Call me nutty, but I am in the mood to start a meme today. When I was in junior high school back in the log cabin days …
I learned an essay writing methodology called bing, bang, bongo. The model basically goes like this: write an introductory paragraph, follow it with three supporting paragraphs (a bing, a bang and a bongo) and then wrap it up with a conclusion. I think it’s a great model to follow for blog posts. There are three reasons why. (Surprised? C’mon, you know me. I love being corny.)
Most blog posts are about opinion. What’s great about bing, bang, bongo is that it’s built for expressing your opinions. You state your case up top and then you are forced to back it up with three supporting paragraphs and then tie it all together with a bow. If you can’t support your opinion, you might decide not to express it.
In addition, bing, bang, bongo is very reader friendly. If readers are not interested in what you have to say in the first paragraph, they will take off. However, if they are interested in what you have to say, they will read on to see how you back it up. Also, five paragraph blog posts are an ideal length because they are easily digested.
Finally, bing, bang, bongo is a more conversational style of writing. It’s very different than the inverted pyramid style that we have all become used to seeing thanks to the news media. It makes it easier to express opinion and talk in a human voice.
So as you can see, bing, bang, bongo works well. I think that if more bloggers adopted this style of writing, we would all be able to consume more RSS feeds and find innovative ideas. Who’s with me in spreading the bing, bang, bongo meme?
Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.
He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.
