MarketingSherpa: Does having a personal blog mean you'll be contacted by headhunters more than most people are?
Harry: Possibly. But blogs are most useful in establishing one’s credibility among certain self-referencing networks of people – like trade association members. Those networks can lead to job opportunities with or without headhunters.
Not many people know this – but blogs require an editorial platform to be successful. Who is your target reader? Are you one of them? Were you one of them? How to they think? What do they fear? What makes them mad? What are their top three daily frustrations? Now: How will each blog post help them in their daily struggle? There must be a concrete takeaway from each post, so you must develop a well-informed and teachable point of view on issues that are important to your target readership.
Think of your blog as a cookie jar. All the busy reader wants is a tasty little diversion that is a little nutritious. Tell them something that they didn’t already know. Or give them a new way to apply something that they already know. And ideally, keep each post to less than 100 words. Remember that there are 9 million blogs now, so don’t expect people to read it just because it’s free.
Have something to say and say it in an engaging way. Then, if you want to add family photos or podcasts or video-on-demand, that’s fine – as long as it’s professionally done and does not detract from the relevance of the blog.
Also, understand that getting "Googled" is a normal part of the client’s due diligence process these days. A blog post today about last night’s drunken bender might well get thrown in your lap in a job interview two years from now. So my advice is: Be authentic AND professional.
Update: See also Chris Mayaud's "Find of the Week"
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Q: Need the number of a recruiter who "gets it?"
A: Download Harry's contact info for future reference.
