Comments on: You Don’t Have To Blog To Rise Up

By: To Blog or Not To Blog? | Deborah Shane Toolbox

To Blog or Not To Blog? | Deborah Shane Toolbox — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:34:31 +0000

[...] a great post “You Don’t Have To Blog To Rise Up“, by Lance Haun, of Rehaul. For more resources on sales, marketing, branding and your [...]

By: Trackback - Free Internation Call >> How to make free international call

Trackback - Free Internation Call >> How to make free international call — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:01:22 +0000

,..] rehaul.com is one another interesting source of tips on this subject,..]

By: Michael Haberman, SPHR

Michael Haberman, SPHR — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:10:40 +0000

Lance:
Another addition to your list of other ways to rise up though:

Through your company
Speaking and volunteering through local associations
Doing interesting things and getting press coverage
Doing guest blog posts
Using other social media tools effectively
Start consulting and advising (even pro bono)

COMMENT on blog posts that your are reading. If you have an opinion on something someone else has written EXPRESS IT.

Great post. Thanks.

By: Dawn Hrdlica

Dawn Hrdlica — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:46:32 +0000

Know why I love–LOVE this post. Because as someone new to blogging—I’m happy to share with the superstars that this post brings a credibility to the medium. Some hr pros I know (haters. . .i know. . . . ) say—”we’ll of course all bloggers say twitter/blogs/ (insert social media here) are the second coming because their popularity depends on it”. I’ve always thought that argument was too easy and really not true. Regardless–it is nice to have a blog expert say—its not the only way.

By: Lance Haun

Lance Haun — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:03:43 +0000

Kat, you’re right.

Marsha, knowledge is important but I think that comes naturally for passionate people. I don’t want someone to think they have to be in the field for X number of years in order to have a great blog.

Franny, I agree with the jest of your post but I think there are legitimate best practices when it comes to doing blogging decently. And I think if you are spending time on blogging, you are not spending time on something else that could improve the world so you owe it to yourself to do it well.

Most people who read blogs aren’t using a reader so if they go to a site a couple times in a month and the content isn’t updated, I think they leave and take a significant chunk of readership.

By: Ben Eubanks

Ben Eubanks — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:55:00 +0000

@Frannyo Your comment is amazingly accurate. It’s so easy for people to get caught up in complaining and never actually produce any positive results. Thanks for the reminder.

By: Frannyo

Frannyo — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:36:24 +0000

I have an uncle who thinks he’s a writer for the NY Times. In reality, he’s a curmudgeon with way too many obscure theories and a serious case of self-importance. He comments daily on NY Times articles, and adds the comments to his personal blog. He expects everyone to keep up with his latest theories and gets offended if you don’t read his comments. His vanity is the only thing being forwarded.

On the other hand, last night I went to a party hosted by Kathy Rapp of HRQinc and Fistfuloftalent.com. I met ten smart HR leaders, not ONE of whom had heard of Fistful, or of any HR blogs. Several didn’t really know what a blog is. They are participating in this “Improve HR” conversation by showing up and doing great things at work every day, and by mentoring people they know in real life. Some are involved in SHRM, some aren’t.

I fear that the HR blogging community is becoming more like my uncle than like the HR practitioners I met last night. I’d agree that you don’t have to blog, but I’d also note that you don’t have to blog any particular way or under any particular deadlines, to be effective. The main thing is to just find a way to think and contribute to the field, doing whatever works for you and for the community at large.

By: Marsha Keeffer

Marsha Keeffer — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:55:08 +0000

Along with passion, I think knowledge about subject matter is important. You don’t have to be an expert – lots of people get by just voicing an opinion, which works too. But there has to be knowledge.

It’s getting easier to update on the fly, so using email to post, or dropping in vids, etc. definitely helps to spice it up and keep people interested.

Lance, I really like your point that blogging is not for everyone – well said. If people can do it, they’ll find it’s the new English teacher. I agree with you that it improves our writing. Doing post after post hones the skill set.

By: Kat

Kat — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:19:17 +0000

Love the post! However, I’ve added a few tweaks…

1. You aren’t passionate about the subject
I totally agree. Hopefully your blog will focus on a niche/topic so you need to have lots to say about it and you want to say it.

2. You aren’t interested in improving your writing
I think this point should be about improving your communication skills (which I think is what you’re really trying to say). You can have a non text based blog, where instead you have videos, audio or pictures. You should pick the method that allows you to communicate to your audience the best.

3. You can’t write on a consistent schedule
Again, I think this should be that you can’t update/add content to your blog regularly, regardless if it’s a video, writing, audio etc.

4. You can’t do the other things that make your blog great
Agree. You need a good balance of creating content and then marketing it.

Again, great post Lance. They always get me thinking.

By: Steve Boese

Steve Boese — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:59:51 +0000

I would add another requirement, that you need to be able to handle no one really noticing your blog (at least at the start). You can’t get freaked out when you publish a post and get no comments and not that many readers. It really takes time and dedication if getting popular is important to you. As Lance said, dedication to improving, learning, and keeping a consistent writing schedule are keys, and you have to be prepared to sometimes be very patient to see the results of your efforts.