What does this mean for you? As a senior executive, you can use blogs to:
- Research a company and determine the organizational structure, corporate culture, vision and mission
- Network with the CEO and other senior level executives in your target company via their blogs
- Research a company's intellectual portfolio, product(s), services or technological developments
- Increase your visibility on the headhunters’ and recruiters’ radar screen
- Publicize your executive brand, thought leadership, and rainmaking talents and become high profile in your industry
- Position yourself as a senior executive who can lead companies through tough economic conditions, turn companies around, lead acquisition integrations, pioneer new products and services, generate new lines of business, drive revenue, and deliver market share and shareholder value.
Research, Networking & Job Search Strategy
Webopedia's definition of a blog is “a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.” TechWeb describes a blog as “a Web site that contains dated entries in reverse chronological order about a particular topic. Blogs invite feedback and comments from visitors.”
Some companies host blogs authored by their CEO, marketing executives, managers, engineers, technicians, and sales executives. You can find a list of CEOs and executives who author a blog, as well as a link to their blog, at TheNewPR.com. The Wiki list is segmented by country. To find those in the U.S., you will need to scroll down to “United States of America.”
Companies like Microsoft, Lockheed, Macromedia, Oracle, General Motors, HP and ThoughtWorks host several blogs authored by executives and professionals at various levels. Microsoft offers a community of Microsoft blogs. There are several blogs in the Careers Community alone.
Microsoft's Senior Marketing Recruiter, Heather Hamilton, publishes a blog on Marketing and Finance at Microsoft. In an article in The New York Times, Heather is quoted as saying that she "has many candidates in the process" as a result of her blog. In her blog, she announced upcoming marketing positions that she would be recruiting for in the future and readers posted questions to gain more clarity about the positions and their potential candidacy.
TheNewPR.com offers list of corporations that host blogs. The lists at these WIKI sites are not a complete listing because they are a compiled by volunteers.
You can check to see if the CEO or company you're researching has a blog by conducting a thorough search on the following blog search engines:
http://www.technorati.com
http://www.blogarama.com
http://www.blogtree.com
Unlike email that arrives in your in box, blogging requires you to proactively visit blog sites and review and respond to recent posts. However, you may subscribe to RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds listed on the blog sites. Many also offer email notification of new blog and comment postings. These will gather, organize and send the site’s recent blog posts and comments directly to your email inbox.
Thousands of blogs are hosted and authored by a senior executive independent of a company affiliation. Many executives use blogs as a means of managing their online presence and marketing their executive brand so they can attract job offers. These executives usually write about a particular topic related to their area of expertise and some author several blogs on different topics. Blogging enables the executive to develop an extended network of contacts with similar interests and to be found by headhunters and recruiters. Once the blogger appears on the headhunters’ or recruiters’ radar screen, they will know where to find the blogger when an executive search contract requiring the blogger’s expertise lands on their desk.
Sample blogs published by senior executives and professionals as a job search strategy include:
Using Blogs to Build An Online Brand & Identity
Publishing a blog is a way to build credibility, showcase what you bring to the table, demonstrate your value proposition, and position you as an innovative thought leader, creative maverick, rainmaker, catalyst, evangelist, or influential opinion maker. You can write about emerging trends, groundbreaking news, industry events, ongoing research or projects, new products and inventions. You can also include white papers or articles you have written, charts and graphs, your bio and complete resume, an audio presentation or podcast, and a link to your web site or web portfolio, LinkedIn profile, and other social media profiles.
There are several services that will host your blog. Some are free and some charge a small licensing fee. Two free sites include:
Google – www.blogger.com/start and
Blogates – http://www.blogates.com/
For a modest fee, you can create a blog hosted by:
TypePad – www.typepad.com and
WordPress – http://www.wordpress.com/
Each site has a wizard to step you through the process or setting up your blog and getting started.
You will need to publish regular posts and respond to comments and questions from people posting to your blog in order to rank high in the search engines and get found by executives, headhunters and recruiters. If you don’t have time for such activities, consider hiring someone to manage your blog. Consider dictating what you want to publish and having your administrative team manage the rest. Your posts could be as short as 150 words and as long as you like. There is no limit. However, the typical blog reader isn’t interested in reading long articles. Blog posts are short, pithy, interesting and newsworthy.
Bottom Line
Overall, blogs are great for finding executives and information, as well as, getting found and communicating information that will elicit interviews and job offers.
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© Copyright, 2009, Beverly Harvey. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Beverly Harvey has been coaching senior-level and C-level executives in job search, career transition and career management for over 17 years. She has helped thousands of executives land their next position quickly. Beverly is the founder of HarveyCareers.com and holds eight certifications in resume writing, branding, job search, career transition and career management. She is a resume expert for six executive job boards; contributor to more than 20 career books; Director of the Job Search Academy; and is the author of Career News & Trends. She can be reached at 386-749-3111 or 888-775-0916.
