HR blogs and blogging habits (7): Getting the HR blogging habit

The first of these fine posts on HR blogging comes from Dwane Lay's Lean HR blog, and is entitled Why I blog. Why you should too. Dwane is a US-based HR professional, who describes himself as having "[grown] up in IT with a sprinkle of social services thrown in". In this post, Dwane presents an excellent general introduction to getting started in blogging, with direct relevance to what blogging has to offer HR.

Among the numerous very good points raised here are the following:

[T]he act of blogging can push you to develop yourself and your outlook in new and interesting ways.

[Via blogging,] I've learned a lot about my chosen profession, and I think I am better in my job for it.  My network is far wider than it would have been, and I have a large group of people upon whom I can call for help.

This post also includes excellent guidance on finding your blogging voice. Dwane advises:
[J]ust assume that no one reads it or no one cares.

And while addressing both the potential positives and negatives of building a blog audience with which you can interact, he makes the crucial point that building an audience takes time and in most cases requires effort. He writes:

See, while I assume no one reads my work, I can promise you no one will read yours.  Not for a while, anyway, especially if you don't promote it.

The second post is from Informa Business Information HR Director Alison Chisnell. Alison was so inspired by discussions around what social media can offer HR at last week's ConnectingHR unconference that she immediately set up her own blog. As Alison puts it:

[W]hat the Unconference helped me to realise is that we all have things to say and that we should be proactive about sharing knowledge and finding our voice.  

As well as starting a blog and finding her voice, Alison's other two key work resolutions arising from the unconference are to explore social media as part of her organisation's recruitment strategy, and to "coach others in my organisation on social media."

In a great example of the positive, supportive nature of the HR blogging community highlighted in Dwane Lay's post, Alison's debut blog post received numerous positive comments.

These comments included one from leading US HR blogger Trish McFarlane, who describes overcoming her hesitancy to start an HR blog as "the best move I could have made. Since then I've been able to express my ideas, get feedback from professionals in the HR and recruitment industry as well as other industries, attend conferences and un-conferences, and challenge all my assumptions."

It is my hope that by highlighting these two posts, and by encouraging readers of XpertHR Employment Intelligence to check out the other posts in this series on HR blogs and blogging habits, more HR professionals might be encouraged to try their hand at blogging.

UPDATE: My colleagues at personneltoday.com have launched an excellent new set of social media and HR wikis on the HR Space forum. These include guidance on the advantages and disadvantages of blogging for HR.

• HR blogs and blogging habits: Read all posts in the XpertHR series