A few weeks ago, I asked you What is the Main Hub of Your Personal Brand Online?
Real people, real blogs
2 people took up the cause:
Steve Campbell of the Social Branding Blog had this to say:
“My blog is my main hub. It’s the site that all of my social profiles link to and it is where I do the majority of my personal branding.
Blogs are great because if you update them frequently they do really well in search engines and you can show off your expertise in your field of interest. I think everyone should have a blog, especially if you are developing your brand and trying to stand out from the crowd.”
Altaeeblog‘s Mohammed Al-Taee, a long-time Personal Branding Blog commenter, added:
“I would say my Blog and twitter… I think I looked at many experts’ hubs and try to see what suit my brand. It’s important to be you, not someone else at all whether offline or online.”
The 10 reasons to blog are…
Together, Steve and Mohammed give 5 reasons to use your blog as your main personal branding hub:
- Centralized brand-building target for visitors from your social media profiles
- Grow your brand by more easily attracting visitors from search engines
- Show off your expertise
- Stand out from the crowd, only limited by your imagination and the blog software
- Develop your own voice, even if inspired by others, without the baggage of others
To which I will add another 5 reasons:
- You’re more likely to bond with bloggers if you are one too
- Blogs are open and don’t require membership to impress, unlike forums, clubs and professional associations
- However, blogging in a closed community is a great way to endear yourself to that community
- If you buy your own domain name and host your own blog, you own it completely and can reuse the content any way you like without having to worry about what some company thinks
- Similarly, your blog exists as long as you choose i.e. you’re not depending on others – blog network or social network – who may disappear at any moment and take your blog with them
Author:
Jacob Share, a job search expert, is the creator of JobMob, one of the biggest blogs in the world about finding jobs. Follow him on Twitter for job search tips and humor.
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Some very good points here re: blogs and their role in personal branding. I may need to make a few changes…
Great points…
Some thoughts from a healthcare industry perspective, where there opportunities for personal and organizational branding:
A physician organization needs to consider personal branding for (a) the organization, (b) any specialties within the practice, and (c) the individual physicians themselves.
These can/will/should overlap: one doc can establish his/her personal brand, their specialty’s brand, and the org brand all at once, but s/he will have to be deliberate about the desired balance.
But, whoever takes it on in that specialty will skyrocket their own personal brand above the specialty.
Two tacks: The guru who wants to hold onto that moniker should be blogging. The up-and-comer who aspires to it should be blogging.
Caveats: Guru can be bleeding edge. Up-and-comer will need to be cutting edge, or the guru (if an ego enters the picture) may smack them down.
A winsome junior doc could/should be in the business of “raising all boats,” especially stroking the group guru with kudos in the public space.
The guru should also in the boat-raising business, though a slight air of knowing s/he is THE expert will float for him/her. It just needs to be balanced with pointing out the accomplishments of those who are junior. A “humble authority” will win branding points for all three levels.
If the guru can’t do that, don’t let them blog. Rather a marketing/content strategist should blog on their behalf in order spin them down into a “humble authority.”
A Team Effort
An “XYZ Specialty Tag Team” could be good, too: match a guru and a junior to blog for the team. When creating the team, discernment of the personalities involved will be key to determining whether they can really work together to raise the boats of all specialties in the org. Accordingly, the strategist may need to be the conduit for some, while giving others more leash.
This concept cannot be stressed enough. The importance of centralizing your presence and producing your own content are critical in keeping your personal brand alive and well. It really helps with Search Engine Optimization as well, as it allows for greater links to your site through content search and usefulness.
Excellent point about it being yours. The ability to build something for virtually nothing is extremely powerful. If nothing else, go get something up and running with your name on it.
I found it difficult to balance personal and ‘business’. I started with my own personal blog (my name.net) and as I was trying to build my personal brand as a Java EE developer, didn’t want that clouded by personal posts.
So I created a new site which I also got to use as a home for my Open Source Java libraries as well as my technical posts, and I also have a name to use if I start offering training. However, I find it more difficult to make it feel personal and am thus second guessing moving away from the personal domain / blog.