Executive Job Search and Blogging: Perfect Together

Want to know why blogging and executive job search are a match made in heaven?

I hear stories all the time from recruiters and other colleagues in the careers industry about executive job seekers who landed plum jobs as a result of blogging.

Their stories have a common theme. Recruiters and hiring decision makers found their blogs, or articles they guest-blogged on someone else’s site, when they were keyword searching online for viable candidates.

These hiring professionals were impressed by the writing skill and subject matter expertise of the bloggers.

Some of these executive job seekers were offered opportunities in the “hidden job market” — positions not posted anywhere — because their blogging activity positioned them as a good fit for a company.

For some of the blogging executives, a new position was created to fit them into the organization.  Their promise of value to the organization was that apparent.

So, does this make you want to dive into blogging?

Before you do, building a strategic plan is essential. I’ve compiled below just a sampling of how-to posts from some of the best bloggers on leveraging blogging to build personal brand visibility and brand evangelism.

Each of these posts represents only a fraction of what each blogger offers on their sites. I suggest you visit their blogs to see what else you can learn from them and subscribe so you’ll stay apprised of all the new strategies and resources they provide.

Battling Bloggers Block

Darren Rowse is undeniably one of the most famous bloggers in the world and founder of ProBlogger, a site dedicated to helping other bloggers learn the skills of blogging, share their own experiences and promote the blogging medium.

A serial blogger with several sites, a new addition is his very helpful TwiTip, a valuable resource loaded with advice on how to get more out of Twitter.

In Battling Bloggers Block, he’s compiled an in depth list of 25+ tips with links to expanded information, which he adds to as new thoughts arise.

His first 5 tips to shake up a numbed brain and get your juices flowing are:

Blog Tip 1. Change your Blogging Environment
Blog Tip 2. Keep an idea Journal
Blog Tip 3. Free Writing – Just Write
Blog Tip 4. Read what other Bloggers are Saying
Blog Tip 5. Combine Two Disconnected Ideas

Darren has also written a powerhouse e-book, 31 Days to Build a Better Blog for those who’ve already started a blog, but need help gaining momentum and improving their writing and marketing skills.

How to Write Magnetic Headlines

Another master blogger and online marketing expert, Brian Clark founded CopyBlogger, named one of the world’s 5 most powerful blogs by The Guardian and ranked as a top 5 marketing blog by Advertising Age.

Brian says, “The better the headline, the better your odds of beating the averages and getting what you’ve written read by a larger percentage of people.”

His 11-part Magnetic Headlines series provides concrete guidance to get you writing better headlines in no time. Articles include:

• Why You Should Always Write Your Headline First
• The Cheater’s Guide to Writing Great Headlines
• Do Key Words in Post Titles Really Matter?
• How to Write a Killer “How To” Post That Gets Attention
• 7 Reasons Why List Posts Will Always Work
• Why Some People Almost Always Write Great Post Titles
• 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work

Your First 30 Days of Blogging

Quick Sprout’s Neil Patel, named a top 100 blogger by Technorati and a top influencer on the Web by the Wall Street Journal, offers dead-on daily tips to build a successful blog.

For the first 5 days he suggests:

Day 1: Don’t launch until your blog is correctly setup
Day 2: Pick a topic and stick with it
Day 3: Be consistent
Day 4: No man is an island
Day 5: Stop regurgitating content

11 Must-Dos for the Serious Blogger

Jay Baer, a social media strategy consultant and coach for corporations and public relations firms, wrote a terrific strategizing post that’s loaded with links to other valuable resources.

Here are some of the things he covers:

Specificity
Who is the audience for your blog? What is your blog about? What similar blogs exist? How will you measure success?

Consistency
The more you blog, the easier it will be to build an audience for your blog.

Variety
Remember that your blog is essentially a magazine, and there’s a reason why magazines have many different types of articles in each issue.

Gravity
I’m a big believer in building an anchor for your blog. A signature, routine series of posts that you can go back to with regularity.

Humanity
Whether you’re solo or part of a group blogging effort, being personal and showing yourself is critical. If people want to read content created by a nameless, faceless entity they can read a newspaper. Blogging is PERSONAL. That’s the whole point.

Related series of posts over at my Executive Resume Branding blog:

Best of Blogging For Brand Visibility and Credibility