You have probably heard about how one has to be a prolific blogger in order to attract traffic to blogs. However, what if attracting traffic and creating revenue was not your primary aim?
I’ve previously written about how the average person can use social media to enhance employability. If building a digital presence to showcase your abilities to potential employers is your primary strategy, it may in fact serve you better to not blog as regularly as often suggested.
Too much information
By the end of 2009 there were 126 million blogs. This number is only growing. As mentioned in the link, there is also a multitude of other exponentially increasing content available online.
The use of social media, as means to share information, has created enormous opportunities to easily distribute what we create online. However, when most of us look at our facebook or twitter feeds we find that competition for our attention is intense. There is so much information!
To stand out in such a landscape requires considerable amount of added investment, apart from talent and compelling content, in marketing/distributing content that is created. It is not practical for many with full-time jobs and family responsibilities, to devote that much time to creating and marketing content.
Relationship building vs. flooding
Adapting to such conditions, it may be counter productive to inundate your social media network feeds with regular blog posts or self-serving promotions.
Instead, use your limited time to build stronger online relationships by joining the conversation and comment on shared content/blogs that interest you. Thus when you do post links to your blog, there is a better chance of it being read.
People (except maybe mom) lose interest fast when they see that all you do is talk about yourself. Most of us should not expect people to be interested in what we have to say if we have not taken time to reciprocate. This works the same in real life as it does in online relationships.
This also holds true, for the most part, when one uses social media as a marketing tool for business. If you are simply broadcasting (one directional flow of information…like done on TV, in newspapers and in magazines), social media marketing is not going to be as effective.
How often should you blog?
If your strategy is to wisely invest your time to showcase your knowledge and abilities to future employers, while still building a small loyal following, you can probably limit your blogging to once or twice every 2 weeks. In time, you will have enough content on your blog (or online portfolio) for any potential employer to refer to.
If you think you can manage to post more often, go for it! At all times though, make sure you enjoy what you are doing.