Writing Blogs

Blogs are used to showcase Advocacy’s outreach efforts. For most blogs, the goal is telling a relatable story that humanizes small businesses and the regulatory problems they face. Roughly 400 – 600 words discussing the business, their concerns and issues, and a resolution or a way Advocacy is working to address their concerns are key parameters for blog writing.

When writing, think of your audience. Shorter sentences without complicated terms are easier for general audiences to follow. While the sentences should be easy to comprehend, high-level information is still a primary focus for the blogs.

Provide data on the small business or the issues that affect the business. Use reputable sources to back up your claim. Government agencies are considered reliable sources. If you need assistance finding data, the Office of Economic Research can help.

Citing your source is an informal process in blog writing. Instead of the academic footnotes that are customary in technical documents, placing “according to” and providing hyperlinks to the original source should be used. See the Writing Accessible Hyperlinks section for the correct usage method.

After stating the concerns and problems of the business owner, show how the Office of Advocacy is involved in the solution. Perhaps Advocacy has written comment letters or held roundtables on the issues. Hyperlink them into the text. Perhaps you have spoken with other small businesses that have shared the same concern. Mention them to show correlation and Advocacy outreach.

When drafting your blog, remember to:

  1. Give your blog a title and add it to the top of the article.
  2. Include any photos or videos captured during the event being featured.
  3. List the event, location, and names of individuals and their titles (if known) showcased in your photos.

When you are finished with the blog, provide your contact information at the bottom. Make sure to send the blog and the photos (all photos should have the names of the people, and their titles listed from left-to-right) to Akira Loring for review.

Respond to editorial review and comments within 48 hours.

Additional things to keep in mind:

  • If you have a success story, it will make for a great blog. Or you can add it into a current blog to show Advocacy outreach is working.
  • Advocacy provides outreach to all types of small businesses. If you are able, try to reach out and do blogs on the smaller small businesses, too. Advocacy would like to spotlight businesses with a 1 – 5-person operating staff.
  • Do not overuse em dashes or semicolons. No more than two uses for a single blog.
  • Keep track changes on when going through the editorial review process. Toggling between “All Markup” and “Simple Markup” is fine. If you are unsure of how to do so, reach out to Akira Loring at Akira.Loring@sba.gov, or another member of the Information team.
  • After final review and your article has been cleared for release, turn off track changes, and clear all comments. Submit a clean document that is clear of all edits, track changes, and comments prior to submitting a new web posting request.

For accessibility tips and recommendations, visit the Writing Accessible Content section.