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Consistency And Quality Content Are The Keys to Blogging Success

It takes a combination of hubris, masochism and bad judgment to write a blog post about the importance of writing quality blog posts. Reporting for duty.

Chicago web design and development company Orbit Media recently released its 8th annual blogging survey, and it is full of detailed data that should allow me to easily knock off this post fast enough to catch the opening kickoff on Thursday Night Football.

Just kidding! I am all about quality. And that’s because quality pays off. While this is confirmed by the survey, we all know intuitively that quality content has intrinsic value, whereas crap content does not. The challenge is in 1) defining what makes a quality blog post and 2) enacting a realistic strategy to produce some on a regular basis (very important!).

But we’ll get to that discussion later, about three paragraphs before I log off to go watch a little NFL action. First I want to go over blog trends highlighted by the Orbit Media survey of more than 1,000 bloggers, some of which are relatively predictable and some genuinely surprising.

It’s a big survey, so I can’t cover everything. But if you are responsible for making your healthcare organization’s content strategy a success, you’ll find some interesting trend data about SEO, traffic sources, analytics and headlines in the survey write-up by Orbit Media cofounder Andy Crestodina.

Bloggers spent 67% more time per post in 2021 than in 2014.

A typical blog post takes 4 hours and 1 minute to write in 2021, up from 2 hours and 24 minutes in 2014. Even I couldn’t ascribe this increase to improved procrastination techniques (though I’m a pro), so there’s got to be some other reason why blogs are taking longer to write. And there is…

Blog posts keep getting longer. The average is now 1,416 words.

Ebooks, anyone? I mean, seriously? Nearly one-third (32%) of blogs in 2021 are more than 1,500 words. Only 6% of blogs today are less than 500 words, versus 21% in 2014.

Which reminds me of when I attended a digital content conference in New York in 2007 or so. I vividly remember looking around the hotel ballroom and determining that there were maybe two people there who were older than me. (Full disclosure: I used an abacus in my first job.) Anyway, there was a guy in his early twenties on stage during a panel discussion who authoritatively proclaimed, “Anything over 300 words is an essay.” Combined with the demographics of the room, this purported truism made me feel rather ancient. Well, who’s the dinosaur now, Essay Boy?

This is not to conflate length with quality. Just look at this post: I’m 448 words in, have yet to say anything of substance, and there’s no end in sight! (Actually, there is an end in sight because it’s now 7:02.)

OK, enough fooling around. Time for some real value:

Bloggers who publish more frequently get better results.

Cadence matters. Nearly six in 10 (59%) of the bloggers surveyed who reported “strong results” from their work published at least weekly. This is something I’ve said before: You’ve got to publish regularly. That’s how you build an audience and raise your profile as a thought leader. To have a presence, you must be present.

What kinds of content are bloggers publishing?

“How to” articles are far and away the most popular form of blog content at 76%, followed by lists at 54%. Yet only 23% of bloggers reported “strong results” from “how to” blogs.

The biggest challenges for bloggers

Just what you’d expect: Finding time to create and promote content (53%), getting traffic and attracting visitors (49%), creating quality content consistently (39%), and creating enough content consistently (35%). All formidable challenges for which there are solutions!

Stirring, informative conclusion

Let’s focus on those challenges because the keys to quality content lie within them. To find time to create and promote content, Orbit Media suggests 1) delegate, hire and outsource, and 2) make content development a top-three priority for one team member.

Both excellent suggestions. Whether it’s someone in-house, an agency such as Amendola, or a freelancer with experience in healthcare, you need someone who can focus on the job and do it well.

As for driving traffic and attracting visitors, the first step is to ensure you’re producing quality content. One way to do that is to post blogs that include original information and research or a unique take on a high-profile problem for your target audience. Thought leaders lead, they don’t offer “me too” content.

Another way to improve your blog content is to incorporate outside voices of authority. Get a quote from a healthcare professional who’s not one of your clients. It will add credibility. Also, it always helps to have better ideas – and lots of them. Orbit Media suggests you “improve your process for capturing ideas, collecting examples and quickly starting articles.” Amendola, for example, works very closely with clients to regularly generate ideas and get the ball rolling on content production. An editorial calendar never hurts, either.

Finally, creating enough content consistently requires ownership and commitment. You’re in on a winning content strategy or you’re merely paying lip service. Being a lip-service payer is the road to mediocre results! While you shouldn’t do more than you can do without sacrificing quality, you can’t disappear for long stretches. Orbit suggests publishing a minimum of one or two blog posts a month, which sounds about right. That’s minimum!

Blogging can be an effective component of a healthcare organization’s communications strategy that makes you stand apart from your competitors. But you must be dedicated, consistent and committed to quality. That means devoting the time, money and talent necessary to do it well and support your organization’s messages and goals. 

It’s 8:17. I’m just sayin’.

Consistency, Quality Are The Keys To Winning Website Content

Smart healthcare companies invest in creating a quality digital presence, primary through their websites.  I’ve launched my share of sites over the years and can tell you that a lot of planning, debate, creativity, and effort go into every facet of a company’s website, whether it’s brand new or overdue for a revamp.

Decisions must be made about everything that appears on a website – sections, design, images, and content. Writing content for a website is one of the most challenging jobs in content creation because you are under immense pressure to grab visitors immediately or risk losing them forever. A Chartbeat analysis of user behavior across 2 billion website visits showed that 55% of visitors stayed on a page for less than 15 seconds.

That’s why every word should contribute to telling a company’s story and positioning that company as unique in its market. I know from personal experience that creating website copy is a painstaking process of writing, rewriting, rewriting, hating your life, and rewriting. You can’t just dash off website copy! But the hard work invariably pays off for companies when their dazzling new website is launched.

While many startups are happy just to get their sites live – and it is an accomplishment – others have content plans that extend beyond the launch, such as a blog page. Which is shrewd because a steady stream of original content can demonstrate a company’s “thought leadership,” the ability of its executives to understand the business-critical issues and pain points facing its customer base. Further, blogs provide an opportunity for startups to establish a human connection (podcasts also are excellent for this) with potential customers, partners and investors.

Unfortunately, many startup blogs begin with a lot of energy and enthusiasm and then succumb to the harsh realities of continual content generation. Maybe the team member who championed the blog and did the bulk of the writing got another job. Maybe the CEO or CMO are too busy to contribute the monthly posts they promised. Stuff happens.

The problem is that a blog page containing only three or four posts, of which the most recent was from two years ago, doesn’t reflect well on your company. It looks like you don’t follow through or you ran out of ideas. Worse, you’re losing a chance to showcase the thought leadership that can separate you from your competitors in the minds of potential customers. Remember, many visitors to your site are actively searching for a solution. Your thought leadership content, in conjunction with the marketing content you perfected prior to the website launch, can be the differentiator that wins business for your company.

A blog page (or a section for videos or podcasts) won’t help your business at all, however, if it’s gathering cobwebs. I would argue that no thought leadership content is better than outdated content or a threadbare page.

Indeed, many healthcare startups make a conscious decision not to create a steady stream of content for their site, opting instead to focus their full efforts on the products and services they offer. That’s a valid decision if they truly lack the internal resources or budget to sustain a quality content creation program. And I suspect most visitors to a healthcare startup’s website probably don’t judge the company based on its lack of a blog. Conversely, a thinly populated and outdated blog/video/podcast section may leave a bad impression to website visitors, who likely won’t return.

Healthcare startups don’t have to publish fresh content every day or even every week to have a successful content strategy. Even a blog post a month can help you deliver your message and raise your profile if the content offers something of value for visitors. It can’t just be generic blather that checks off SEO boxes and gives you something to share on social media. Your content should position your company as a unique voice addressing serious, specific business challenges with effective solutions.

If your company lacks the bandwidth or skill set internally to produce content on a regular basis, freelancers can fill the gap, though the quality of content producers out there can vary wildly. That’s why working with an agency such as Amendola Communications is a sensible option. A marketing/communications agency specializing in healthcare can match the right writer to the right client, increasing the odds that the client’s content strategy pays off.

Website content isn’t easy and it isn’t free. But it can be incredibly valuable if it helps raise a company’s profile, which can attract customers, the media, and investors. Consistency and quality are the keys.

Champing at the Bit over the Correct Use of Idioms: Its Just Good PR

All languages employ idioms, or phrases that have a figurative meaning that goes beyond the literal use of the words and English is no different. In fact, the English language includes an estimated 25,000 idiomatic expressions such as “breath of fresh air” and “clean bill of health.”

We commonly use idioms in business and in marketing and public relations to emphasize a point or make it more memorable. Unfortunately, many idioms are often misused. So much so, that the incorrect usage of idioms in some cases has become more common than the correct use. As we know, though, impressions are everything when it comes to PR, so it’s important to get it right.

Here’s a refresher on commonly used and misused idioms that tend to come up frequently in PR:

  • Flesh out that idea or proposal, don’t flush it out. When you flesh something out, you’re giving it more substance and building out the details. Flushing out refers to clearing something out like a sewer line or getting it out of hiding.
  • Home in on your key messages, don’t hone in on them. To home in on something is to zero in on it, as a missile homes in on a target. Hone (which shouldn’t be used with in, in this way) means to sharpen. So you home in on your key messages, and then you hone them until they are razor sharp.
  • You’re champing at the bit to get started on a project, not chomping. If you’re eager to get a new initiative going, you’re champing at the bit as a horse does when anxious to start a race. Although horses also chomp, or chew noisily, they do so when eating not when anticipating something. (Note: This is one of those idiomatic expressions that is so commonly misused, some dictionaries include both versions of the expression. But the Associated Press Stylebook, the go-to style guide for major media outlets, has spoken and AP still prefers the original usage of “champing.”)
  • It’s for all intents and purposes, not for all intensive purposes. For all intents and purposes means “in effect,” or “practically speaking”: “For all intents and purposes, we have completed our crisis communication plan.” All intensive purposes is a misuse of the original phrase, which comes from British legal terminology originating in the 1500s.

As with “for all intents and purposes,” a number of idioms have “eggcorns,” which means a similar-sounding word or words are substituted for the original due to mishearing or misinterpreting the correct term. The word eggcorn is thought to be a playful descriptor based on a theoretical mishearing of the word “acorn.”

Since eggcorns most often occur with homophones, or words that sound the same to the ear, these idiomatic faux pas occur most frequently when writing a phrase after hearing it spoken.

Here are a few common eggcorns to keep in mind:

  • You toe the line, you don’t tow it. Toeing the line means you conform; you do what you’re expected to do and follow the rules. This phrase comes from racers placing their toes at a start line before a race. You can use a line or cable to help tow something such as a boat, but the line does the towing not vice versa.
  • You give people free rein, not free reign. When you give others free rein as you might with a horse you give them the freedom to do what they want. Reign refers to the act of a monarch ruling a nation or territory.
  • When someone is strongly favored in a competition, he or she is a shoo-in not a shoe-in. This is another idiom related to horses  are you sensing a pattern? If you think about “shooing” a fly, it’s moving in the direction you want it to. The same is the case with the horse/candidate/whomever you want to win some kind of race supporters cheer the candidate on, shooing him or her towards victory.
  • A creative idea piques your interest, it doesn’t peak it. If your interest is piqued, you are excited or curious about something. Peak refers to a pointed end or a hilltop or mountaintop.
  • It’s per se, not per say. Per se is Latin for “by itself”: “The correct use of idioms doesn’t make you a genius, per se, but it’s a point in your favor.” It’s surprising how often the incorrect “per say” appears in writing, and from some super-smart people. Likely a case of the error being repeated so often, it starts to look correct.
  • You wait with bated breath, not baited breath. The adjective bated means “with great suspense,” and this phrase refers to waiting for something anxiously or excitedly. When something is baited, on the other hand, a predator is attempting to lure its prey.

So now that we’ve homed in on the most common incorrect usage of idioms, I know you’re champing at the bit to toe the line when it comes to proper usage. (Yes, I had to do it.)

Learning to be a PR Intern

Honestly, before I started as a PR intern at Amendola Communications three months ago I knew relatively nothing about Public Relations.

I’m currently studying journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, so while I have had some exposure to PR, I really didn’t know what it takes to work in the field day to day. I only knew how the two fields intertwined.

Add to that the challenges of having a focus on healthcare and health IT and if feels like I’m in a very demanding school when everyone else is off for the summer, simply because I’ve continued building upon what I’ve learned at school with what I have learned here. So here are a few things I have learned about PR since I started my internship.

PR Is More Complicated Than I Thought
Before my internship what I knew about the field of PR is that it includes a lot of press releases and pitch writing. In fact, my desire to learn more about the PR field is what drove me to pursue an internship at Amendola Communications. Boy, did I learn quickly that PR is a lot more than press releases and pitches. Here are a few things I learned that PR professionals do:
1. They manage social media accounts. Can you imagine being in charge of someone’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat and more?
2. They create content for those social media accounts, like infographics and videos.
3. They manage websites, and sometimes even manage creating them to begin with.
4. They create, gather and analyze large amounts of data. Then use that data to create strategies to use for everything else they manage.
5. They set up and do research for interviews.
6. They even help train people on how to do interviews if they don’t have experience.
7. They manage any sort of PR crisis, or as I’d like to think they’re the firemen and women that put out the fires.
8. And you know they manage press releases and story pitching.

Teamwork Makes The Dream Work
Managing all of these aspects of PR is too much for just one person to handle. To make all those social media posts roll out smoothly and assure that everything is meeting its deadline takes a team of professionals to make a company look like a PR pro. It really does take all the teamwork of the “A Team” to make sure the PR machine is running at full capacity. I can’t stress enough how important it is for everyone who is my age and in college to learn how to work in a team, as much as we all hate doing assigned group projects. It’s more important than you’d think, and very much an everyday occurrence in the working world.

It Also Takes a Wide Range of Skills
When I started studying journalism my professors told me that companies are looking for people who are well-rounded, with many different skills and abilities, rather than someone who is only trained in one thing. It really helps in the working world to know a lot about different things such as different forms of media, different computer programs and more. Now I don’t mean everyone should go out and become a jack of all trades and a master of none. You can be a jack of all trades and a master of some, but don’t spread yourself too thin.

It’s Not Impossible to Start a Business
During my time as an intern I got to sit in on calls and meetings. During them I couldn’t help but be inspired by the people I met or spoke to who had started their own businesses. It was amazing working with people who were so excited about what they were doing and so ready to get their businesses up and running with a little help from Amendola Communications. It made me realize that starting a business isn’t always a bust and that it can be a huge success.

The Healthcare System is a lot More Disconnected Than You Think
During my internship I quickly learned that most people are under the illusion that anything involving their health, such as their medical records with their primary care physician and their health information from the last time they went to the emergency room, are all somehow connected and easily accessible among different doctors and nurses, simply because we now have computers and electronic health records. Most of the time, we couldn’t be more wrong. From what I’ve learned it’s actually very difficult to transfer information between doctors and emergency rooms and elsewhere. I’ve also learned that people are purposely creating programs and companies to help correct this issue.

It Takes One Angry Person to Cause a Healthcare PR Crisis
At one point during my internship I helped one of my supervisors make a vlog about “How to Handle a Healthcare Media Crisis.” At the moment, I understood the topic but I didn’t realize just how important it was. Until someone close to me had a medical emergency where something went wrong. Obviously they were angry and about to go on a social media rampage, when a lightbulb went off in my head. I immediately thought “this is what the vlog is about, this is why it’s important.” In our world of social media, all it takes to damage a healthcare or health IT’s reputation is one angry Facebook post to trend. Trending happens so quickly, and as stated in the video, most healthcare or health IT companies don’t even get a chance to comment on what has happened before it is too late. This is possibly one of the most important things a PR team handles.

In Conclusion
As my internship starts to wind down due to school starting I’m glad I was able to learn so much about PR, along with building upon what I already knew, from Amendola Communications. Going back to school I feel like I have a much better understanding of the PR field, and even my own field and how to interact with PR even better. In addition I now know more about healthcare and health IT than I had ever expected. At school I feel like I’ll be able to give some good insights to my fellow students about how we will be using what we’ve learned, and what we need to prepare for once we all enter the working world.

Overall, I’m happy that I got the opportunity and experience of being a PR intern at Amendola Communications. It really made me feel reassured that what I am studying and learning at school is very important and what I really enjoy.

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