So many times when I was in the corporate world, several co-workers and associates would tease me about my blog. Or mention as a point of humor about how you can Google my name and all the results are about me. For quite awhile I didn’t really know how to answer these folks or how best to describe why I blogged.
What I’ve figured out is that most people are still afraid of the Internet. More specifically, that their personal information may get distributed on the Internet. The reality of course is that for a small fee, anyone can get all the background information we want or need on anyone else.
The hardest part for me was to overcome my fear of having the world know who I am. I had gotten past that stumbling block before I consciously knew it – seriously, if you go back and read my two early blogs (I don’t count MSN Spaces), you’ll see that I really hadn’t an idea of what I was getting into.
So here are some reasons I blog:
- My personal space on the global stage
- A platform for voicing my opinions, viewpoints, ideas, thoughts
- A place to get feedback from anyone in the world (I don’t delete negative comments – only inappropriate ones)
- A place where people can always find me – from new contacts to old friends (my email address and phone number are always here)
- A portal into everything that I am – from here you can find my resume, my consulting company, my online professional links, my social networks and more
- A permanent place for all the search engines to find me (yes I want that)
At any rate, the main thing I’ve learned is that you can’t be afraid of people learning who you are. With a blog, you have some control of that, you have the ability to craft your personal brand which is much more than just your reputation.
By the way, today I found another tool to promote myself (or yourself – way wait?), called Ziki that is kind of an online self-promotion aggregator. It looks like a fairly interesting site for combining your important online bits and getting them rated higher in Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
