Personal branding is a no-brainer concept to me. I highly recommend it to anyone at any time – not just when you need to have it, say for instance, when you are searching for a job. Your image is important, and it is relatively easy and fun to create a positive brand for oneself online these days.
When I talk to people about building websites, I stress the importance of blogging, no matter if it is for a personal site or a business. The need to brand is the same in both cases. In fact, here is a recent blog post I wrote on my web design company’s blog explaining the benefits. In today’s world of open communication and transparency, it is a crucial tool.
I’ve been working in PR and on the internet for many years now. This stuff is second nature to me. So why is it then, that I am only just now starting to do this for myself? Why haven’t I been practicing what I preach? C’MON KEVIN!!!
A bit of a background…
This isn’t exactly my first blog. I’ve been blogging on and off for a few years now on my own websites and at my job a bit. Back in early 2008, I started a blog about being able to combine travel and work/income (i.e., digital nomad/location independent). Later on that year, I started blogging about college football. Most recently, there is the company blog for Tri-Penguin Media that I mentioned before.
The digital nomad topic is still something that very much is of interest to me. I immediately stopped and lost momentum on that blog the very day I started my most recent job with the Boston Breakers – which was a bit of unfinished business for me at the time. I had interned and volunteered for the Breakers during the first American women’s pro soccer league, WUSA, from 2001-03.
Having just finished college around that time, that was where I had wanted to start building my career. The league folded in 2003, and professional women’s soccer (and the Breakers) didn’t return again in the USA until WPS was born in 2008. Despite not exactly being keen on continuing to burnout work in sports PR at the time, I couldn’t resist the lure of returning. Not to mention, I would be the director this time (the title “communications manager” was a bit misleading), leading the media relations, website and social media efforts of the organization. Pretty cool I thought.
As for the college football blog… well, sometimes I feel like writing about sports, sometimes I don’t. In the midst of getting ready for the launch of the new league, the burnout was beginning to set in once again before I could really build any momentum off this blog. Basically I have a great many interests outside of sports, and I didn’t feel like spending more time thinking about it than I already had to at work.
For better or worse, and despite a considerable amount of praise from both within the organization/league and from outside, I was let go of my position with the Breakers this past September. Such is the unfortunate state of our economy, and that of a fledgling sports league. I do hope things turn around soon for both.
Present Day…
Fast forward nine months to today. I am still in the same position as I was back on Sept. 3 – unemployed. I had done some consulting and freelance design work on and off for a few years, so I’ve continued to pursue and have landed a few such opportunities. Not enough, however.
Between trying to find a new job using the somewhat “traditional” methods (i.e. scouring the internet for job postings and responding with a cover letter and resume) – which can be a full-time job in and of itself – and trying to find more opportunities for self-employment or telecommuting, I’ve noticed that my focus and efforts have been scattered and very ineffective. Subconsciously I either just needed the time off, or I needed to be a lot more clear about what it was I was looking to do. Most likely both.
Yes, I would prefer the flexibility of working for myself and/or telecommuting. I’m just not there yet. Whichever one happens first, full-time job or full-time business, I’ve told myself. The longer this period of unemployment continues, the greater the need to gather a steady paycheck. I have no issue with this.
This brings me to the point of this post… I should know better!!! There are better and more creative ways of going about promoting oneself in today’s world. Better tools, technologies and ideas. Why aren’t I using these? Why haven’t I been using Twitter and other social media platforms to find a job. Why haven’t I made good use of my LinkedIn profile? Why haven’t I been using my own website for crying out loud?
Back in September I decided to at least put something up on this, my namesake website. It was quick and painless to do, and yet painful to look at and very ineffective. It really sucked to put it bluntly. I think I just put something on here just to have something and be able to say I have a website with my name as the URL. Another example of how scattered my mind has been. Apparently I didn’t really care that it was far below any standard I would accept – which strongly goes against my M.O. Why should any potential employer or client who ventures onto my digial landscape feel any different?
I’ve woken up and am now consciously aware of the situation. Fortunately I already know how to fix this and I can now focus on working smarter (see: effcient and effective), and not necesarily harder with no results (see: busy for the sake of being busy). I’ve had a free in-house PR and productivity guru at my disposal all this time. It’s about time I start paying attention to him.
