I was talking with a friend a few weeks ago who told me she was interested in building her own brand – basically, she wants to get her name “out there” and begin to do a bit of writing. She also is interested in getting recognized within her organization with the hope of moving to another department where she can be closer to the customer. She wasn’t interesed in doing her own blog just yet. She also had been offering help to the other department (to which she wanted to transition) when they had projects and other initiatives and was finding some success there, but wanted to increase her visiblity. I offered a solution – contribute to her company’s blog. She had mentioned to me a few weeks before this conversation that her company had launched a blog and they were looking for writers to contribute articles. I told her she had so many opportunities here to “shine” within the organization and begin to build her own brand. She could write about happenings within her own department, write about topics relevant to other employees, and even take on the role of a “reporter” for the organization – meeting with department heads to capture their “story” for the blog or by interviewing employees to share their stories.
When we last spoke a couple of days ago, I asked her if she was contributing to the company blog – she was! And she shared a few of her submissions with me. She was writing about happenings within the organization (upcoming customer-focused and other events, new products and services, etc.) and was also reaching out to individual employees to share their stories on the blog. And – here’s the best part – she told me she was in the company cafeteria the other day when one of the Senior Vice Presidents came up to her and told her she was doing a great job on the blog and he enjoyed reading her stories. Needless to say, she is thrilled!
