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

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• 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.

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How can you create a blog?

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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 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