Developing Your Personal Brand Through Blogging

Developing your Personal Brand through Blogging Mike Demler © Mike Demler

Developing your Personal Brand through Blogging Agenda • Why do I need a personal brand? • Why use a blog versus a website? • How can you create a blog? • If I build it will they come? – 10 ways to attract subscribers to your blog. • Examples of blogs and personal experiences from fellow ZIP Team members – Waiming Mok and Doug Messier © Mike Demler

Why do I need a personal brand? • quot;One of the first things someone should do, apart from … avoiding an attitude of resentment from getting laid off, is to ascertain who they are and what they have to offer. • That's what personal branding is all about, uncovering and articulating their value proposition to the market“ © Mike Demler

Why use a blog versus a website? Blogs Websites • • Instantaneous Tend to be static • • Timely Change infrequently • • Posts are time stamped Who knows how old? • • Personal Generally impersonal • • You “subscribe” to blogs You “bookmark” websites • • Create with a text editor Create with html editor • • Two-way communications One-way communications • The personal nature of blogs makes them ideal for creating your “brand”. • Blog to articulate your expertise… value to the market. © Mike Demler

Blogs versus websites • Blogs provide instantaneous publishing • RSS – real simple syndication • RSS “feeds” push content to subscribers – Through personalized home pages and blog readers • iGoogle • MyYahoo – Or through email © Mike Demler

Click on the to subscribe © Mike Demler

MyYahoo homepage with RSS feeds © Mike Demler

iGoogle homepage with RSS feeds © Mike Demler

Things to consider before you start a blog • Do you like to write? • Assess your written communication skills. – You are putting your skills on display, so be honest. • What is your area of expertise? – Are you passionate about it? – Is your expertise in demand? – How is it associated with employer needs? • Can you commit time to blog regularly? – Does not need to be daily, but once a week should be minimum. © Mike Demler

How can you create a blog? © Mike Demler

If I build it will they come? - 10 ways to attract subscribers to your blog. 1. Pick a subject area and stick to it. – World-wide 184 million blogs have been created. • 26.4M US (Universal McCann, March 2008) – Most of those blogs are random and incoherent. … think MySpace – Remember the objective: • Building your brand and professional image. • Getting subscribers NOT adding “friends”. – Why should someone read your blog? – What is your special expertise? © Mike Demler

If I build it will they come? - 10 ways to attract subscribers to your blog. 2. Inform, share expertise, and opinions. – but… NO marketing hype! – Keep it professional. – but… DO counter marketing hype with credible information. – Controversies are great opportunities for viral marketing. © Mike Demler

If I build it will they come? - 10 ways to attract subscribers to your blog. 3. Proactively seek out others interested in the topic. – The best way to grow a network is to tap into a group that already exists. – Look for other articles on the subject. – Review the article in your blog. – Contact the author and tell them about your blog. – LinkedIn is a great way to find others in the profession. – Search for other papers they have written, get co-authors. • IEEE Xplore • www.FreePatentsOnline.com – Or.. Just guess Firstname.Lastname@company.com works in lots of cases. © Mike Demler

If I build it will they come? - 10 ways to attract subscribers to your blog 4. Tie-in to conferences where the topic is covered. – Report in person if you attend. – You can even do this “live”. – Inform your readers, contact presenters before and after. – Compile a calendar of conferences, publish in your blog. – Make your blog the place to go for information in that subject area. © Mike Demler

If I build it will they come? - 10 ways to attract subscribers to your blog 5. Search for universities, researchers, professional organizations interested in your topic. – Professors and grad students love the attention from someone in industry. – They will tell others… viral marketing! © Mike Demler

If I build it will they come? - 10 ways to attract subscribers to your blog 6. Subscribe to other blogs. – Leave comments with your blog URL. – Give lots of “link love” © Mike Demler

If I build it will they come? - 10 ways to attract subscribers to your blog 7. The blog is your voice, use it… to communicate to industry committees, instead of email lists, etc. 8. Publicize your blog relentlessly. – Put the URL on your business cards. – In your email signature. © Mike Demler

If I build it will they come? - 10 ways to attract subscribers to your blog 9. Many people are still new to blogs, show them how to subscribe to RSS feeds. – See my Blogs vs. Websites – How to subscribe to my blog © Mike Demler

If I build it will they come? - 10 ways to attract subscribers to your blog 10. Feedburner and ShareThis tools – feedburner.google.com, sharethis.com © Mike Demler

Taking it further, and some other references • Tips from a fellow blogger (http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/) – I would encourage folks to get their own domain and build reputation/links/brand on something they own and can expand. – A blog should be the basis for your website, any of the modern blogging platforms support both posts and pages … – Consider how else to spark a conversation. • For example, do a roundtable conversation using skype. – Tom Peters has written on this topic, might be worth a look: • The Brand Called You (http://www.fastcompany.com/node/28905/print) • What a quot;Personal Brandquot; is NOT (http://www.tompeters.com/entries.php?note=010824.php) • Your Brand Equity Test (http://www.creativityatwork.com/Newsletters/Jan03Brand- equity.html) © Mike Demler

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Developing Your Personal Brand Through Blogging

by Mike Demler

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