Interested in promoting yourself on the Internet without spending a ton of money? Want potential employers to know more about you? Looking for ways to get recruiters to show more interest in your Resume?  You need a blog.

Done well, a blog is an important tool for branding yourself.  Make sure your blog is done well, because done poorly a blog will hurt any chance you have of landing a job.

Blogging is a tool used to build community and develop relationships.  Thus the first thing you need to know about blogging is, “what does your audience want to read about?”  Content drives traffic, but more importantly, the content needs to be something other people want or need.  That’s one of the best things about blogs.  They offer a space for feedback through the “comments.”However, before you get comments you need to get traffic.  Yeah, it’s pretty much a “Catch 22.”  So how do you get past that?  Well, William Randal has an interesting take on how to do that.  He says, “Don’t walk around all day worrying how you can get to the top of Google. Worry how you can find your ideal customers right where they are. Because your business lives and dies with people, not computer tricks.” He goes on to urge blog writers to “tell their story.”  I like that. As a technique for building your personal brand, story telling is a great technique!

That takes us to your personal brand.  There are many stories we could tell about ourselves. When writing a blog to promote your unique value, you want to be sure the stories you tell match the brand you want to promote.  A blog is an extension of your resume and other marketing materials.  Potential employers can check you out without actually talking to you. . . and they will! Do you want a potential employer to know you are someone who is trustworthy?  Be sure you show trustworthiness in your blog. That means you don’t go around bashing others (especially current or former employers). Want to present yourself as someone who has a particular expertise in a certain area?  That should be the focus of your blog. . . NOT your camping trip to Lake Tahoe last summer.

A third thing everybody needs to know about blogging is that this is a commitment.  Lots of people start a blog, are fast and furious for a few weeks or months, and then drop off the face of the earth.  Heck, I’m guilty of that myself.  It takes time and energy to blog.  But here’s the problem with that. You take time to build a readership.  They come to expect that your blog adds value to their life.  Then, you run off and don’t post for several months.  Do you think they will ever come back?

Writing a blog can be a great tool for extending your personal brand on the Internet without spending a ton of money.  But blogging as branding needs to be done right, or it can tarnish your professional brand.  This month we will spend a lot of time thinking about blogging and personal branding and how to promote your unique value proposition.  Tomorrow’s post is a GREAT video that gives more fantastic insights on writing a blog. We’ll see you then!

30 Day Blogging Challenge – day 6.  Tomorrow’s post: “Blogging In Plain English”