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Category : Career Advice, personal blog career, personal-branding
When I first graduated from business school, I leveraged our school's alumni network to seek advice on securing my first job. One successful businessperson I spoke to advised that starting a blog would be one of the best things I could do to advance in my career. Looking back, I completely agree with this advice. Building a blog is one of the best tools for getting started and advancing in your career field. If you don't have a personal blog yet, I hope to provide some concrete reasons in this article on why you must start one today.
1. Personal Branding
The idea of the personal brand that was coined by Tom Peters in 1997 has been greatly accelerated by the Internet which connects everyone and provides a platform for easy self publishing of content that can be broadcast to a large audience for free. By producing great content on your blog, you will establish an online presence that will strengthen your personal brand. For example, Dan Schawbel created a blog called The Personal Branding Blog which grew to thousands of monthly readers and established Dan as the expert on personal branding for Generation Y professionals while resulting in a book deal and national recognition.
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Category : Career Change, Career Hub, Career Management, careers, employment, job hunt, job-search, jobs, Just For Fun, Luckenbach, personal-branding, texas, transitions, Web/Tech, Workspaces
If you’re a routine Career Hub reader, perhaps you will recall my post from last year: Everybody ‘s Somebody in Luckenbach. Remember how I was greeted by roosters during my first visit there? In a return visit a few days...
Here are some ideas to get your creative branding juices flowing.
1. Join a new community
Find a new forum or niche social network and become an active member of the community, participating for at least 15 minutes every single day until you are a recognized expert on the basis of your participation alone.
2. Create a new community
Sometimes creating and building a new community might seem easier than trying to stand out in an older established one, or you might have discovered a part of your industry that is under-served, either online or in the real world.
3. Launch an initiative
In your industry, is there a fight no one is fighting? An issue that you feel isn’t getting as much attention as it deserves? Become the motor for change. In 25 Easy Ways To Grow Your Personal Brand in 5 Minutes, I suggested you “start an industry-related petition” but that’s just one example. Launching initiatives is also a great way to build a community.
4. Go on a speaking tour
Who would be most interested in hearing you speak?
What kind of audiences have you had in the past?
Where else can you find more such audiences?
With those thoughts in mind, plan a tour. Start small, aiming for 3-5 events in relatively close succession, where you can give the exact same talk, tweaking as you get a feel for the audience response.
As you get comfortable, you’ll also have more inspiration about where to speak next. As you impress people, others will come with invitations for where to speak next.
5. Launch a guest post campaign
If you’re a blogger, more comfortable in front of a screen than a live audience, prepare 3-5 blog posts and offer them as guest posts to large/leading blogs in your industry. This is a great way to generate exposure for any new initiatives, communities or websites launched (or that you’re planning to launch).
6. Become a regular contributor to a newspaper, magazine or group blog
Put yourself in front of a new audience on a regular basis, building your brand as they get to know and trust you. The results aren’t as immediate as a guest post campaign, but there’s much more potential over time.
7. Explore other forms of media
Writing online? Try creating an audio podcast series. Already doing that? Go into video. Have that covered too? Try offline content, whether contributing to mainstream media, putting out a press release, or other.
8. Launch a new website
If you’re not yet blogging, start.
If you are blogging already, considering starting another blog, similar but different in its perspective, such as an “ask the expert” type of blog.
Other types of websites you could start are forums, galleries, social bookmarking networks, e-commerce sites, etc. Just remember that the new website should be industry-related or very close to it. You want to grow your personal brand, not dilute it.
9. Volunteer a service
Look for an entity that has either a large audience or an influential one, and then offer a free project or service. Ideal choice if you can get it- the standards body in your industry.
10. Release a free resource
Have an idea for some sort of content that you know people will find valuable? Perhaps a special report or video? Create and release it for free, encouraging people to share it openly with each other, spreading knowledge of your brand wherever it goes.
Question of the article
Have you tried any of these tactics before? Share your story in the comments.
I originally published this article on the terrific Personal Branding Blog.
Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for more ideas on how to brand yourself to a new job.
Related posts:
- 33 Blog Post Ideas for the Personal Brand-Building Blogger
- 25 Easy Ways To Grow Your Personal Brand in 5 Minutes
- 3 Ways To Build Your Personal Brand On The Job Or On The Job Search
- 5 Personal Branding Mistakes That Could Ruin Your Personal Brand
- The One Thing Your Personal Brand Must Have to Work
