It was apparently Blogger's eighth birthday yesterday. I don't know when blogging began - presumably some time before this. But I only really became aware of it, at least as something that might be valuable to me, around this time last year. I set up my blogger account this January, and in July, went live.
I recognise that I've fallen behind with the potential of new technology, which is rather poor given that my second career was in IT (my first was in Engineering, and my third in Change Management - I see HCM to be my fourth). In fact, I only bought my first ipod last month. And I still don't understand what a mashup means.
So my interest in blogging comes partly from a desire to catch up with the times, but also largely from a growing fascination with social capital, which I mentioned in my book, but only in passing, but feel intuitively, is going to be something of growing importance for HR. And I increasingly believe that social media is something that will enable us to revolutionise what we are able to create in the way of social capital. So this is my way of experimenting with all of this. I've already given a couple of webinars, for example with Saba, and I'm sure that my podcasting will start to become available soon.
And quite frankly I love doing it (even when I should be doing something much more constructive, or at least chargeable, on a Friday afternoon). I found writing my book a very therapeutic process as it made me think about and challenge everything that I'd been reading and talking about over the previous three to four years. Blogging gives me the same sort of feeling, but on a day by day basis. My posts also act as an ongoing source of material for future client work, articles and so on.
As brand communication consultant and former client at Diageo Ireland, Krishna De explains:
"If there is a an article which just has a couple of salient points I want to retain, I write a page on my blog with details of the idea or research - sometime I write a blog post on Biz Growth News; then I save the article in a relevant category on my blog. That’s one of the reasons I love my blog as it becomes a source of information not just for my clients and blog readers, but a wonderful content management system for information that I know I will want to refer to again."
But I still come across people to whom this is totally new. I met another consultant earlier in the week who had never been into a blog. That's an awful lot of information he's missing out on. I certainly find that a lot of my thinking and research originates in the blogosphere.
So here's my current HCM blogroll:
What else should I be reading?
Hi Jon - just found your blog! Great to see another UK HR blogger - sometimes it still feels a bit lonley!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog and I look forward to sharing ideas with you
Jon - thanks so much for referenceing my comment in your post. Great to see you have become a blogger and as I notice from your next post, you like many of us have become addicted to blogging. I hope your business blog brings you much business success too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jon. I've stuck you on my blogroll too.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, I started a blog a coupleof years ago but i packed it in because there were so few other HR or business bloggers in the UK. I didn't have anyone to play with.
Now, in the last few months, it seems to be taking off.