 | HOW SHALLOW IS YOU BUSINESS? | | | | |   | Let Your Inner Beauty Shine ... | Posted by Steffi Lewis on 19/11/2012 |
After a hard day's development on our new MyB blog building workflow, I was lying on my sofa the other evening. I'd just eaten a lovely home-made Chilli and chose to watch a film on TV to wind down from yet another full-on, awesome day ...
 blogging lets the personality behind the business shine through
The Anytime button on Sky+ offered me a film called Shallow Hal; I love Jack Black and was surprised that I've never seen it before. It's about a real player - funnily enough, called Hal - who cruises the bars looking for women to sleep with. He only sees the physical assets of a woman and not her inner radiance and beauty.
Trapped in a lift one day, a famous TV Guru 'de-hypnotises' him and changes his perception from one of only seeing outer beauty to seeing only the inner beauty of the women he meets. The film revolves around him falling head over heels in love with Gwyneth Paltrow who - in Hal's perception - is the perfect tall, slim blonde model of fashion magazine womanhood. However, to everyone else - who can see her as she is - she's overweight, incedibly shy and hasn't got a clue why Hal is interested in her. A very interesting juxtaposition on which all good comedy is based.
This got me thinking and of course it occurred to me that classical advertising methods and Blogging have a similar perceptional dilemma. For years and years, businesses have tried to make themselves look as beautiful and as attractive as possible, however it's their personality that customers and clients fall in love with and only then will they form lasting relationships.
Business cards, letterheads, flyers, newspaper adverts, TV slots, uniforms, van sign-writing; it's all gloss that's designed to catch the eye of potential customers. How many countless billions do we spend on developing our brands year after year after year? Does it get the results we're looking for? Do we build long term relationships with our customers and clients simply based on looks or are we happy with a lot of 'one-order stands'?
What I like about business Blogging is that it's all about your personality. It shows the world your knowledge; gives people a great feel for your experience and your wisdom. It convinces potential suitors - clients - that you're worth getting to know better and adds depth to the gloss of your off-line marketing effort as well as your ever so pretty website.
Well crafted blog posts, on a wide range of subjects relevant to your readership which allow the reader to take nuggets of value from what you write about, will make you the most popular kid on the block - or within your industry. It depends on what you're looking for, however let people like you because they've got to know you first rather than you catching their eye whilst wearing your favourite Jaeger and Jimmy Choo combo!
Hal certainly learned his lesson in the film and found his one true love because he was able to see Gwyneth's inner beauty. In the business world, blogging can do the same to help you grow your client base and build deeper, lasting relationships with those you do - and are yet to do - business with.
Love, light & logic ... 
STEFFI LEWIS
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