4 Ways to Use Your Blog to Land a New Job or Client

By Lisa Petrilli

Assuming that your blog is a genuine reflection of who you are personally and professionally, it can be a valuable tool when seeking a new position or the opportunity to work with a new client.

Last fall an opportunity to work with a potential client on a long term basis in a particular role came to me, and I had to go through an interviewing process similar to one you’d experience in the corporate world. 

I discovered that I could use my blog in these 4 important ways to amplify my candidacy and the impact of my interviews:

1. To Further My Credibility

Most job interview processes start with a resume – which is where my strategy started as well.  The first page of my resume that I presented to the potential client has 4 key sections:

1)  Leadership Summary – a 2-sentence paragraph that establishes my very unique niche and tells the interviewer/company what I’m passionate about in a way that is relevant to them

2)  What I am Looking to do – a more business-oriented sentence about how I can help their business stated in a way that my passion for the meat of the role comes through

3)  Unique Career Highlights and Experiences – 10 brief bullet points that set me apart from anyone else professionally as well as personally (I mention my kidney transplant and the advocacy roles I’ve played as a result in one bullet point at the end), and then intrigue the reader to want to learn more

4)  Learn More About My Executive Insights – this is where I mentioned my blog and provided a link to the blog along with a link to my “About” page. 

If you look at my “About” page you’ll notice that I point out what, for me, represents the highlights and cumulative experiences of my career.  At the same time, I talk about myself from a personal perspective and mention some of my volunteer efforts, my degrees, and include links and mention to how I’m contributing to other organizations in the online marketing and leadership environments.

I also pulled selective LinkedIn recommendations that I’ve received and included them on my “About” page given that most interviewers might not see these even if they took the time to try to find me on LinkedIn.

I realize I’m biased, but I believe that immediately this page gives the interviewer and prospective hiring manager a much better overview of who I am as a professional and a person than they receive by reading through my resume which, no matter how hard I try, always ends up being a bit dry.

Key point: I make sure that a link to my blog and my blog’s “About” page have a visible spot on the first page of my resume and that my “About” page is given great thought.  Again, this also assumes that the blog content itself is a genuine reflection of who you are as a professional and is also professionally and respectfully presented.

Taken together, this adds credibility to what you’re presenting to the hiring company in your resume.  The hiring manager may not click on the link, but if they do they’re further invested in you, you have an opportunity to stand out from all other candidates, and you have a chance to make a unique impression via your blog.

2. To Better Define My Professional Insights and Industry Vision

In the “Learn More About My Executive Insights” section of my resume I provide the reader a link to “learn more about my leadership insights” – and I point them to one of my key leadership posts that I think best defines my perspective on executive leadership – and I do the same with a link to “learn more about my marketing insights.”

As a result, before they even call me that have a much deeper understanding of how I think and of my professional values; thus our phone and interview conversations can go much deeper more quickly than those they’ll have with the others contending for the job.

Key point: Whatever your area of expertise or industry, write a few posts that represent your “thought leadership” and your honest perspective on your industry or discipline and point to them in your resume with the offer to the resume reader to learn more about your insights in those posts.

3. To Enable the Interviewing Team to Get to Know Me Better as a Person

I didn’t actually plan it this way but the post that I published before one of my interviews was a very personal one entitled, “The Art of the Setback.”  It turned out that my interviewer logged onto my blog before we met and read this particular post.  She then told me in our meeting that one of the people on the management team had just experienced a personal setback and she asked if she could share my post with this person.

Of course, I was honored and realized that regardless of whether I’d get the job, my blog was helping someone in a way that I couldn’t have fathomed when I set off for the interview.  That blog post told my interviewer so much more about who I was and what I was experiencing in my life than I probably would have shared in my structured interview, and it created an invaluable connection.

I was interviewed later in the process by the manager who’d been sent my post and she remarked on it and how helpful it had been to her.

Key point: Don’t be afraid to talk about yourself in very personal ways on your blog, and don’t assume you must hide those posts when interviewing. You just never know when they’ll enable a connection to be formed, and they give your interviewers a much better feeling for who you are and whether they’d like to work with you and have you on their team!

4. Commitment to Growth and Learning

Just the fact that you’re reading this blog post shows that you’re committed to daily personal growth and probably in many ways to lifelong learning.  These qualities are vitally important to employers today!

When I was asked about my curiosity and commitment to learning outside of my “job” I talked in my interview about how blogging – and the act of writing some of my most heart felt thoughts – has opened up a whole new world to me.  I talked about how I’ve become exposed to brilliant blogs and bloggers who make me think bigger and differently every, single day and how responding to comments on my blog and leaving comments on other blogs forces me to get better at articulating my own opinions.

I landed the client and the organization can’t wait to start blogging…

Key point: If these things are true for you then talk about them in your interviews; talk vibrantly and vividly about them.  You just never know what the impact of your energy will be!

Please let me know if you find these tips helpful, and please let me know what I missed!  I’d be honored to hear from you in the comments…

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Photo is Jumping for Joy by jsorbieus.