With such heavy competition for every open
position these days, job seekers need any edge they can get.
It can often make the difference between
landing the job, or not. A smart tactic for
gaining the advantage is to produce a blog about your profession or industry.
It’s
pretty simple. Keep blog entries short, friendly and
conversational. Anywhere from a few brief paragraphs to about 500 words
commenting on industry news and trends. Aim to post at least three or four
times a week.
Getting
started is pretty easy. Just open an account with a free
bogging service such as WordPress.com or Blogger.com. Or pay a little for
Typepad.com; it looks a little more professional and starts at $4.95 a month. All
three sites provide instructions that make it easy to begin.
Make
the blog easily found. Search engines tend
to list blogs high in search results, usually within the first few pages in
a search of someone's name, because they tend to have links to other
blogs or news stories ... and links influence search ranking. So link to other
blogs!
Have
a strategy for posting. Keep all posts strictly professional. Avoid comments about your family vacation, and stay away from religion, politics and
sex, unless one of those is an industry in which you work.
You’ll
need content. To ensure you have enough to
write about, set up a Google news alert to receive e-mails about stories with
keywords from your industry. That way, you'll get news about your field in your
'inbox' automatically. Link to those articles on your blog, and write about
whether you agree with them, and why. Describe relevant professional experiences
of your own, and predict how the matter at hand affects your industry in the
future.
Keep
your posts short.
Produce only short, conversational and informal posts. And never click
"Publish" until you’ve done a thorough spell/grammar check. Blog
riddled with errors hurts more than helps.
If you have any questions about blogging for jobs, contact Tampa Bay WorkForce Alliance.
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