The Evolving Role of Senior Executives in the Digital Age
The digital age has ushered in unexpected changes, transforming the very fabric of how organizations operate. Let’s unravel the evolving role of senior executives in
Most executives that are not in technology or media companies cringe when blogging is suggested to them. The stereotype of bloggers is that of people ranting and raging on ridiculous topics, or writing a daily diary of their mundane lives. Well, it may have started that way but it has evolved into a strategic marketing tool for both companies and professionals wanting to advance their careers.
Rationale for Blogging
Is there a compelling rationale for executive blogging? Yes. In fact there are statistics that demonstrate that as well.
“Blogs will become the new must-have executive accessory, just as email is today. They amplify any senior executive's communications from one-to-one to one-to-many. It's a no-brainer if you think about it.” Debbie Weil, author, The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right
The rationale for blogging was best demonstrated by Richard Jalichandra, the CEO of Technorati.com at BlogWorld New Media Expo in October, 2009. He made clear that the growth of blogging was now overwhelmingly in the corporate and professional world, “The rise of the ‘Professional class of bloggers’ was cited as a major reason for the health of the blogosphere.” In fact, 73% of the blogosphere is now made of professionals from corporates and small businesses.
Organizations are factoring blogging into their entire online marketing strategy - it is ranked among the top four social media tools to manage you and your company’s reputation, visibility and brand online via Google search, and blogs rank higher in Google search algorithms than regular websites.
So who are the big four who capture and hold top rankings for you on Google and other search engines?
Hubspot.com, a top consulting firm for social marketing, built a case for using blogs as an inbound marketing tool. If that case can be made for business, then it certain applies to executive career management strategy. Hubspot.com commented “Inbound marketing complements the way hiring managers and recruiters make candidate decisions today. They use the Internet and related media to learn about the potential employees that best meet their needs. Inbound Marketing focuses on pulling the right companies and organizations towards you. Blogging is an integral component to an overall inbound marketing strategy”.
Career Goals Drive Blogging
There are different motivations for professionals to adopt blogging as an external or internal communications vehicle, ranging from career transition to entrepreneurship. The business effects of blogging can reach a widespread and diverse audience from internal executive management, to vendors, partners, customers, analysts and the media. Blogging strategy depends on your professional reasons for doing it:
How to Blog
How does one actually go about blogging? Well there are several well-known and respected blogging platforms on the Internet including Google’s Blogger.com, Typepad.com by Six Apart, and WordPress.org, a free open source blogging tool and platform. Blogger is the easiest to get started with. Typepad is more sophisticated and allows customization if you know HTML or CSS scripting languages (or hire it out). WordPress is the most complicated to setup initially and, unless you are technical, it is best farmed out. However, WordPress has the most flexibility with the capability to add chat rooms, e-commerce, multiple pages, etc. My own website, www.pattiwilson.com is built in WordPress.
Let’s be clear on blogging terminology before moving forward. According to Wikipedia the definitions for blogging are:
The beauty of a blog site is that it enables you to write posts, add photos, video, audio, all without need for technical know-how. If you can use email, you can blog. Key rules for how to setup a blog and start blogging are actually basic common sense. Blogger.com and Typepad.com will help you with tutorials and guides, but here is a key list of things to do when setting up a blog:
What to Blog About
The challenge of blogging is what to say? I have seen well-known authors have blogger’s writing block. The best advice is to make a list in your mobile device or notepad on blogging topics and when inspiration hits, write them up. You can then upload your blogposts at timed intervals of hours, days, weeks or months to keep the flow going using automated blog posting tools while your attention is elsewhere.
Finding topics to blog about is easiest when you comment on information you obtain elsewhere. No one is expecting you to generate original content and that is a mistake most people make. It is far easier to pull information from company websites, newspaper and journal publications, other bloggers, and wikipedia to comment on. The kind of comments that you offer depends on your business and career goals for blogging in the first place for example you can:
Blogrolls
A blogroll is a collection of links to other weblogs, and when present, are often found on the front page sidebar of most weblogs. Blogrolls, second only to comments, are very useful blog tools. By listing other blogs and providing links to them from your site you have an opportunity to recognize, acknowledge and compliment targeted vendors, customers, partners, the media, and industry leaders.
Video and Audio Blogging
Video blogging, or vlogging, is a form of blogging using video. Think YouTube.com, Vimeo.com and Justintv.com where individuals now have their own channels. In video blogging, blog entries are made by embedding video or a video link into your blog. In other words, you can do the video yourself and put it in your blog, or insert another’s video and comment on it. Youtube provides the best platform to upload your videos from your computer and then embed them in your blog. A podcast, according to Wikipedia, is a term that is a portmanteau of the words "iPod" and "broadcast”, which came into use when the Apple iPod was the main brand of portable media players and podcasts were developed. Of course, it has never been necessary to use an iPod, or any other form of portable media player to use podcasts. Blog platform providers offer tools to enable podcasts and vlogs on you blog.
Using Twitter with Your Blog
Twitter has grown into an instant messaging service to multitudes of people, and can distribute you message posts over multiple networks and devices. There is now a specific link between Twitter and Linkedin that cross pollinates updates between the two social media sites, as well as between Twitter and Facebook. When you write a blog post and announce it with a link and short post on Twitter, your contacts on multiple social sites will see it and follow the link. From the BlogWorld New Media 2009 Expo:
To Sum it All Up
“You are your Google results. You must proactively manage your online identity. Find the right ways to become Digitally Distinct over time. Stay ahead of the competition and visible to your target audience. “William Arruda, well-known branding expert. Believing that your resume or CV will suffice to promote your expertise, reputation and credibility is insufficient self-marketing today, much like relying solely on radio ads to promote a product would be. In today’s digitized and highly connected global economy, multiple tactics, platforms, venues and tools are required to promote your brand visibility on the Internet. Blogging is one tool of many to make that happen.
The digital age has ushered in unexpected changes, transforming the very fabric of how organizations operate. Let’s unravel the evolving role of senior executives in
As navigators of corporate strategy, your boardroom decisions carry significant weight, shaping the trajectory of your organization. But you already know that. In this blog,