Serious About Getting Hired: Get Blogging

Last week I received a phone call from a small business owner who called because she wants to get more business. She told me that she realizes that she needs to launch a blog. This woman gets it. When I started telling her about the various things she can do to deliver value through her blog articles, she chuckled and said, “Wow, that’s a lot of work…yet what I am doing now is not working for me!”

Dean and I are constantly promoting the value of a blog. Yet so often the response from a person wanting to grow their business or land a job is that they don’t have time or don’t want to invest the energy to write a blog. Many people just don’t understand that a blog is the most powerful marketing tool you can put to work for you. And it’s free!

Consider these benefits of blogging, just to name a few:

1. Your blog is your branding platform, a 24/7 virtual space from which to share your expertise.
2. Your articles demonstrate what you know, how you think, how you approach your work, and the issues that are important to you.
3. Your articles deliver your value a lot more effectively than promotional copy talking about your value.
4. Your blog content is more believable than what you write about yourself.
5. Your blog enables you to differentiate yourself and stand apart from your competition.
6. Your blog enables two-way communication with your readers, paving the way for relationships to develop and build community.
7. You demonstrate that you are keeping current with the latest business trend by writing a blog.

If you haven’t yet seriously considered a blog, you haven’t stopped to acknowledge the paradigm shift in doing business. You and I started our careers working for companies who promoted their products and services through print, with the four-color brochure being the model. Then came the internet age, with static websites becoming the storefront. Now Web 2.0 enables social networking, blogs, and video sharing as effective tools for connecting, communicating, and collaborating.

What’s holding you back from integrating the most powerful tool you have available to market yourself? I would love to hear from you so that I can support you in breaking through these obstacles.