Archives for September 2013

When we talk about unforgettable narrators in literature, we think of Huck Finn, Patrick Bateman, Humbert Humbert and Holden Caulfield. Every story needs a dynamic storyteller, and this is no different in blog creation. The most popular blogs, corporate or otherwise, have a distinctive voice that can also thread together a variety of topics. But your brand doesn’t need to be a personality-driven one to employ a compelling narrative. Boeing Commercial Airplanes, for example, uses the knowledgable and friendly voice of one of its employees to tell the brand’s story.

For a personal and less technical touch, Boeing relies on vice president of marketing Randy Tinseth. Randy’s Journal turns what could be a dull and robotic affair of blogging for Boeing into something fun to read. Tinseth blogs about his love of travel, experiences working at Boeing and, above all, lots of cool photos of the company’s airplanes. Tinseth’s images set against the simple blog design make an enormous impact. Boeing and Tinseth know that a blog about commercial airplanes better have lots of photos of the flying machines, and Randy’s Journal delivers. Take offs, landings, stunning aerial shots, airplane assembly photos and even photos from Randy’s own travels are all here and used wisely. Original images of the behind-the-scenes action at businesses are the easiest and most dynamic ways to provide visual content for your company blog. Randy’s personal recaps and pictures from corporate events along with easy-to-follow explanations of new Boeing programs and innovations keep the blog professional without getting dull. Whether it’s a 767 or 787, Randy blogs with an undeniable enthusiasm that air travel fans and regular old blog readers alike will find hard to dismiss. Each post on Randy’s Journal casually tells the readers a bigger, more powerful story. 

And that is what great narrative is all about. Narrative is often defined as a “spoken or written account of connected events; a story.” Using a CEO, longtime employee or a business owner is an easy way to make that narrative personal. Nobody knows your brand’s story as throughly as the folks who show up there every day. But it isn’t the only way. Compelling narratives can be built by a variety of channels, some of which you are already using in content marketing. The stories of your brand can be connected through customer narratives, social media narratives and even photo narratives, like Boeing’s, to give your readers a better idea of what your company does and what its story is.

There are specific foolproof things that hook us as audience members in all types of media, time and time again. In the movies, you can’t go wrong with a heart-pounding car chase. On television, a cliffhanger is a good way to get people to tune back in. And books that seamlessly introduce new characters and story lines to be carried over to the sequels have topped the bestseller list for years. Blog writing is exactly the same. There are certain types of posts which repeatedly draw readers, are perfect for social media and help you hit the SEO jackpot. Here’s four of our favorite types of “can’t miss” blog posts:

4. Photofest: It still has yet to be proven if a picture is actually worth a thousand words, but it could be worth a thousand page views. Posts with images from company functions, snapshots of your latest products and original graphics are not only popular blog fodder, but great for linking on social media.
3. Make ’em Laugh: We’ve said it before and we’ll probably say it again — funny blogs make money. Funny or Die, The Onion, Cracked and The Rich Kids of Instagram are blogs that live to make us laugh. But you don’t have to be a professional comedy writer to infuse your posts with laughs. With great ghostwriters, any blog for any kind of business can provide a much-needed chuckle. 
2. Make a List: A friend recently confessed she started reading books more because she needed to read something “other than a list with pictures by it.” Our friend is right: Lists are everywhere (hey, you’re reading one now) and their popularity isn’t waning anytime soon. Five accessory ideas, 10 quick recipes, 20 energy-saving ideas… you get the idea. We heart lists and so do blog audiences. 
1. Teach ’em Something: It gives us a glimmer of hope that the No. 1 reason we read stuff on the Internet is to learn how to do something. Yet satisfying our insatiable desire to learn is not only great for the human race, it’s also terrific for our blogs. “How-to” blog posts consistently rank high in searches and can potentially have long, well-read lives. Blog posts that show how to fix something broken, repurpose something old or cook something delicious are like magnets to blog readers. Teach your audiences something valuable and they’ll be back.

If you are a small business owner thinking about using to branded blog creation to create content for your website, help your SEO and spread the word about your company’s products and services, we say go for it! Blogging is your fastest and most affordable solution to creating custom content your followers will want to read. Yet what if you feel like your company has very little to blog about — that your business is so specialized that it won’t be able to sustain an entire blog for very long? We still say go for it! Blogs like the one created by online personal management service Mint.com inspires us to widen our nets when it comes to blogging.

Mint.com was created in 2006 by tech entrepreneur Aaron Patzer and acquired by Intuit in 2009.  The site and its various apps help users track bank card, credit card, loans and assorted transactions and balances for free and from anywhere. Sounds like a great service; then again, how much can you really blog about it?

A lot, apparently. “5 Ways to Pay Loans Off Early,” “The Best Used Cars of 2013,” “How Employers Save on Telecommuting Employees” and “5 Fast and Frugal Recipes to Kickoff the Football Season” are just a handful of posts that have appeared on the Mint blog over the last few days. Mint has slyly turned its blog into a money-saving and financial trends blog that looks like a lifestyle magazine (and reads like one, too). This giant range of content, which all still falls under the bigger goal of helping folks manage their money, is now endless, thanks to a little imagination and creativity. It’s fitting that the blog’s logo calls it “MintLife.” This immediately puts the idea into our minds that this is a blog and a product for whatever life throws our way. And just like that, the door is opened for bigger and more diverse blogging topics. Brilliant!

As bloggers and small business owners, expanding the scope of our blogs is more than just a fast fix for future content. In doing so, we also expand our audiences and explore bigger topics outside of our industry bubble while giving our blogs insurance for longer lives.custom content,blog creation