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?
• \"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
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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

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 \"Personal Brand\" 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