I believe that no matter where you are in your career path – beginner, experienced or advanced – it’s important to stay on your toes and nurture the quality of being naturally curious. As humans we all are born with this innate capability of curiosity. As children this quality is further pronounced as we try to engage with and explore the world around us. It’s through this formative emotion that represents a drive to investigate, understand, and learn new things while we go through life and experience things for the first time.

At every stage of our life, we all experience moments that are new and novel to us that require sense making. We attempt to tread that and learn about it in many ways, one of which we’ve all done as children – ask questions! Asking questions and quenching that curiosity centered on a new thing has been an age old tradition that we’ve all graduated from one stage to another as children to adults. It has helped us discover, challenge and stimulate our intellectual curiosity as we mature through the years.

Even through our vocational life, it’s equally important that we try to retain that quality that keeps the learning alive and informational interviews are a great way to achieve that. We all are gifted with the abundance of collective intelligence and knowledge bank gained from our existing network of smart, intelligent and experienced peers and seniors. Each one of us brings something unique to the table based on our background, skills and cultural sensibilities. So why not tap into that collective intelligence of your network to extend and strengthen your vocational learning?

Whether you are out there seeking your first break and trying to get a leg in after college, thinking of transitioning and making a complete career switch from one field to another or vying for the success ladder to get a promotion in your existing job, informational interviews can be a useful medium to help achieve that.

Important considerations – Although I address these types of meetings as ‘interviews’ there is a stark difference in these types of interviews with regular ‘job interviews’ and hence should be treated differently. The focus of this interview should be:

• Treat it as an opportunity for self-discovery and self-assessment
• Ask relevant questions centered on that person’s career, company and profession                          
• Explore the career opportunities that lie within
• Use it as an avenue to find your motivation and inspiration seeking advice from someone you admire
•  To network and build on a new contact
• Overall, really treat it as a learning ground to prepare, improve and build on your skills, qualifications and profession
• The most important differentiator being, do not treat this opportunity as a back-door entry to a job. Don’t go blatantly seeking a job, it can potentially put-off your interviewee and might result in cutting short your interview time, where you could’ve spent all that time asking great questions and getting to know your contact better!
• Keep an open mind, respect their time and always walk away thanking your contact for their time and advice.

If done right, you would’ve walked away not only having made a new contact, but someone who could potentially be your mentor down the road, with continued interaction

In addition to acquiring the standard job interviews, seeking the right informational interviews and having the ability to conduct these tactfully will in many ways catapult you and your career in the right direction. So don’t be afraid to ask questions and share that knowledge with your network. Wouldn’t you agree?

Photo by ankakay

Key is to push your blog, but not all the way to annoyance.
It’s like walking a tight rope; you want to introduce your new blog gracefully with others but not yell and scream from the rooftop to get attention. Nobody likes a pushy salesman forcefully selling you his product without your consent.

Piecemeal it based on your comfort level.
Share your blog initially (via email) with your inner circle of peeps you feel most comfortable with, and can trust. Your family and close friends! Then, as you get more comfortable extend it to others – your community, colleagues, boss, sports buddies etc. and your circle expands.

Tweet about it on Twitter. But don’t get into the copy-paste mode!
Share your new post initially by tweeting about it. Keyword being ‘once’. Don’t sneak in your post by re-tweeting it in regular intervals thinking people won’t notice! Newsflash, people do! Imagine this noxious guy at the party yakking about himself non-stop the entire time. Yeahh! You don’t want to be that guy. If your blog is worth its mettle, people will carry it out for you by RT’ing it. Remember to thank them promptly when they do!

Think bigger and leverage your LinkedIn.
You can promote and advertise your blog by updating the ‘post an update’ feature under the ‘edit your profile’ section. You can take it a step further by downloading the ‘Wordpress’ application and synching it your profile page. That way, it will show regular updates of your blog on your LinkedIn page. This is especially useful if you are using WordPress for your blog. This enhances your visibility with your larger professional network of colleagues, senior management and even potential recruiters.

Are you in for the long haul? Then, its time to create a Facebook fan page.
Create a separate Facebook page for your blog under the brand, product or organization category. Customize the tabs and ensure that your profile and description is similar to what you have on your blog, including your blog title, logo and profile picture. This helps in creating a continued brand experience when people move from your blog to your Facebook page. Use this page wisely to optimize your blog goals. Bear in mind, this is one more thing to create and manage regularly. So get into it only after you think you are ready for it.

Let your work speak louder than you!
Remember, content is still king! If your writing isn’t authentic or appealing, people will roll their eyes and interest will fizzle out no matter how hard you try to promote it. So focus on the quality of your work and readers will come back.

Recognize that your blog at some level is an extension of you.
So be socially responsible and conscious of what you put out there. Portray your blog in the same light as you’d like to be portrayed and perceived in person.

Don’t be afraid to give link-backs if you are contributing to a particular topic.
Always try to give shout-outs and track-back to the pundits out there. Don’t be a narcissist! It’s a reflection that you are not living in your own kingdom, but making an attempt to read your fellow bloggers’ works. This will help in giving your work latitude making your content richer and multi-dimensional.

Most important, and crucial…Patience! Patience! Patience! (Have patience!)
Yeah! Doesn’t it have the same ring as location, location location?! Basically, building your profile through your blog takes time. It’s certainly not a viral or overnight process. In this day and age where we are inundated with never-before-seen information, people click and choose their time online. Respect that it is people’s personal time, so don’t try to encroach it forcefully. Politely welcome them to your blog, and let your work speak for itself!

Check out Chris Brogan of New Marketing Labs and Andrea Bartz and Brenna Ehrlich from Netiquette, CNN who offer further tips on promoting yourself online.

What lessons did you learn about promoting your blog?

Photo by Mr Ush