Interesting Q&A session at BlogHer currently about self-promotion and self-branding. Professionals Penelope Trunk, Nina Burokas, and Stephanie Cockerl have some good insights about building and maintaining your own personal brand and blog. This is all being written while sitting on the floor for an hour-and-a-half, so bear with me.
- Self-branding is like 5th grade- be smart with the smart kids and hip with the popular kids.
- You can blog about everything! You can’t blog about knitting AND politics – so pick one.
- You need to have a unique voice and find something that makes you stand out.
- A good way to build traffic on your site is to write posts that intersect two areas that interest you- like if you are an astronaut and write about diapers (all jokes aside) that might be interesting. But if you are an astronaut writing about being an astronaut, well, that’s not all that insightful.
- Good etiquette on the blogosphere is all about making the conversation- if you want to have conversations, blog. If you don’t, then write in a print medium.
- A way to get known on the blogosphere is being authentically interesting and being interested in others.
- Take some risks!
- Some good sites: www.progblogger.net, www.copyblogger.com, www.profnet.com, www.prleads.com
Oh, did I mention I didn’t bring enough business cards with me? Guess I failed in self-promotion today.
By the way, I just caught the facts. For a good opinion on the mood of this session (maybe it was too early in the morning?) click here.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for posting this info…I’m enjoying all the BlogHer reports (and pics) being posted.
Have fun and work that crowd!
Bullet number two was shared with us last year as well, and I have to say that I totally disagree. I blog about two things, and I don’t think my blog would be “real” if I did it any other way. This is kind of controversial in the blog world.
I didn’t make it to this session and glad to read your recap here. Very helpful Thanks!
I’ll see ya around.
MJ
http://wantsugar.blogspot.com
You need to focus on getting yourself out there. Become perceived as an expert in your field and establish trust with your readership. That is the true success in blogging and in business.
Personal Branding is all about discovering who you are and how you can project that to your audience.