For the past ten years, I ( Judi) had been working as a builder/developer converting warehouses into lofts, doing historic restorations of apartment buildings and rebuilding beach houses blown away by hurricanes. At one point back then, I Googled my construction company’s name. Lo and behold what came up was my dog, Craig’s blog on Dogster. Now you can just go read what happened on Craig’s site since he has posted on that subject, but I will go ahead and tell you that because of that incident,  I found out how much search engines love the dynamic nature of blogs. At that point, I jumped in and changed my site to a WordPress blog and began to immerse myself in all things social media.

That turned out to be a really good thing that happened because right about that time construction industry was showing signs of slowing down. And by the time it did,  I had found another very compelling occupation. Friends read my blog and then began asking me to help them with theirs. Then when friends of friends started seeking out my services, I joined up with Dene and away we went. Dene and I finished our logo and the New Tricks website and our business has been steadily growing ever since.

We have found that  having an online presence with a blog format site is darn near essential if you have a product to see, a service to sell or are selling yourself, in the job market.  One of our recent clients, Global Girl credits her blog with her recently being selected for a prestigious Washington DC  internship. Having the blog gave her prospective employer a window into her work habits, her drive, her ability to write and think , her knowledge of social media, what she looked like, and so much more than she could or should not have put on her resume. Just a resume is not enough. People want to know who you are before taking a chance on you. By reading your blog they feel, rightly or wrongly that they know you. They can see what you are capable of .

People say that people prefer to buy from people that they know. I think that also holds true for employers bringing on new hires. It is good to have a referral before taking that step to bring someone on board.  Whether you are selling something or selling yourself, you may want to consider getting yourself out there by blogging. Our motto is, ” It’s never too late to be the  best in breed.”