I’m trying to liberate my approach to blogging, by sharing more personal thoughts and ideas and take it back to being my {personal} journal rather than worrying about … well, all the stuff people who want to have successful online businesses worry about. Oh, but I do need to avoid hacking off any of our industry partners and make certain that background research during a job search doesn’t show me as a tin-foil hat whack-job. I might be, but that’s something they should figure out after hiring me, no?
I manage TechWhirls @techcommjobs Twitter account. In theory it’s our Twitter pipeline for jobs posted on jobs.techwhirl.com, but since we can’t seem to give away this space, it’s basically a curated list of good articles. Each day, I review a list of possible articles sent to me by Google Alerts and choose ones that are somewhat unique and well written.
One topic that I see weekly is talking about having an online brand in the age of social media. It’s one of those buzz-y things that “thought-leaders” desperate to show they’re in touch with cutting edge things say at conferences, but what I’m unsure if this is in the hey use Vine for all your documentation (by far the dumbest thing I’ve heard recommended or discussed) or smart phones are going to revolutionize things so get your websites ready bucket (useful).
From my own experience recruiting, I know that if I see posts that are overly political, behavior that suggests the person isn’t focused (daily updates from the local pub) or obsessions that suggest the person will be irritating in the work place it’s a major red flag. So, as a guess posting dumb things is a problem, but what about thoughtful things? I have had less experience seeing this happen.
Brands are funny because they often happen when people are doing things rather than “trying” to do things. Apple didn’t decide to have a high-end brand, they just made high-end things and people started associating those characteristics with their name. The same thing for McDonald’s (children, decent cheap food), Disney (children, good values, great experiences) and Walmart (large variety, cheap prices).
We each have brands at work too. Who in your office is the whiner? The show-off? The smartest person in the room but is decent? Is a giant D-Bag? Who would you want to be on your project or would quit if they were staffed with you?
I’ve always thought the way to a good reputation isn’t to say things but to do them. I’m proud TechWhirl is getting a reputation for innovative ideas, hard work and dependability. We’ve never said we do these things, but have through hard work and some creative thinking done them.
Thinking about it as I’ve written this, I do think sharing things that one is passionate about is a good way to build an online brand. But, for the love of Mountaineer Football, do it because it’s your passion — not because you just want to build a brand. Brands mean nothing if there’s no substance behind them.
