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6 blogging tips for people who kind of hate writing

I know you have great ideas. But they’re not doing much, just sitting there in your head.

b2b writer's block

You know you need a blog, or some kind of regularly updated content.  The problem is, you hate writing – well, maybe ‘hate’ is a strong word, but the last time you had to sit down and write more than 2 paragraphs in a row it took you all afternoon and finally you just gave up and spent the rest of the day making a fun diagram on PowerPoint.

If you’re at the point where you know you need to create content, you’ve probably got some ideas of what you’d like that content to look like – it’s just a matter of getting those ideas out of your head and into the world.

Of course, the easiest way around an aversion to writing content is simply to hire someone – they can interview you, extract all the good ideas you’ve been thinking about, and then ghost-write your content for you.  The problem is that this tends to be expensive, because anyone you’re going to trust enough to be your ‘voice’ is probably going to cost real money.

Here’s how to get as much content as you can out of your head and into some kind of format that you can use to either write some 350-word blog posts, or hand off to someone to turn into content for you without having to spend a huge amount of money.

1. Set a reasonable time limit and eliminate distractions

If writing’s not your thing, there’s nothing worse than telling yourself you’re going to spend ‘the day’ trying to do it.  Instead, just aim to do as much as you can in a 2-hour block.  Turn off your cellphone, shut down your email, disconnect the internet and send the family to the movies so you won’t be tempted by procrastination distractions.  Do give yourself a snack food and a glass of wine if that helps.

2. Pet peeves about your industry

This is an amazingly inspirational place to start when you’re looking for content ideas.  Start with everything that bothers you about the industry in which you work:  The incompetence of other practitioners; the bad customer service; the lack of regulation; the misconceptions and myths; the way the big players are ruining it for smaller players; the things that consumers should know but don’t – whatever drives you nuts.

Don’t self-censor at this point – at this point, you’re just talking to yourself.  So if you think that 75% of the other people in your industry are total idiots who shouldn’t be allowed to speak to clients, write it down.  You can edit yourself later.

3. The ways you’d change your industry

From your pet peeves, it’s a natural step to talking about how you’d change your industry if you could.  Better education, better customer service, better processes, more ethical practices – what would you change if you had the power to do so?

These could be small things that you’re already doing in your own day-to-day worklife (“I always make sure my team has continuing education opportunities”) or big things that you’d do if you were in a position of wide-reaching power (“If I was the president of a global multinational, I’d set up an ombudsman for my industry…”).

4. Keep a running list of topics

Even the best writers can struggle with inspiration – that’s why they all carry notebooks with them. Use the ‘notes’ feature in your smartphone and whenever you think of a potential blog topic, make a note.  The next time you sit down to write something, you’ll have a list of topics to start from.

5. Don’t try to be Hemingway

Many non-writers get sidetracked when they worry about spelling, grammar, sentence structure or style.  When you’re just getting started, it’s better to just get your thoughts out.  Stick to bullet points if that’s easier, and switch to paragraphs when you have a lot to say.  But don’t worry about run-on sentences and don’t stop to wonder whether ‘miscellaneous’ is spelled properly – getting your ideas to flow is more important.

6. Now you can turn on your computer and check other blogs

When you’ve run out of your own ideas, it’s okay to turn on your computer and read blog posts by other big names in your industry.  What are they saying that you agree with? What are they saying that you definitely don’t agree with?  Disagreeing with other bloggers – and offering well-thought-out reasons why you disagree – can be a fruitful area for developing your own ideas and content.

A couple of these sessions, and you may have rewired your brain…

You may never come to love writing, or find it easy to do.  However, once you’ve done a couple of 2-hour sessions to get your ideas out of your head and into a more share-able format, you’ll probably find that the ideas come more easily, because you’ve given your brain a bit of a structure in which to organize and think about them.  And that book you’ve always thought about writing may be more doable than you thought.

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IAYNS: DAKS ad with Paul and Leah Weller

Interesting ads you’ve never seen: I’m a sucker for Paul Weller

Fell down a rabbit hole tonight, which started with Noel Fielding and somehow ended up at this ad for DAKS (a brand I feel I should probably have been familiar with, but wasn’t). It’s got Paul Weller playing piano in some kind of deluxe drawing room and singing a snippet of a duet with his daughter Leah, who looks like a perfect combination of her father and mother (DC Lee). They’re both dressed (and lit, and shot) beautifully, and I found myself wondering what Jam-era Paul Weller – the hard-core socialist who thought Margaret Thatcher was the root of all evil – would have thought of this version of himself.

Come, join me down this rabbit hole:

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Are you overlooking your brand advocates?

People who are enthusiastic about your brand in real time are more powerful than a standard testimonial

Ah, case studies and testimonials.  So often discussed (in strategy meetings, marketing meetings, website meetings, biz dev meetings); so rarely done properly.

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve sat in a meeting where everyone agreed that we really should do something about developing a library of case studies and testimonials, I would definitely be driving that Karmann Ghia I’ve so often dreamt of.  On the other hand, if I’d had to pay someone a nickel for every time those case studies and testimonials have dropped completely off the strategic radar about 5 minutes after the meeting ended, I’d be sitting in some sort of Dickensian debtors’ prison.

Case studies and testimonials can be good internal exercises:  They force the organization to codify successes (and, by extension, failures), interview clients and collect feedback.  Done regularly and well, they can provide all kinds of great insight into what products/services are easiest to sell and deliver, which ones aren’t delivering a sufficient ROI or client satisfaction, and where there are gaps to be filled by additional products or better customer service.  They can be helpful sales tools, and they’re handy for RFPs, which usually have some kind of case study or testimonial component.

So why, when scarce sales and marketing resources are being allocated, do they so often fall off the radar?  Because unless they’re done systematically as part of a broader CRM strategy, they really aren’t that useful.  I’ve rarely seen a first-rate salesperson use case studies or testimonials to close a deal (it’s more likely that the salesperson will say, “Hey, call Bob at Acme – we installed their system last year and I know they’ve seen a 23% uptick in revenue” than pull out a library of case studies).  What’s more, these days most clients won’t give you permission to use their name in a case study or testimonial, which means all you can really show is disguised data or anonymous quotes – neither of which does much to instill confidence in potential clients, who know how easy it is to just make that stuff up.

I think we should think about it differently.

A written testimonial just sits there, inert until someone does something with it.  A real live person, on the other hand, is in a position to spontaneously offer case studies and testimonials to everyone s/he meets – and those testimonials have far more influencing power, anyway.

With that, I offer you this Field Guide to Brand Advocates.  This week, instead of talking about how someone should assign an intern to tracking down info for case studies, why not talk about how you can turn a few of your clients/customers into Brand Advocates?  Who knows – you may not have to worry about gathering coaxed testimonials ever again.

brand advocates

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Think of Yourself as a Chocolate Bar

Comparing personal branding and chocolate bars

Or: How to create a personal brand, even if you don’t think you’re a unique snowflake.

Comparing personal branding and chocolate bars

 

I know – just what you wanted:  Another blog post about personal branding.  But for all that’s been written and said about personal branding in the past 5+ years, I still find myself getting asked about it by people who are fantastic at what they do, but who aren’t getting the recognition they deserve because they haven’t really figured out how to build their own personal brand.

This is what I tell them.

 

Chocolate bars:
Four basic ingredients. Almost infinite positioning.

No industry has done a better job of branding a commoditized product than what the North American and British confectionery indutries have done with chocolate bars (or ‘candy bars’, if you’re in certain parts of the USA).

Fundamentally, 99% of chocolate bars are exactly the same:  Around 50g of the same four basic ingredients (chocolate, sugar, caramel and peanuts), combined in different ways.

And yet somehow we know that:

  • OHenry bars are for when you’re really hungry
  • KitKats are for when you just want a ‘break’
  • MARS bars are good energy for sporty lives
  • Smarties provide hours of amusement
  • Hershey bars are somehow as patriotic as a bottle of Coca-Cola

I find it amazing that there are so many ways to combine and package the same basic ingredients to create such distinct offerings.

 

It’s time to start thinking of yourself as a chocolate bar.

It’s my belief that anyone who takes their career seriously and is even moderately ambitious should create their own personal brand, even if they never want to start their own company or consultancy.  Being ‘known’ for something is also a great way to get ahead in a ‘regular’ career, because it helps employers and potential employers reach that ‘eureka’ moment when they realize that you’re a perfect fit for a particular role.

Spend too much time in the twitterverse or blogosphere and it’s easy to think that everyone’s creating personal brands all over the place these days. But in the real world, most people find it hard to deliver a compelling 2-sentence summary about why they’re different and better, let alone come up with a personal brand.  They know it’s important; they just aren’t doing it.

So what’s stopping them?

Most of the time, it’s that they don’t really believe that they’re all that different or special than everyone else.

“I mean, I know I’m pretty good at my job and I think I know a lot about what I do, but I’m not exactly a visionary,” they tell me.  “There are lots of other people doing what I do, and I’m not kidding myself that I’m some kind of genius.  So what would my brand be about?”

Worrying that you’re not a genius misses the point:  Branding is all about turning a commodity product into a special, premium or beloved one.  You don’t have to be a ‘genius’; you just have to position your professional equivalent of 50 grams’ worth of chocolate, peanuts, caramel and sugar in a way that makes people think:  “Whenever I need to solve [insert relevant business challenge here], I always think of [insert your name here] because s/he is an expert on [insert solution to relevant business challenge here].”

For example:  “Whenever I think about branding in the small business space, I think about Sarah Welstead because she has done such great work for other companies I admire.” (!!)

You already have a great USP.
You just don’t know what it is (yet).

Here’s the thing:  If you really are good at what you do, are committed to getting better at what you do, and are genuinely passionate about what you do for a living, chances are you’re already combining your 50g of basic ingredients in some kind of unique way – you just don’t realize it.

So ask 5 colleagues (present and past) for their input:

  • Ask your boss why s/he hired you.  What made you stand out from the other applicants?
  • Ask your manager what things s/he ‘counts’ on you to provide (interesting ideas, super-fast work, lateral thinking, etc.)
  • Ask your co-workers what they think you’re particularly good at – and tell them to include even stuff that seems irrelevant, like “Somehow you always manage to fix the photocopier”
  • Ask subordinates/direct reports what they’ve learned from working with you (this one may be the most revealing, because you may find that you’re highly respected for knowledge that you take for granted)
  • Ask a trusted client why they like working with you

You’ll probably be pleasantly surprised by the responses you get – you may be inspiring or helping people in ways you never realized.

More importantly, once you know that colleagues think of you as a reliable partner or an inspirational leader, coming up with the basis of your personal brand will suddenly become a lot easier.

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The 2-minute marketing guide to Vines

How to use Vine for marketing

Sure, Vines seem kinda dumb – until you realize Nash Grier has almost 10 million followers.

How to use Vine for marketing

I admit I’ve adopted a bit of a cynical attitude toward app-based marketing trends. It’s possible I’m just too old to keep up with every whim of the mass market, but I like to think long experience has given me a healthy dose of caution when it comes to recommending the ‘new new thing’ just because it’s the new new thing.  (I keep hearing about Snapchat’s coming marketing juggernaut, for example, but given the app’s privacy problems and general jerkiness of its founder, I have to wonder just how excited advertisers will be to get in bed with the brand.)

But I have to concede that Vine has no such problems.  The tech seems to work, it’s got critical mass, and brands are already working with Viners to apparently great success.

Vine, the two-year-old smartphone app that lets users make, share and post 6-second looping video clips.  TechCrunch reports that more than 1 billion Vine loops are played every day, and the app has spawned a generation of Vine ‘stars’, whose vines get hundreds of thousands of views as soon as they’re uploaded.

Vines present a great opportunity for marketers in both the B2C and B2B space to build awareness, engagement, and brand personality.  Here’s what you need to know to get the most out of them:

It’s not just for kids

While Vine is still most popular with the under-25 set, its ubiquity on smartphones means it’s catching on fast.  Don’t assume that your brand, product or service can’t benefit.

Encourage user-generated content

Don’t want to invest a lot of resources in a relatively new channel?  Invite Twitter followers and Facebook fans to create and post Vines based on your product, with prizes offered for community favorites.

Choose a hashtag – and own it

Vine supports Twitter-like hashtags, which are a great way to drive awareness and continuity across different social media channels.  Choose a brand-related, unique hashtag that you can use to unify and leverage your messaging, and commit to it over the long-term.

A simple app means simple messaging

Originally just a simple way to record and share 6-second video loops, Vine now offers a few features like ghosting and slow-motion, but it’s still a relatively simple app.  Which means it does best when used to convey simple, single messages.

Don’t overthink it

One of McDonald’s most popular vines is a stop-motion animation of a game of tic-tac-toe between their french fries and their fish patties.  A popular GE vine is simply Buzz Aldrin asking “Are you ready to walk on the moon?”  These aren’t Big Ideas – and that’s the point.