Should job seekers really start their own blog?

This week I’m back to my first love – blogging and this caught my eye – 7 reasons why every job seeker should blog.

Do you blog – do your teenage kids? Most people are too damn busy keeping it all together quite frankly. But this article comes up with 7 whole reasons why anyone looking to move jobs this year or who is starting out on their chosen career, should start to write.

One of my concerns is about the prospective employer – is he or she really going to be impressed with your blogging efforts – do they have the time to read the musings of every wanna be in their industry? What if they think blogging is a waste of time and what you should really be doing is getting a lot more hands on experience? After all, pontificating on something you barely know about could make you look stupid.

So what to do?

The business world is moving forward at a very uneven pace where the social media arts are concerned and there are still many dinosaurs out there who think it’s a load of nonsense. But don’t despair – I actually think blogging is a really good idea!

Here’s why.

First and foremost, it forces you to organize your thoughts. You have to sift through your ideas, put them into some sort of order, examine them and look around for back up – this is what will help you with your job search. Through the process of writing and researching you will become better informed and you will have a whole range of ideas at your fingertips. The brain can cheat us into thinking we have something all worked out, but it’s not until you speak it or write it down that you discover it’s a load of nonsense – inside the interview room is too late.

Writing a blog is an opportunity to slaughter a few industry sacred cows – taking on outmoded thinking and proposing new ways of doing things is a useful way of making yourself stand out but I would steer clear of stunts. I don’t think the girl who wrote a letter of ‘rejection’ to the Oxford College which had intimidated her did herself any favours. Petulance is not the same as coming up with fresh ideas.

So go ahead and show them what you’re make of – build your brand – extend your reach and all the other things mentioned in the article but don’t get too downcast if your prospective employer decides not to actually read the thing. For you , it may have already done its job.

If you’re going to do it – do it right…..

Have you noticed how many people have made a new year’s resolution to ‘do’ social media this year?

The friend requests started to show up soon after my return to work.

And jolly well done too. A bit blinking late but not too late to join the party and get clued up (just in time to have a right royal row about Google plus - if you are interested read this .)

I really hope they stick at it because it is useful, fun and rewarding as well as being a potential time-suck!

I could offer reams of advice on how to do it, but my blogging back catalogue does that quite well, from how tos on Twitter and Facebook to blogging. But I will say one thing about LinkedIn, because so many people are doing this – please, please, please add a personal message when you ask to connect.

My husband, who takes an average amount of interest in social media says he never links up with someone if he doesn’t know who they are, and that includes lots of people he actually does know if he stops to think about it. If you are really busy you are not going to stop to realize that the person who has just asked to link with you is the woman from swimming who you know by her married name but don’t recognize from the photo because she is in her work clothes.

It doesn’t take much extra time to add a short personalized note with your request, reminding the person how they know you and why hooking up with you on social media is a good idea. I might not want to share my work life with a sporting acquaintance, but then I might be enticed by the idea that lots of their friends work in my field or that it will make sharing the results of sporting fixtures easier.

Cold approaches are always a bit awkward – why not apply some of the diplomacy to online connections that you would to real life?

 

Tinsel & time wasters

At this time of the year there are very few of us not busy taking stock, reflecting and making plans. So here are my thoughts - for what it’s worth.

This was a year in which working relationships were strengthened and new ones forged – which is brilliant. Some clients who started off sceptical but were prepared to give social media a chance are now expanding what they do online and socially which is fantastic.

I also met some complete chancers who promised the earth and delivered very little…will I ever learn that if it sounds like bullshit it probably is? On other occasions I met lively interesting people to discuss exciting new ideas which sadly didn’t work out – maybe next year? But overall I’d say I had experienced a bit of everything.

The best thing about this year was tapping into a whole new layer of people who are only just discovering the way social media can enhance their industry. Much nicer to chat to them than to feel depressed in yet another forum about how social media is just for kids and will never give return on investment.

Talking to new people takes you back to first principles and the things that were so exciting a few years ago – the feeling that we were forging a new and better way to do business. Now I am one of those people who is both cynical and an idealist – in fact I think I am cynical because I am an idealist. But do you know what I mean about the transparency of blogging and social media and the way it offers the chance to be upfront, honest and friendly while still doing good business?

Well I hope you do – because that will be what sustains me into 2012 – Merry Christmas!

The mystery of linking

After all these years there is still a huge mystery to blogging.

We pick up readers from the oddest place and the posts that succeed are not always the ones we would predict.

I have a post called Five examples of bad customer service  which gets more clicks than any other post I have ever written and shows up at the top of both Google and Yahoo consistently.

I’ve also hit the big time with another post called Does Grace Dent get twitter marketing which appears on the first page of Google for the term Grace Dent + Twitter – which must be really annoying for her as she has written a book with Twitter in the title!

I wrote my post after Grace Dent appeared on Woman’s Hour to talk about her book and since the words “Woman’s Hour” appear in my blog along with Grace’s name, the post is now being linked to by the Woman’s Hour web page itself under the banner “buzz about the programme”.

I am of course delighted about all this but I assure you that none of it was pre-planned – it is all genuine organic linking with no ulterior motive and no trickery – but it does go to show that there are forces at work out there that you could harness to drive traffic to your site – if you could penetrate the mystery.

Any ideas what the rules are here? Do let me know!

Should PR Leave Bloggers Alone?

Bloggers are the “big it” right now and just about everyone wants a piece of them and front of the queue are PRs

Why? Because bloggers provide the potential to reach audiences other media can not. Many people are becoming harder to reach because they no longer read a  newspaper every day, we may also fail to consume other mainstream media in the old patterns which used to be well understood.

If a blogger can be persuaded to become a conduit for PR messages, then this message stands a good chance of spreading. Add in retweets and link sharing on social media and the message can potentially flow into a huge hinterland previously untapped and it all sounds like a very good idea indeed.

The problem is that in many cases neither side really “gets” the other. PRs are frequently guilty of cutting and pasting a list of Britain’s top bloggers in the relevant sector into their to do list before hitting them en masse with a press release and expecting the blogger to be grateful.

But of course, the majority of bloggers don’t blog in order to please third parties, they do it because they feel compelled to write, because they love their subject or because they feel the need to share. They might be persuaded to blog about a product in the right circumstances but that is not why they are there.

At this stage I must point out that I work in PR but I blog as well so I can see  both sides and having spent time talking to bloggers about the subject I have begun to wonder whether PRs shouldn’t just leave bloggers alone.

But of course things are not as simple as that.

Sometimes the marriage between blogger and PR message can be very good indeed. If I were a blogger who talked about how to make life easier for mums with small children then a product review for something which did just that would be great. But I would not expect to be told what to say and I would  want to see the product I was reviewing – in most cases I would expect to keep it too.

Bloggers want something in return and content is not enough. That is the message I have been getting loud and clear. One thing that’s easy to forget is that journalists get paid by the publication they write for, bloggers do not.

So treat bloggers with care and respect. Read what they write before you hit them up, make them a good offer and don’t fall off your chair if they turn you down.

I’m 100; don’t give up the day blog

So here it is, the 100th post on Lucy Thorpe’s blog!

I am thrilled that I have stayed the course and can now take up my colours as a pro blogger.

How shall I celebrate?

Well to be honest, I’m far too busy to do anything other than just keep on keeping on with the mountain of work that’s come my way recently.

The brilliant truth is that a blog really does work. Not everyone who wants to works with me reads my blog, but the blog acts as a hub for my business. The mere fact that is exists shows that I have ideas on a range of topics related to the field of press, public relations,marketing and journalism.

I may have down-played the voice over side of what I do, yet just today I was working on an exciting concept album with a musician whose wife I met on Twitter. I play the Richard Burton part in his War of the Worlds-style project! I might even post up a link when it’s finished.   

So if you’re thinking of starting out with social media or you are on the verge of abandoning it as a bad job – don’t. When I think of all the people I’m going to call upon to complete my next work project, 50 percent of them are existing friends and the rest are new friends I’ve met on Twitter.

In a few hours time I’ll declare it wine o’clock and put my feet up. I will be raising my glass to you because without your continued support I wouldn’t have made it.

Cheers!

How A Well-written Blog Can Improve Your Customer Service

Imagine being in a relationship where you never meet the other person.

You swap stories and photos, you talk on the phone, but you never get to see their emotions or read their body language.

Can you still connect?

Many businesses never meet their customers, doing everything online, yet they manage to form lifelong bonds persuading them to return again and again.

How do they do this?

For a start, they blog.

Blogging allows you to let the customer into your world where they discover what’s inspired you, where things are heading and how you came up with your signature ideas.

In short, it gives you a chance to deepen your relationship with your client.

A well written blog allows you to extend your customer service beyond the superficial. You don’t just give, you get back via comments and feedback.

If things go wrong your readers are far less likely to bad mouth you if they feel they know you and understand the reasons why the problem arose.

So, while you can’t always look your customer in the eye or shake her warmly by the hand, you can get on the blog and offer her something extra -  you.

How To Be A Better Writer

Relying on tired metaphors and figures of speech is lazy, and it muddies our ability to understand one another.  When you’re writing or speaking, be conscious of every word you select.  It’s better to use your 1000 word vocabulary well than to sleepwalk through a minefield of ambiguities.

So says Justin Kownacki in a recent blog post.

Good advice from Justin. But why is it so hard to follow?

When you first start writing, maybe a blog or some other form of communication, it’s disappointing to find that you haven’t produced quite what you had hoped.

Clichés and tired figures of speech seem to creep in despite all efforts to ban them. It’s as though trash novels and tabloid newspapers have taken over your brain and the good stuff just won’t come out.

Don’t despair. This is the time to remember Justin’s advice.

If you give up or leave it like it is, then you’re not doing the best work you can do. It’s time to go back and take out the things you didn’t mean to say. Work really hard at choosing the words that feel authentic to you and that get your message across.

When we sit down to write, all sorts of stuff emerges from our heads, which is one of the reasons why it is so exciting. Some of this will be gold; fantastic ideas and figures of speech that seem to come from no-where. But there is also a lot of absorbed rubbish which you must cut down ruthlessly,like Marlon Brando in a fight. (Did you see what I did there, my brain told me to say ‘hack down like a jungle explorer’ but it felt clichéd and I like rough film stars.)

Justin advises us to ‘select’ the right word for each occasion, to make our meaning clearer. This is increasingly important; so much communication is now done using a restricted word count, think Twitter or text messaging. Choose your words carefully, they don’t have to be long or complex, they just have to do what you want them to do. They are there to serve you.

I reckon you get out what you put in, so reading wonderful books and well-written blogs is a key part of becoming a better writer. Then it’s all there when you need it.

Do you have a favourite blog that you turn to for inspiration?

P.S. I don’t normally plug my professional services in my blog, but if wrestling with words has become too much for you, I would love to help you write articles and blog posts. E-mail me at Lucy.Thorpe@btconnect.com

Find Your Niche

In a world dominated by heavy discounts or even free, one company at least seems to be thriving on selling at full price.

Sales at the London book shop Foyles jumped 19% this Christmas, despite only one of the books in their top 10 being discounted.

When you think how their competitors are suffering, it is a remarkable achievement. Cut price books in supermarkets and the unlimited virtual shelf space of Amazon have spelt trouble in the book world.  Borders is closing down altogether in the UK and Waterstones have been having a bumpy ride.

Foyles secret ? To become the destination of choice for a diverse set of niche groups. You want Twilight in Russian ? You want Polish books, specialist medical text books, sheet music or the script of every show running in the West End ? Folyles has all this.

I mention them because Foyles embodies the soundest business advice around at the moment, which is to focus on a niche market. Bloggers are told this all the time. ( Goths in hot weather anyone ?)

By specialising quite tightly you benefit 3 ways,

• By keeping marketing costs low. You don’t need to tell everyone you exist, just your niche market audience.

• Increased income, as you are not in the discount game.

• Strengthening customer loyalty. A group of people with specialist needs want to stick with you once they have found you.

Foyles knows that the film and theatre people that surround them in London’s Soho will think of them first for specialist books on cinematography or play scripts.

But what about you, have you found your niche ?

Would You Pay For Exclusive Access To Online Expertise ?

There’s a row going on and I’ve got stuck in !

It goes like this:

Would you pay for exclusive access to online expertise ?

Maybe.

Would you pay for exclusive online expertise from those who you thought espoused the philosophy of giving away free tips, in order to create trust, which is then rewarded down the line as goodwill builds and  reputation increases ?

Probably not.

There is a new paid for community called The Third Tribe and I didn’t think I had a problem with it until I got involved in a discussion about it at Altitude Branding

The people behind The Third Tribe are social media and blogging superheros like Chris Brogan and Darren Rowse from Problogger who have undoubtedly helped many, many people with their free advice.

As far as I can see it the Third Tribe is about monetizing their kudos. It’s a half way house between the marketing of old in which selling was of the hard  variety and the  philosophy which is at the heart of social media; sharing freely with an open group. This new set-up is a paid for online community, with exclusive access to movers and shakers.

I certainly don’t disagree with charging for expertise. Everyone offering a service has to make a living. I trained for a post-graduate diploma in journalism and then spent 15 years at the BBC learning the craft of communication. That is not knowledge which should be thrown away.

I work hard at blogging three times a week and read everything I can on the subject so I can help people who are going on the same trip. I want to be paid for that and no one would argue that so should the blogging ‘stars’ – they should obviously be commanding  the top rates.

But sharing knowledge online, posting on forums and using Twitter to connect with really interesting people should not become an exclusive event. I don’t want to see the velvet ropes go up. If the top thinkers are at the private after-party aren’t we all just a little bit worse off ?

What do you think ?

(By the way, this is an important debate and I don’t think anyone, whatever position they choose to take should be labelled whinger or whiner. Just thinker.)