If the prospect of populating your own blog and maintaining your own website doesn’t sound appealing, then you might consider creating an online presence for yourself by commenting and interacting with other blogs and websites:
- Identify the blogs and websites that are related to your target function, industry, and organization.
- Regularly visit the blogs and websites. You can subscribe to blogs via e-mail or an RSS feed (an online reader) so that posts get delivered to you automatically.
- When you read something that interests you, post a comment or ask a question to forward the discussion.
This showcases your ideas (and bloggers often appreciate knowing posts have elicited responses).
- If you have an idea for a post that might be suitable for the blog, contact the blog owner and ask if you can guest post.
Interact with other blogs and websites so you can share your ideas and expertise without having to maintain your stand-alone site. Staying on top of other blogs and websites also shows commitment and follow-through because doing so takes time and attention. This interaction also is a form of online networking, and can be seen as a form of social networking, in addition to your activity on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media sites. If you are trying to connect with someone you do not know, following their blog or website is a way to get to know them, as well as demonstrate your commitment and interest. If an organization’s website features a recently published report, commenting on that report can attract the attention of the author and give you an entry point into the organization.
To stay on top of relevant blogs, remember the article aggregators, such as Alltop, Digg, and Delicious, that showcase the top-read news stories and articles and frequently the most-visited blogs. Quora and Squidoo are two examples of websites that are specifically set up for people to showcase their expertise. Quora consists of questions and answers where anyone can contribute. By answering questions about a specific topic, you showcase your expertise in the topic. Squidoo consists of blogs on different topics, called lenses. You set up a lens on your specific area of interest and populate it. This is very similar to starting your own blog, but your blog (or lens) is part of a large collective group, rather than a separate individual blog.
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