register to ring. That translates into content that is not pnly interesting and engaging, but which immediately conveys the message to online searchers “You’ve come to the right place”, then offers them alternative Calls to Action.

Two of the “8 Tips for Improving Your Memory” offered by PsychCentral’s Editor-in-Chief John Grohol are worth passing along to Indianapolis blog content writers:

“The more senses you involve, the more strong a memory becomes.” Basic information about your business, material you’ve presented again and again in earlier business blog posts, can assume new power when you relate that content to different sounds, sights, or smells.

“Organize it.” Presenting material you’ve discussed before, but organizing it differently, can make a big difference.  Some formats to try:

• Question /answer
   
• Alphabetized lists and glossaries
   
• Surveys
   
• Relating to news items

Sometimes, after months and years of composing content, we business blog writers can feel like that elderly uncle in the Readers’ Digest anecdote –we’re told them everything we know a long time ago. But by adding a few new items, rearranging some old ones, and staying alert to changing vocabulary and trends, we can keep our blogs fresh and new, never running out of things we just can’t wait to say! 
 

Super Bowl Ad Tracker calls it “an ode to the significance of manufacturing”, referring to GE’s commercial, set in a New York pub, in which a worker proudly exclaims, “We make the power that makes the beer.”

I liked the piece, too, and for some of the same reasons Ad Tracker mentions. For one thing, as a professional ghost blogger, I can see a number of parallels between creating that kind of engaging TV spot and corporate blog writing.

“The nod”:
Included in the GE “ode”, there’s a “nod”, notes Dale Buss of Ad Tracker, meaning a nod to Bud Light, official beer of the NFL. In similar vein, blog content writing verbalizes the positive aspects of a business.  Unlike traditional advertising copy, though, blogs take a softer, more “advertorial” approach, with just a “nod” towards the business’ recent accomplishment and its products and services.

Heartstring pulling:
Unlike just about every other major Super Bowl advertiser Buss explains, GE didn’t plan to use humor, but “to pull at our heartstrings instead”. That same idea is expressed by mRelevance, who see blog content writing as a chance for business owners to be real humans, not hiding “behind a slick corporate website”.

In fact, before providing business blogging assistance to any new Say It For You client, I always perform a “reality check” in the form of the following question: “If you had only 8-10 words to describe why you’re passionate about what you do, what you know, and what you sell – what would those words be?”

“Our goal with the ads was to show the pride and passion GE employees have for the products they make,” GE’s spokesperson shared with brandchannel. As blog content writers soon learn, one very important reason behind writing for business is to express that pride and passion is real time.

What about SEO marketing through blogs? Unlike giant GE, who could count of millions of Super Bowl viewers being there to discover their message, local business owners depend on blog content writers in Indianapolis to help them win search.

In the TopRank online marketing blog, Lee Olden summarizes the results of a recent survey of business owners for whom blogs are part of their search engine optimization efforts.

• 87% successfully increased SEO as a direct result of blogging.
• 54% began to see SEO benefits from blogging earlier than expected (0-3 months).

Still, as I caution in corporate blogging training sessions, blogs are not magical, guaranteed search engine ranking magnets. In fact, blog content writing should be considered just one element in an overall traditional/online marketing strategy.  In an Indianapolis pub or networking meeting, we corporate blog writers might borrow a boast from that GE worker: 

We make the power that makes the online marketing strategy!
 

“The type of insight and expertise that a blog can demonstrate is far more useful than any PR pitch you could post,” explains fellow blogger Erica Swallow.  Swallow stresses that blogs should be “repositories of analysis and opinions provided by a company’s fine employees”.

 Those of us who offer business blogging services agree.  When blogging for business reveals your unique “slant” or philosophy within in your field, potential customers and clients feel they know who you are, not merely what you do, and they are far more likely to want to be associated with you.

For that very reason, one important facet of my job as professional ghost blogger is to “interview” business owner and professional practitioner clients, eliciting each one’s very individualized thoughts. In a way, I’ve concluded, SEO marketing blogs are just extended, serialized interviews, with the reader learning from the blog posts about the  culture and “personality” of a business or practice.

But, what if the business owner or practitioner hasn’t yet formed an opinion on some important topic?  In that case, Swallow suggests taking polls and reporting on the results. And, as I teach Indianapolis blog content writers, it’s valuable to readers when you clarify and put into perspective both sides of a thorny issue within your industry or profession.

Marketing guru Seth Godin speaks of “cat blogs”, describing them as “personal and idiosyncratic”, written for purposes of self-expression or to gain converts to an opinion or cause.  And, while the type of corporate blogging for business I and my Say It For You writers produce fall within the category Godin dubs “viral blogs”, a little bit of “cat” goes a long way in “humanizing” those blogs and making them more engaging for readers.

“When consumers get helpful information from an authoritative source that has a human face, they are more likely to come back and purchase from that source,” says InteractMedia.com.

For all of the five years of Say It For You’s existence, before offering business blogging help to any company or practice, I've asked the owner or practitioner to answer a question:  If you had only eight to ten words to tell me why you’re passionate about what you do, what would those words be?”  It’s not uncommon for my clients to discover, in the course of being interviewed, that  they do have important opinions to express through blogging for business, after all!

It’s gotten to be a habit of mine - I read signs. We Indianapolis blog content writers can learn a lot from signs, I’m convinced - from how to go about engaging people’s interest, to how to fairly represent a business owner’s or professional’s mission.

One day, driving south on Meridian, I noticed a sign out in front of the Indiana Blood Center. Its message was short and sweet:

                        ”Craving cookies?  Come on in!”

Well, I’ll tell you, I’m a professional ghost blogger, and I offer business blogging training, and… for the rest of that day, I just couldn’t get the message from that sign out of my mind.

First off, the way SEO marketing blogs work was perfectly captured in the two very short sentences on the Indiana Blood Bank sign:

Through the search engine optimization process, potential customers search online for a product or service they’re interested in. Because you have a “sign” outside (the keyword phrases you’ve used in your frequently posted blog content), the search engine has “delivered” those potential buyers to your “digital doorstep”.

They’ve got the “craving”; you’ve got the “cookies”.

 You invite those customers to “come on in” by clicking on the link to your blog post.

Another good thing about that sign is the “bonus”, meaning the cookies. Jimmy Brown writes in incomeondemand.org that offering a bonus that’s both desirable to customers and easy to deliver gets prospects excited and increases the likelihood they’ll take action by buying your product or service. The Indiana Blood Bank is doing exactly that – using an incentive to get extra “sales” (blood donations).

But, arresting as the message was, and, as much as I like cookies, there’s something I didn’t at all like about the “deal”. You see, the Indiana Blood Center sign was doing something that I caution freelance blog writers to avoid – pulling a “bait and switch”.

Remember, the first thing online readers will see on your blog is its title, and largely based on that title, those searchers will decide whether to “come on in” and read your blog content. The title carries an implied promise that “what you see is what you’ll get”. In other words, in corporate blogging for business, the post needs to deliver on the promise in its title. Not that donating blood isn’t a noble cause, but no fair inviting me in on the basis of my craving for cookies, leaving out that I will first need to have my blood drawn!

If ever the Indiana Blood Center asks for Say It For You’s business blogging assistance, I plan to suggest the sign be changed to read, “Raise your sleeve if you crave cookies!”

Third on the list of three things you’ve got 118 seconds to accomplish in an elevator speech is  explaining the priorities you will deliver on, says Jeffrey Hayzlett, writing in Success Magazine.

Always on the alert for ways to convey marketing messages through corporate blog content writing, I couldn’t help recalling Hayzlett’s advice the other day.  A sign posted in (of all places) the ladies’ room in Panera Bread exemplified just such an 8-second mission/priority statement:

“Serve classic French bread and you’ll have many good friends.”

Actually, the other two Hayzlett elevator speech requisites apply to blogging for business as well:

Grab the attention of your would-be customer.
Freelance blog writers need to keep that Hayzlett motto firmly in mind.  “Aim for speed and immediate relevance,” Hayzlett cautions.  Of course SEO marketing blogs are all about relevance, because search engines will “introduce” you to potential customers based in large part on the relevance, along with the recency and frequency, of your blog content.

Describe what your business offers.
“Good, successful copy,” says fellow blogger Michel Fortin, tells the reader ‘why’ right up front.”
I teach Indianapolis blog writers to address five “why’s” in that 110 seconds left in the “elevator speech”: why you (the reader), why me (the blogger), why this (the offer), why now (the urgency), and why this price (the value).

Need business blogging assistance? Keep serving up that sort of classic blog content – you’ll have many good readers!

“A simple definition of ghost blogging is necessary,” a post by social media commentator Desiree Tunnell begins. “It is the practice of writing blog posts for others and is becoming increasingly common in the corporate world.”

When I first began my work as a professional ghost blogger, debates on the ethics of blogging for others often raged at networking meetings and seminars.  Meanwhile, of course, more and more companies were venturing into online marketing campaigns, viewing blog content writing as just another advertising and marketing function to be outsourced.

Five years and some 7,000 Say It For You blog posts later, I see the same “best practices” debate popping up in books and blogs. “Winning back time” is the way Doug Karr and Chantelle Flannery, co-authors of the book “Corporate Blogging for Dummies”, describe the big advantage for corporate executives, business owners, or professional practitioners in “hiring it done when it comes to composing, researching, and editing content for SEO marketing blogs. “Ghostblogging,” say the authors, “isn’t a dirty word, nor is it a dirty profession.”

Using the Flannery/Karr definition, the Say It For You freelance blog copywriters in Indianapolis are not “ghosting”.  True ghost writing, the authors explain, involves ghostwriters signing their work with the name of the business owner or practitioner for whom they’re writing. In contrast, I recommend posts be signed “by Susie of the ABC Company’s blog team.”

“Decide ahead of time whether you wish to disclose that you’re using a ghost blogger,” warn Flannery and Karr. “There is always the possibility of a ghost blogger being discovered.”

Zipping points, according to witty public radio host Michael Feldman, are over-used phrases he believes should be kept inside our heads and never allowed to escape our lips – or pens!

Feldman’s warning certainly applies to business blog content writing.  Sure, in Say It For You corporate blogging training sessions, I urge freelance blog content writers to use a less formal and more conversational tone.  But, pu-leeze, I’ll now add, make the Feldman “no-no” list your own, avoiding once-popular expressions such as “going forward’, “operationalizing”, and “low-hanging fruit”.

(Readers, you're invited to comment by sharing your own 'no-no" list of trite expressions!)

Lists have always been basics in SEO marketing bloggers’ tool kit, but they’ve been lists of keyword phrases and of categories. Now, having laughed my way through Feldman’s bathroom reader “What D’Ya Know?”, I plan to refer to two lists in my work as a professional ghost blogger: 

1. Keyword Phrases
2. Zipping Points

What that means is that never again, in my writing for business owners or professional practitioners, will I refer to “ramping up”, “outsourcing”, “getting your game on”, or “knowledge acquisition”, much less “manage expectations”, or “prioritize”.  No longer will I describe any Say It For You client’s product or service as a “game-changer”.

Mr. Feldman, I can tell you your list is going to be of great business blogging help. My professional ghost blogger mouth and pen (keyboard?) are “zipped up”, you will be happy to know!

“Companies have to be willing to share their points of view in their digital content,” explains Marketing News, adding that “Your point of view needs to be relevant enough to be part of a conversation that’s taking place, but differentiated enough to stand out.”

So how do we do that? is the question blog content writers in Indianapolis ask.  Think about the problem you’re solving, says Marketing News, and where that problem might take us over the next five to ten years.

To me as a corporate blogging trainer, that translates into business bloggers realizing that blogging is first about thinking, and only secondarily about putting those thoughts into words.  Maybe even more important in the case of SEO marketing blogs is getting readers to think about the issues and problems on which you’re offering information and expertise.

In blogging for business, of course, the content needs to be based on solid research into the needs and interests of the target customer.  In offering business blogging assistance to business owners, though, I explain that market research is not enough to infuse true life into the blog. Customers, I explain, want to know what you think and where you’re “coming from”; they want to know your unique slant on your industry. In short, they want to get to know you.

The first part is relatively simple. Online searchers have found your blog, and they’ve stayed long enough to assure themselves that the information they find there is a good match for their needs (you offer the products and/or services they came for). But now, those prospects still need to choose whether to become your client/buyer/patient/customer.

The questions I ask Indianapolis blog writers, then, include:

• Is your point of view clear? 
• Is that viewpoint relevant to a current need or conversation or trend? 
• Is your point of view differentiated enough to stand out? 

You might say readers need to “hear” you think!

Financial planners are into blogging these days, and the FPA Practice Management Solutions Magazine offers “20 Tips for Becoming a Successful Blogger.”

As a longtime Indiana blog content writer myself, I thought one of Gary DeAsi’s and Evan Stone’s tips was “spot on”:

“Don’t be afraid to write in tried-and-true blog genres,” they urge, listing eight types of blogs they say are proven attention-getters”.

1. Advice
2. Collections and top lists
3. Reviews
4. Predictions
5. Motivation
6. Trouble-shooting
7. Interviews
8. Editorial/ Personal reflection

Every one of these techniques can be used effectively for SEO marketing blogs. As a matter of fact, I’m inspired to challenge each of you Say It For You blog readers to come up with blog titles for as many of these categories as you can.  If you submit your best titles, I’ll publish them here, along with some tips on fleshing out those ideas to suit your own business.

Here are a few of my own title ideas for future for blog posts.  (These are designed to arouse curiosity while incorporating a Say It For You keyword phrase in each title.)
:

• (Advice)  Best Ways for Indianapolis Blog Writers to Curate OPB’s (Other People’s Blogs)
   
• (Lists) Six Smaller-Than-a-Breadbox Items to Trigger Blog Content Writing Ideas
   
• (Prediction) Why You’ll Beat the Blog Content Writing Odds in Just Three Short Months
   
• (Personal reflection)  Bolero Dancing and Blog Writing Bring Out My  Personal Best
   
• (Motivation)  Blogging for Business – You can Do It, But You Gotta have Heart!

Financial planners are in the advice-giving business; I sure hope they take this excellent advice they’ve been given about getting creative around tried-and-true blog writing genres!

When things aren’t going right in business, the natural tendency is to point fingers away from oneself – whatever’s wrong, it’s the fault of that guy or gal over there, that other department, or that other manager.” says Bill Jeffries, President & CEO of Executive Strategies International.

That’s why, in working with employees to develop high-performing teams, Jeffries insists the “senders”, (aka the blamers) come along to the sessions with their “send-ees”. Similarly, in the Israeli Defense Forces, an officer is always expected to lead from the front. The famous cry of the officer is "aharai!" (follow me).

Does all this have anything to do with providing business blogging assistance? I really think so. It doesn’t matter, in my book, whether business owners or professional practitioners are doing their own blog posting or hiring professional ghost bloggers like me to help. The blog’s message might be well-thought out, or it might even be unintentional. Either way, wherever there’s a blog, that blog is conveying the values and beliefs of the owners.  You might say blog content writing is one way of inviting online readers to “come on in” and become part of the process of bringing those values to life.

The business owner offering advice through blogging for business is, in a way, the sender. (He or she’s giving advice, issuing Calls to Action, and “driving” traffic to the website, basically assuming a leadership role.  The online reader searching for information, products, and services is the send-ee in the typical corporate blog writing scenario.

Thing is, the cry of the blogger had better be “aharai!” (the cry of leading from the front), not the cry of either salesperson or movie director. In a blog offering information about health products or services, it needs to be obvious the content writer is a believer in and user of those very products and services. What reader can be engaged in advice about stock trading when the advisor has all her money in CD’s? In corporate blogging training sessions, I stress sincerity and passion over facts and figures when it comes to SEO marketing blogs.

Freelance blog writers in Indianapolis – how many ways can you say “Follow me!”?

An “ice page”, I learned, is a web page on which the primary content has a fixed width, usually set to the left side of the window. (More flexible settings are called “jello” or “liquid”.)

Interesting. Since I train blog content writers in Indianapolis, I immediately realized that “ice” in blog writing can be a time-saving device.  After all, the primary excuse business owners use to explain why their corporate blogs have fallen into a state of disrepair (or been outright abandoned) is lack of time.

While up until a few days ago I wasn’t familiar with the term “ice page”, I am familiar with the general concept.  In fact, when company owners or professional practitioners (or the professional ghost bloggers they’ve employed to help them) express doubts about their ability to keep generating new blog content over extended periods of time, I have been introducing them to an “ice” concept which I call the leitmotif.

Effective blog posts for any company, professional practice, or organization can be planned around key themes.  (Leitmotifs are the recurring musical phrases that connect the different movements of a symphony, for example.) Those themes, like “ice pages”, are fixed ideas that form the basis for blog posts.  But around those pieces of “ice”, blogging for business means filling in new details, examples, and illustrations (the “jello” and “liquid” elements that bring variety and freshness to individual posts).

That’s why, at Say It For You corporate blogging training sessions, our discussions are not about ways to continually find brand-new ideas, but on building “e.g.’s” and i.e.’s around the business’ or the practice’s core themes.

A teacher for many years, I know that every lesson needs to be offered in a variety of formats, because students have different learning styles.  Blog writing services need to incorporate the same principle – the basic messages remain the same, but since online readers have different tastes and needs and learning styles, SEO marketing blogs must offer a variety of styles and material. 

With well-defined “ice” content as the core around which that “jello” is created, that otherwise formidable task becomes a whole lot easier for blog content writers!

Years ago, at a National Speakers Association meeting, I remember being taught to create a “one-sentence speech”. 

The idea was that anyone who’d been in the audience should come away being able to summarize in one line what I’d said; otherwise, my speech would not have been well-constructed.  Today, as a professional ghost blogger and corporate blogging trainer in Indianapolis, I apply that same “one-sentence” rule to business blog writing.

A second step, useful in both speech preparation and blogging for business, is to apply the Rule of Three.  I first heard of the Rule of Three at Toastmasters, but came across it again today in a SpeakingResource blog post. With each blog post focused on one main idea, freelance blog writers would use three points to illustrate and to expand on that idea.

Daniel Janssen of Speaking Resources suggests one possible arrangement:
 
1. An anecdote
2. Some statistics or facts
3. A personal experience

Blog content writers for a professional practice, for example, might describe three benefits readers could derive by availing themselves of that practitioner’s services.

Or in blogging for a business that sells three different versions of a given product, each of the three paragraphs might describe which situation would be best matched with each version of the product, (A company that sells a hair product with different formulas for curly hair, frizzy, or fine hair, for example, might devote a paragraph to each type).

The same concept holds true for Sapeurs in the Congo, who “wear designer clothes and serve as ambassadors for moral conduct, proper etiquette and peace” and who have very strict fashion rules, including a dictate that the perfect ensemble may contain no more than three colors.
 

From fashion to speechifying to corporate blogging – stick to the One-Sentence Speech and the Rule of Three!

In real life, chances for real “do-overs” tend to be few and far between.  Hopefully, we learn enough from our most terrible mistakes to avoid repeating them – at least not repeating them in exactly the same way.

A recent issue of Mental Floss (a never-failing idea source for me as a professional ghost blogger) related the story of one of the biggest corporate bloopers of all time – VISA.

Before 1958, credit cards had to be paid in full each month.  As Bank of America prepared to launch the first-ever revolving-line credit cards, the company asked each of its Los Angeles bank branch managers to prepare a list of customers who should definitely NOT be issued revolving lines of credit.

Uh-oh…the BankAmericards were issued only to that very group of “no-no” customers! The result – in the first few months of the program, there was a 22% delinquency rate on the new cards, and BofA lost a whopping $20 million in its first year.  Meanwhile, a PR fiasco ensued, with clergy and the press criticizing the company for fostering an “immoral” credit-based economy.

As readers of this Say It For You blog already know, the story of revolving-credit cards continues with a spectacular turnaround, with Bank of America straightening out the problems and changing the name of the card to VISA.

So, what’s my point in calling attention to this business tale gone bad, then great, in discussing SEO marketing blogs? One very important function corporate blog posts can serve is damage control.

As a reader, I enjoyed learning the BofA snafu story because that failure has turned into such a success.  I teach freelance blog writers in Indianapolis to include stories of their clients’ past mistakes and failures. Such stories have a humanizing effect, engaging readers and creating feelings of empathy and admiration for the business owners or professional practitioners who overcame not only adversity, but the effects of their own mistakes!

What’s more, business blogging help can turn out to help with customer relations.  When customers’ complaints and concerns are recognized and dealt with “in front of other people” (in blog posts), it gives the “apology” or the “remediation measure” more weight. In fact, in corporate blogging training sessions, I remind Indianapolis blog writers to “hunt” for stories of struggle and mistakes made in the early years of a business or practice!

Remember the old alchemists who turned junk metal into gold?  When it comes to blogging for business, mistakes and struggles can be “golden” content for blog posts!

Long before corporate blog writing became the centerpiece for conveying a business’ message to potential customers, none other than poet Walt Whitman understood the importance of connectivity in SEO marketing blogs.

“To have great poets,” Whitman asserted, “there must be great audiences, too.”

As I consistently stress when offering business blogging assistance, blog are not only for reading, but for acting, reacting, and interacting. In other words, in the world of corporate blog writing, it’s not enough to be a “poet”.  You have to have readers.  “Your personal brand visibility is made up of your search engine ranking and how many eyeballs physically see your content each day,” explains Chad Levitt (quoted on P. 150 of Branding Yourself).

Great audiences, though, must bring more than just their eyeballs to our clients’ websites, as we Indianapolis freelance bloggers know, and being “influential” online means a whole lot more than being found.  Blogging for business has to mean business, which means “having the ability to push your followers and friends to action”, as Levitt explains, and that action needs to be in accordance with the business’ personal branding plan.

There’s more than one reason for using the blog writing process to build great readership:

Backlinks – The more links pointing back to a blog, the more importance search engines will attribute to that blog.  “Blogging is about community.  Don’t expect people to read your blog if you aren’t reading and commenting on theirs,” tweets @Justheather.  So right – leaving comments on other people’s blogs and writing about those other people will, sooner or later, Heather suggests, get them to write to and about you.

Richer content – The lesson I try hardest to impart in corporate blogging training sessions is: “The more you know, the more you can blog about”.  Business content writing in blogs is the result of a lots of reading and listening on the part of the blogger.

Decades ago, poet Walt Whitman knew that a key element in effective poetry writing was the cultivation of great audiences to enjoy that poetry.  The right kind of readers – (those with an interest in your topic who value your products and services and are willing to pay for them), are the “great blog audiences” every business owner and professional practitioner wants to attract!

“If they’re in your session, they’ve already drunk the Kool-Aid,” explained well-known humor speaker and coach Bill Stainton at our most recent National Speakers Association of Indiana meeting.  Stainton was offering a tip to conference “breakout session” speakers, but he might well have been coaching content writers in Indianapolis.

Conference attendees who choose to attend sessions titled “Better Employee Relations”, “Applying the New Federal Regs on Manufacturing”, or “Orange Growing in Your Own Back Yard”, for example, already have an interest in one of those topics. The point Stainton was emphasizing to us speakers is that in such a situation, long introductory remarks are superfluous;  the session leader needs to get to the heart of the matter straight away.

As a professional ghost blogger for business owners and professional practitioners, I realized that breakout sessions at a conference are an almost exact parallel with corporate blogs. If readers have arrived at your business blog, it’s because they already have an interest in your topic – they’ve already “drunk the Kool-Aid”, and are ready to receive the information, the services, and the products you have to offer. It’s now up to you to assure those visitors, through the words and pictures in your business blog content, that they’ve come to precisely the right place to get what they’re after.

In any talk, not only a breakout session but even a keynote address, Stainton explained, the first five minutes must be indicative of what the audience can expect. What will be the format and presentation style (humorous/ serious, questions welcomed/questions held to the end?) and “stance” (problem-solving/ informational/motivational?). The audience will go along with any number of different approaches, but they want to know “the deal”, meaning what they should expect.

When I’m offering corporate blogging training sessions to business owners and their employees, or talking to freelance blog writers, I’m telling them the same thing.  It’s just that a couple of seconds, not five minutes, describes the “window” of time blog content writers have to “get indicative” and capture readers’ attention.

Yes, online readers who arrive at your business blog may have already tasted the Kool-Aid and apparently are interested in more of it.  Your task is to keep them engaged with valuable, personal, and relevant information, beginning with the “downbeat”,(which is my term for the first sentence of each post).

Yes, those visitors are drinking Kool-Aid, and the only question remaining is – will they be drinking your brand?

“All bloggers would like to get more interaction and participation from their readers and visitors,” says vandelaydesign.com.  (As a blog content writer and corporate blogger trainer in Indianapolis, I found nothing new in that observation.)

Imagine my delight, though, to learn that, aside from the obvious conclusion that engaging readers through our business blog writing helps increase the response to our Calls to Action, we freelance blog writers may be helping protect against dementia in seniors!

Getting social, according to a 15-year study of older people in Sweden, may prevent dementia by providing emotional and mental stimulation. Subjects in a University of Michigan study did better on tests of short-term memory after just ten minutes of conversation with another person.

What are some of the ways Indianapolis blog writers can encourage more interactivity through our corporate blog writing?

Vandelaydesign.com advises displaying the most recent comments in the sidebar of your blog. In corporate blogging training sessions, I go one better by advising blog content writers to periodically compose an entire blog post around a question posed by a reader.

Two other Vandelaydesign suggestions include putting a link on your blogsite that says “email to a friend” and adding a “share on Facebook” link.

Two tactics I often incorporate into my Say It For You blog writing services include using “tests” and surveys to engage readers and help them feel they are part of a conversation with my business owner clients.

Engaging in conversation can provide mental stimulation for people of all ages. It’s nice to know, though, that memorable business blogs can help improve customers’ memory!

“Do you have to be told never to re-gift promotional items?” asks regiftable.com.

Apparently one Chinese exchange student did need to be told. The student had given his American host, N.Y.Times columnist David Brooks, a gold tie as a thank-you gift.  The tie was one that had been handed out by Gov. Mitch Daniels during a trade mission to China, and the tie’s label proudly proclaimed that fact!

It’s not that re-gifting itself is a no-no, explains regiftable.com.  In fact, the practice is gaining in popularity. But, just as with corporate blogging for business, there are certain rules of the road that all re-gifters would do well to observe. As a corporate blogging trainer. I can see parallels between re-gifting and the practice of content curation in business blogging.

Regiftable.com advises asking “Is this going to work?”, re-gifting items only to people who are not likely to see the original giver.

When it comes to blog content writers in Indianapolis, I teach exactly the opposite approach.  When you link to someone else’s comments about the subject you’re covering, that reinforces your point and shows you’re in touch with others in your field.  But you must identify and link to the source you’re quoting, so that all the readers of your blog content DO “see” the original giver!

Regiftable.com cautions re-gifters to “always spring for a new card or gift tag”.

At Say It For You, we couldn’t agree more. Merely quoting others in your SEO marketing blog adds value in the sense of aggregating resources for the benefit of your readers. Still, that’s hardly enough; business blogging service providers need to add their own “spin” to the material based on their own business wisdom and expertise.

“Never feel guilty once you’ve done it,” advises regiftable.com.

Guilty?  Of course not!  By curating or “re-gifting” content, properly attributing that content to its source, then adding our own thoughtful commentary, we professional business bloggers demonstrate our own confidence. We have something special to offer within a very competitive business environment!
 

In their new book Branding Yourself, fellow Indianapolis bloggers Erik Deckers and Kyle Lacy observe that the starting point of a personal brand campaign is the “positioning and transaction statement”. This statement, they explain, is basically a tagline, a catchy or memorable phrase or sentence that expresses the uniqueness of your brand.

In corporate blogging training sessions, I like to talk about leitmotifs or recurring core themes to which blog content writers can refer again and again.  The five-question exercise that Decker and Lacy suggest for setting up the P&T (positioning & transaction) statement can be perfect for pinpointing such central themes for any SEO marketing blog:

   Positioning:
   Who is your competition?
   How are you different (3 reasons per competitor)?
   How are you similar (3 reasons per competitor)?
  
   Transaction:
   What does the transaction look like?
   What is the end goal?

Just such a thought process leads to what I’ve nicknamed “the training benefit” business owners can derive from corporate blog marketing. (This holds true, I’ve found, whether owners do their own blogging or collaborate with a professional ghost blogger.)  The very exercise of answering the questions and thinking about your own business practices helps train you to articulate those things to clients and customers.

While the Branding Yourself authors are guiding business owners towards a one-phrase or one-sentence statement, the very same five questions they pose can be of business blogging help. In fact, the big advantage business blog writing has over ads, billboards, brochures, and even static website content is that blogs are, by definition, a work in progress.  Using blogs, the corporate mantra or professional practitioner’s message can continually be honed.

Blog posts, as we see them at Say it For You, are continuous-run positioning and transaction statements!