Here is the fourth column in the weekly Tuesday feature “WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP: How to Use Social Media to Get Your Dream Job” by Yael K. Miller and Phyllis Zimbler Miller, co-founders of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing.
Yael and Phyllis are writing about the FICTIONAL CHARACTER Amy H., who will be a senior this fall at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in English. Find all the posts in this series, organized for your convenience, here.
__________
Amy H. has been diligent about leaving insightful comments on blog posts and the discussions of the LinkedIn groups that she has joined, which was the assignment for chapter 3 in the ebook “WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP: How to Use Social Media to Get Your Dream Job.” She has also claimed a customized URL for her LinkedIn profile.
Now she reads Chapter 4 – “To Be or Not to Be Your Own Blogger.”
The ebook chapter begins: “Now that you have some experience interacting on other people’s blogs, the obvious question is whether you want your own blog. As in most things, there are pros and cons.”
The ebook lists the pros:
- Opportunity to showcase your knowledge rather than only reacting to other people’s blog posts.
- Opportunity to invite well-known bloggers to write guest posts for your blog.
- Opportunity to have a blog link to share on your social media profiles.
- Opportunity to engage your target audience on your own site.
The cons listed include:
- Need to commit to at least three posts a week by you or a guest blogger in order to demonstrate a truly “active” blog with posts on the “spine” of how you are positioning yourself online.
- Need to get out the word about each new blog post to “invite” traffic (people) back to your blog.
- Need to spend time revising what you write for clarity, grammar and spelling.
- Need to monitor the comments on your blog both to respond appropriately and to delete any inappropriate comments.
Amy reads that the blog should have a clear topic and not simply be “my thoughts as a college senior.”
The ebook explains that, while the topic of the blog does not have to be about a specific career, the blog should have the underlying agenda of showcasing her talents that could appeal to a potential employer.
At this point Amy faces the same dilemma she faces with pursuing a career path. What does she want to be when she grows up?
Amy thinks about the 10 blogs she’s been following for the past three weeks. While several different careers interest her, the blogs she enjoys the most are those focused on how the Internet is changing the world of traditional advertising.
Amy considers that, even if she doesn’t pursue an advertising career, writing about the dramatic changes to the advertising industry would be timely and could showcase her ability to analyze trends.
Amy decides she will wait a while longer before deciding whether to start blogging. She needs to know more about the actual setting up of a blog.
Her assignment for the next week is to continue leaving insightful comments on the blogs that she is following as well as on the LinkedIn group discussions in which she is participating.
Extra credit tip: The ebook recommends the book “Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear” by Frank Luntz. While the writing is somewhat dense, the information included in the book can be very helpful for bloggers who wish to use words that can strongly connect with their readers.
Phyllis and Yael hope you’ll sign up for new post notifications here at ebranding.me through the RSS feed or email. Then do Amy’s assignments for yourself so you’re ready for next week.
And leave comments below if you have any questions on the material in this blog series “WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP: How to Use Social Media to Get Your Dream Job.”
Announcing “The Wonderful World of Twitter” Ebook Giveaway
As we’d like to encourage “conversations” around this blog series, Miller Mosaic Power Marketing is giving away three free copies of the ebook “The Wonderful World of Twitter” – see http://www.millermosaicllc.com/wonderful-world-twitter-ebook/
The winners will be chosen by random.org and the deadline for submitting your entry is August 2nd by 9 a.m. Pacific.
Here’s how you enter:
If you already have your own blog, leave a “giveaway entry comment” in the comments section telling us the name of your blog, what the topic is, and give the URL including the http://
If you do not already have your own blog, leave a “giveaway entry comment” in the comments section telling us what topic you might be interested in blogging about and why.
Also, it would be terrific if you include feedback about this blog series with your “giveaway entry comment.”
Go ahead and add your comment now – we can all learn from each other.
(c) 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC
Miller Mosaic Power Marketing and Magnetic Webworks have a collaboration in which Magnetic Webworks builds WordPress websites/blogs and Miller Mosaic provides social media coaching/consulting. For more information on WordPress websites see http://budurl.com/ultrapro and for information on the Miller Mosaic social media monthly mentorship program see http://budurl.com/joinmmic
