By Lynne Williams

Everyone has a story to tell, and it can be good, bad, or ugly. There may be happy or sad endings. LinkedIn is one of many places to share your story.

On LinkedIn, you can share your story by creating a post, an article, a document, or a video. If you share a video blog, it is known as a vlog, and you are a vlogger who creates video content.

In contrast, a blog, which is created by a blogger, is written content.

Blogs can entertain, empower, educate, engage, or enlighten – the five Es of content marketing.

While most of my writing is to educate, I have a personal story to share about fire. Fifteen years ago, I lost everything in my life to fire, including my pets. I shared this sad but true story on LinkedIn.

Fortunately, there was no human life lost, but after I recovered from the experience, I decided to volunteer as a business member for the fire company and still help with fundraising events. One of my main contributions is supporting the annual Turkey Raffle and silent auction, and I utilize my technology skills.

At this time of year when we give thanks, please support your local fire company and EMTs financially. Their budgets have been hit with all the COVID-19 PPE costs and more. Have no fear, they are there for you 24/7/365, ready for you on the front line.

In a previous article on How to and Why LinkedIn Publishing, you will find useful information for writing your blog on LinkedIn. Some of the information is also applicable to other platforms.

If you have not yet written an article on LinkedIn, it’s a great time to start. When you write this article, you can consider it a blog, and you can publish it on your website (if you have one) or other platforms.  If you don’t have a website, you can create a blog site on several different platforms.

When interviewing two local bloggers, they had a couple of tips to share about blogging:

Brandyn Campbell shared one of her favorite anonymous quotes: “One of my favorite pieces of advice for bloggers is, ‘If you’re your authentic self, you have no competition.’ Don’t worry about whether a topic has been written about before. Adding your spin and experience to post makes it yours, which makes it unique.

Brandyn does anti-racist communications consulting and is passionate about helping her clients, committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, articulate their values into the language of their business. Her experience as a blogger enables her to help organizations shape the next steps in their story.

If you want to follow her, here are her handles:

Facebook Twitter Instagram

Another local blogger, Christine Tarlecki Trimble, is the author of Engchik Eats, a local food, and lifestyle blog. She notes, “I write what I know. Starting a blog is daunting and scary. When I was laid off, I began to think about what I liked and what I wanted to write about – so food was the obvious answer. I seek out local chefs and local restaurants. Especially in this climate, I seek to create relationships with my local community.

This year hasn’t been easy, and like many of you, I was laid off (again!). But I have a strong writing and digital marketing background, so I can use my blog and my skills to earn a freelance paycheck.”

Christine notes she has been lucky with people reading her blog, and she has promoted it on social media. Readers have voted her blog the best local blog because of the relationships she has built with them.

She also just started a podcast because she loves interviewing people as much as she loves writing about them! Christine has found subject matter experts to interview for features, and as a skilled blogger, she can tell their stories and create my blog, one story at a time.

If you want to follow her, here are her handles:

Website Facebook Twitter Instagram Podcast

What’s your first blog going to be about, and when will you start? What emotions will you add-in?

Missed last week’s article on How to Start Your Profile on LinkedIn? Click here!

Upcoming November Online Zoom Events

Register per the instructions on the website. Join our meetup (see step one of this Google doc). To attend the speaker meetings for free for a year, become a Bronze or BENG member. Your membership or sponsorship supports our nonprofit to help job seekers in career transition and self-employed and employed with career management. Consider sponsoring a job seeker in need and help pay it forward!

• 11/20 Blogging to Tell Your Story with Brandyn Campbell
• 11/23 Is It Time to Consider Plan B
• 11/23 How to Handle the Emotional Roller Coaster of the Job Search
• 11/24 Mindset Your Way to Get Hired (TEDx Speaker)
• 11/24 Business Executives Networking Group Meeting
• 11/25 PowerThinking Resilience Building Call-In
• 11/25 Business Executives Networking Group
• 11/27 Interviewing Techniques with The Interview Doctor
• 11/28 LinkedIn Part 3 of 3
• 11/30 Career Success Group Meeting

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lynne Williams, Ed.D. Candidate (she/her/hers) is the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Area Great Careers Group, a nonprofit with over 6300 members and alumni. Contact Lynne by phone at 484-393-2951, email at director@greatcareersphl.org, on social media @GreatCareersPHL and #GreatCareersPHL and connect on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/lynnewilliams. Read our SCORE Success Story as a 2020 Small Business Achievement Award Winner!

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