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?
© Mike Demler
• "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 andarticulating their value proposition to the market“
Why use a blog versus a website?
Blogs
• Instantaneous
• Timely
• Posts are time stamped
• Personal
• You “subscribe” to blogs
• Create with a text editor
• Two-way communications
Websites
• Tend to be static
• Change infrequently
• Who knows how old?
• Generally impersonal
• You “bookmark” websites
• Create with html editor
• One-way communications
© Mike Demler
• The personal nature of blogs makes them ideal for creating your “brand”.
• Blog to articulate your expertise… value to the market.
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
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Click on the to subscribe
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MyYahoo homepage with RSS feeds
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iGoogle homepage with RSS feeds
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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 [email protected] 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 on www.the-world-is-analog.blogspot.com
– How to subscribe to my blog on synopsysoc.org/analoginsights
© 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
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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