Why It’s a Good Idea to Blog to Obtain a JoOn Agency Central, Jon Clarke penned this:
A person’s ideas and interests can be peeked at through their own blog. They serve as conversation starters and icebreakers.
Candidates are working even harder to stand out in the crowded employment market. Nevertheless, elegant resumes notwithstanding, having style alone will not get you a job if you lack substance. A blog is substance, nothing more.
Executive recruiters and hiring decision makers are becoming aware of job searchers who blog, including executives, and they are able to secure employment.
When hiring managers look for qualified applicants online, they come upon them through relevant keyword searches.
Opportunities are presented to certain CEOs who blog in the
Write for the career you want.
While it’s nice to blog about any topic that interests you, the only way your blog will help your job search is if you write about the industry you want to join. If a recruiter checks out your blog, he or she must know immediately what you’re interested in. One of my favorite blog posts by tech evangelist Robert Scoble puts it this way, “Post something that teaches me something about what you want to do every day. If you want to drive a cab, you better go out and take pictures of cabs. Think about cabs. Put suggestions for cabbies up. Interview cabbies. You better have a blog that is nothing but cabs. Cabs. Cabs. Cabs all the time.”
Be very careful what you post.
The major reason most job seekers don’t blog is because they’re afraid that blogging might hurt their chances more than help them. This is a very real concern. If your blog is filled with photos of cats playing the piano, rants about parking tickets or sad tales of relationships gone bad, you’re not going to impress any employers. Think of your blog as a purely professional forum and you should be just fine.
The topics you write about should represent your areas of expertise. These are also the relevant keywords and phrases you’ll use in your personal marketing materials for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), to optimize your online presence.
Google those same keywords to research what others are writing about those topics. Use this research to write more blog content.
Set up Google Alerts to stay informed of issues impacting your industry and target companies. Some Alerts to set up:
- Names of your target companies and/or those you want to be informed about
- Names of key decision makers in your target companies
- Keyword phrases relevant to your niche and target job(s)
- Names of your target companies’ relevant products or services
- Job position(s) and industry you’re seeking.
- Names of subject matter experts and thought leaders in your industry and niche.
- Names of any other people whose radar you want to get on.
Subscribe to and read various relevant publications
Subscribe to your target companies’ blogs and those of industry thought leaders and subject matter experts. Google their names and relevant keyword phrases to find relevant blogs. See what they’re writing about, and blog about the same things.
Subscribe to (or just read) industry publications.
Peruse the big publications – NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, etc. – and industry-specific publications for industry news.
Check out the LinkedIn long-form posts of people you’re following on LinkedIn, and those of LinkedIn Influencers.
Re-purpose articles and white papers you’ve written. If they’re too long for one post, break them up into a series of 2, 3 or more.
Turn to other blogs for inspiration
Write a post commenting about someone else’s post. Include the title of their post with a link. There are many benefits to this strategy:
Maintain a record of the quality posts you have read from other bloggers during the week. Once a week, compile a roundup of four or five posts, include links, and provide a brief summary. That connects you with other bloggers and requires very little effort or time!
Make frequent use of pertinent keyword terms in your posts and post titles, and make reference to the personnel and merchandise of your target companies. You may be positive that a representative of those businesses has Google Alerts set up to track mentions of these brands and goods. Google Alerts are set up for industry-relevant keyword terms that recruiters and hiring decision-makers search for online. There’s a good chance these folks will discover you.