Standing out from the crowd with just a resume and cover letter has gotten tougher. If you want to be noticed by recruiters and employers, a blog may be the answer.
A blog can elevate your resume, LinkedIn profile, or job application, and demonstrate your communication skills and subject matter knowledge. Your blog will also build the foundation of your personal brand.
Personal branding has become a strategy for professional recognition, and individuals are now encouraged to view themselves as a brand. When we intentionally create a brand, we need to consider what we want to communicate about ourselves – our values, standards, mission, and what makes us different from the rest of the pack. Most of us have inadvertently created digital footprints via social media accounts and other online activities, but branding is a more deliberate, thoughtful process. It’s about taking charge of and defining your digital footprint.
Here are five benefits of personal branding and blogging:
- Establish Yourself As a Subject Matter Expert.
According to Jeff Bullas, online digital business guru, anyone who has posted and received comments on Facebook, or uploaded a video to YouTube, is a blogger. Bullas refers to Twitter tweets as micro-blogs. He identifies multiple benefits of blogging, including honing writing skills, developing visibility, increasing creativity, and most importantly, establishing yourself as a subject matter expert (SME). If you’re networking or on a job search, you want to establish yourself as an SME in your field.While a resume is standard operating equipment for a job search, by documenting your experience and expertise, a blog allows recruiters to explore what you really know and become familiar with your unique voice.
- Connect With Like Minds.
Bullas suggests another good reason to blog: Your blog will connect you to your tribe. He says, “Connection with global communities provides insights and networks that can accelerate your learning process, opportunity, and success.”
- Credibility.
This is closely related to number one on this list – becoming a SME. When recruiters have access to your knowledge and expertise in a particular field, they can feel confident recommending you to employers.
- Acquire New Skills.
If you’re not already fluent in social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter, getting onboard with a blog is a great way to explore these increasingly important networks. By tying your blog to social media, then actively engaging with those audiences, you expand your territory in terms of messaging and community development.Blogging can also lead to learning search engine optimization (SEO) protocols, which increase your blog’s traffic and visibility. You may dip into HTML coding to understand what goes on under the hood of your blog site. All of these skills have value. You can also learn analytics to understand how your blog is performing on search engines and who’s visiting your blog site. Online educational services like Lynda.com offer classes on HTML, SEO, and analytics.
- Branding, branding, branding.
Victoria Michelson of idealistcareers.org is a proponent of blogging to find your dream job. She writes that each time she sent out a resume or application, she included an invitation to visit her blog site. She received many more site visits than she expected, and this eventually led to her dream job with Wild Apricot, an organizational software company. Victoria’s blog showcased her unique voice — by inviting potential employers to visit, she was able to communicate her fundamental values and passions. Eventually she connected with a business that shared those values, and the rest is history.
If you’re working on a degree or want to enter a new field, blogging can help move you closer to your goals. Just be sure that your writing is polished and your blog content is well thought out. If you’re acquiring professional skills and are not ready to call yourself a SME, start researching information related to your degree or certification specialization, and then begin writing about what you learn. You can read and blog about case studies and white papers to showcase your critical thinking skills.
You don’t have to be intimidated by technology – WordPress is the platform of choice for many bloggers, as it’s intuitive and easy to learn. Blogging is also inexpensive – all you’ll need is a domain name and host for your blog. Blogstarting.org is one of many online services that takes you through the steps of getting your domain name and setting up hosting. With a simple format, hosting can cost $5 or less.
So think about what you would like to say, and whom you would like to share it with: you can have your blog up and running in less than an hour.
