People do business with those they know, like, and trust. If you want people to do business with you, you need some way of establishing that trust. That way, people will feel comfortable approaching you and doing business with you. But if you’re not careful, you may actually be losing that trust with your blog!
Feeling Okay
The book “I’m OK, You’re OK” was published back in 1967. It helped bring to the public consciousness the fact that deep down, everybody wants to feel okay about themselves.
In business, and blogs specifically, we frequently make people feel “not okay” without even realizing it!
Unfamiliar Terms
Many people use words, terms, and phrases their audience is not familiar with. We’ve all done it at one time or another, then assumed our audience knows what we’re talking about.
This frequently shows up when we use terms specific to our industry. All industries have terms and phrases that they assume people are familiar with. But when you use those words, you run a high risk of alienating your audience.
People in my industry frequently use the term “SEO,” which stands for Search Engine Optimization. While some people do know what that means, others don’t. Incidentally, it refers to where on the list your website shows up when people search on websites like Google, and moving it up the list.
Necessary Terms
If you do find it necessary to use some industry terms, just make sure you explain their meaning. If you’re using them in a larger article, there’s no need to go into too much detail.
However, there’s also an advantage to writing articles solely for the purpose of explaining one or multiple common industry terms. That ways, if it’s something your audience is likely to have run into before, but not understood, you increase their trust by explaining it.
What terms are you assuming your audience knows?