Feb 7, 2008 | blog
Why is it that the very people who make all that wonderful technology work for your company don’t blog that much? That’s a question I’ve been curious about for the last few years. Yeah there are many technology bloggers, but I’m talking about people who staff the information technology departments around the world. Where are you guys? I find a few here and there, but there aren’t many.
I’ve suggested, recommended, given ideas and supported many of my fellow IT friends to help them find the value that blogging can bring. I’m continually confused at the explanations, or reasoning that people find not to. Answers like, “I can’t talk about work”, or “it’s not secure” and the one that still amazes me for many IT pros, “the Internet isn’t safe”.
Yeah, all those answers (and more) are true, but it shouldn’t keep you from engaging and bringing your expertise to the party. I’ve several friends who could bring a great deal to the blogosphere, some are true gurus on many aspects related to enterprise information technology implementation. The biggest limiting factor for most people really comes down to time.
Time is every bloggers most challenging aspect, but it’s no different than any other endeavor. How to balance, career, home life, and a blog is what we all battle every day as bloggers. However, there is so much reward that the challenge and the cost in time is worth the effort. Many of the IT people I know, are so busy with their current projects, that they can’t even get away from their desks at lunch time. What the heck is that about? Even during the most interesting and challenging projects, you need to allow yourself to think about other things.
If there is one thing I would pass on to fellow IT workers about blogging is that it allows a person to disengage a little bit. Writing about things that are interesting to you lets you exercise a bit of your mind that yearns for attention. It allows you to think in new directions, learning more about your interests as well as yourself.
Back to those excuses… yes they’re true to a certain degree, but their mainly just excuses. Kind of like finding reasons you didn’t do your homework back in high school. Come on, you can find more than the work aspect of IT to talk about – you do in person, why not on a blog? Not secure – talk about security if it’s a passion, make it interesting to the average person so they learn more about it. Don’t think the Internet is a safe place to bare your soul? Use a pseudonym – writers have done it for centuries and blogging is nothing different.
For some reason, IT is not where many bloggers are coming from lately, and I really would like to see that change. Maybe it’s just the circles I run in, or the market here in Minneapolis, MN that is a bit more conservative when it comes to voicing opinions. How about your IT friends? I’m looking for more IT bloggers! 🙂
Photo credit: Grant Mitchell
Technorati Tags: Information Technology, Bloggers, Information Technology Bloggers
Oct 31, 2007 | blog
I’d like to point you to Issue 2 of Personal Branding Magazine. While this publication is still quite young, there is significant traction with the authors, editors and publisher Dan Schawbel. This issue breaks new ground for the magazine with several new contributing writers, reporters, editing staff and sponsorships.
While this is a non-profit magazine with all proceeds going directly to The American Cancer Society, the quality and coverage is top notch. With articles from thought leaders and experts in personal branding, you will find many helpful ideas and techniques that will help promote your greatest asset – yourself.
Dan kicks off the excitement with a cover story on none other than GE’s Jack Welch. Also included is an interview with Philip Rosedale, the founder of SecondLife. With an updated format for easier reading, and many reader-suggested improvements, Issue 2 has been a work of professionalism, and the desire to provide you with real-world ideas and information.
Available November 1st, 2007!
Personal Branding Magazine – Issue 2
Technorati Tags: Personal Branding Magazine, Personal Branding, Rick Mahn, Dan Schawbel
Aug 17, 2007 | blog
Are you positioning yourself for growth? How much buzz surrounds your personal brand? Wonder what you could do to change that?
Well, one way to start giving people another facet of you is to leverage Social Media. Social Media is made up of many types of tools that can help you not only work to enhance your brand, but also start connecting with people in new ways.
From Wikipedia:
Social media describes the online technologies and practices that people use to share content, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives, and media themselves.
Social media can be more than the sum of its parts; blogs, wikis, social networks, presence applications, lifecasting and video are just tools and methods to enrich interactions with your connections. While broadcasting your every move (lifecasting) may not seem like a wise move to most of us, it’s one example of gaining exposure for your idea (i.e. justin.tv).
However, social media also includes ideas and things that have become common, even mainstream – take blogging for example. Blogs are becoming ubiquitous in communicating, sharing ideas, reporting, and personal branding. Blogs are really your own social network in their own right (but hey, that’s another post) because they allow you to do so much more.
From your personal blog, you can talk about your own ideas, topics, perspectives, and most importantly – set your own agenda. From your blog, you can launch into podcasting, video posts, host your own OpenID, host a PDF of your resume, and link to all your online resources.
Some of those resources should be a social network. For nearly any professional, a service like LinkedIn is a great place to start. Yes, it’s an online social network, but it is tailored to professionals connecting with professionals in a controlled environment. It’s really an organized, standardized way to host a copy of your resume, allow people to search resumes, gain authority (via recommendations which are like references), post & search jobs, and accept/deny invitations to “connect” with peers as you see fit.
Some more socially adept individuals will point out that LinkedIn is deficient in many interactive social aspects, such as being able to share pictures, status updates, funny icons, favorites lists (movies, music, etc), and the like. The good part is that none of this clouds the primary purpose of LinkedIn: to network with like-minded professionals.
Now for the more adventurous, there is Facebook where many professionals are starting to leverage the advanced features, using them to better understand their contacts and communicate with them around the world in real time.
Another quickly growing tool in social media is a micro-blogging/presence application such as Twitter. The speed with with you can communicate, share information, get updates, news, and the like is incredible. The important thing to remember about Twitter (and similar services) is to not judge it by it’s original purpose. The Twitter question “What are you doing?” was just a launchpad. In 140 characters or less, you can communicate a status, a thought, a question, a frustration, a plea, a thank you… Twitter is just another view of the online community that you build.
I guess the point of this is that online communities, be they blogs, social networks or IM are only as good as the effort you put into them. Just like in offline relationships, the effort to understand, learn and grow is crucial to succeeding and gaining benefit for you – and your network!
Technorati tags: Social Media, Social Networking, LinkedIn
Jul 20, 2007 | blog
Ah, another productive Friday. Sometimes I’m surprised at the amount of work I get done on Fridays. A little sunshine, a little Van Halen, WiFi, Coffee, and the work gets done.
This is something that I just couldn’t do in corporate – the dirty secret is that I could have if only allowed to. Working off-site is better than working at home, better than an empty office with a door, better than booking an obscure conference room for the day (week!?).
Just get out of the office, away from home, out where nobody is going to bother you. Try it. You will be amazed.
My view right now:
Technorati tags: Working Outside, Working Remotely, Alternate Workspace
Jul 19, 2007 | blog
There is a growing group of professionals over on Facebook. Its a group called Grasshoppers, created by Chris Brogan (Facebook link), and is really a concerted effort in friendsourcing.
The concept is simple, everyone in the group is good at something, has a special skill or resource, and everyone may need something from time to time. As a resource to solve a problem, this is a group where you can ask for help with something and get a response.
Whether it’s just to answer a simple question or to help in a job search – Grasshoppers are there. If you’re interested in helping a friend, or need something, check out the growing Grasshoppers group in Facebook.
Technorati tags: Friendsourcing, Grasshoppers, Chris Brogan, Facebook
