Tuesday 9 March 2010

Blogging about blogging

At the moment I am having a bit of a blogging dilemma. As you know I am looking for a job. I am digital project manager with a social media specialism. My dilemma is about whether or not I should blog about these topics. Everywhere I look these days people are blogging about social media, technology trends, and the latest advertising campaigns.


I remember last year when I was looking for a job several people advised me that if I wanted to work in advertising that I should start blogging about my favourite adverts and campaigns.

This would tell people how switched on I am to what's going on and show how keen I was to work in the industry. The idea just didn't appeal to me. There are so many well written blogs on the subject out there at the moment; does the world really need another blog that's written for the soul purpose of impressing a future boss?

I didn't really want to blog about my favourite adverts or how much I loved x, y, and z brands. At first this worried me. If I didn't want to blog about advertising did that mean I had no business working in the industry? Didn't I want to put across that I was passionate and in the know?

So now this time around I am finding that more often than not when I am researching people at agencies where I'd like to work that they have blogs about industry related topics. So again, I wonder if that's what I should be doing? I mean I don't want to get left behind in the dust do I?

The thing is that as much as I love social media and advertising I don't want to blog about it in my personal time with the caveat that I'd be more than happy to write about if I were being paid.
I think that's important to have interests and hobbies that are outside of what you do professionally. If you don't I think you can just get very myopic view of things. 

You've got to mix it up, get out there and experience new things. It reminds me of my wonderful professor at MCAD, the great Jerry Allan's Creative and Critical Thinking class. Jerry was big on learning and doing things that were outside your comfort zone. He taught us the importance of finding inspiration in unexpected places.


So that's my two pence (cents) worth. I am just going to continue with writing about what I love. Being an expat in London.
And cheers to all the people who write the blogs that I love reading about professional topics and otherwise!






3 comments:

  1. I know what you mean Rhea. Most of the marketing/ad blogs just copy and paste new trends or ideas from other blogs and don't really say anything original. When they do divulge their expert opinions, it's always about the same tired stuff. It's so boring. "You have to connect with your customers with social media. Mobile technology is going to be big. Twitter!" Bring a book.

    Anyways. Keep up the writing. I think your blog shows that you are a very creative and original individual - and that's what companies look for.

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  2. I love your writing as it is. I hate the idea of blogging out of obligation as that's when writing changes from being honest to self-promotion focused.

    Besides you haven't been here long enough to run out of material on how wacky expat life can be ;)

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  3. Thanks for the comments! I really appreciate it. It's settled, I will continue to blog about expat life in London.

    A fellow I used to go to MCAD with, Taylor Snyder blogs about advertising.
    http://imanad.blogspot.com/

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