PA Live! Blog of the Week: Karla Porter

NEPA Blogs will be presenting a "Blog of the Week" on the WBRE's PA Live! every Tuesday. PA Live! airs weekday afternoons on WBRE from 4:00 to 5:00.

Watch this episode on the PA Live! site: 

http://pahomepage.com/palive-details/?nxd_id=202306

Our PA Live! Blog of the Week this week carries a name many in Northeastern Pennsylvania are familiar with: Karla Porter. Found at http://karlaporter.com/, Karla Porter's blog reflects her interests as a Human Resources professional, including Human Capital and New Media , and looks at topics like how to prepare an "elevator pitch," how individuals can use New Media to advertise their value to potential employers, and why poor customer service is bad business. From her "Who is She?" page:

I work with orga­ni­za­tions that want to achieve employer of choice sta­tus, are inter­ested in attract­ing can­di­dates who develop into employee brand advo­cates that drive growth and con­tin­ued suc­cess, embrace diver­sity, desire a cul­ture of inno­va­tion and excel­lence, want to enrich the com­mu­nity and reward supe­rior per­for­mance with celebrity.

As much as Karla Porter's blog is about human resource issues, it is also a prime example of a "Personal Branding Blog." A Personal Branding Blog is just what it sounds like: a blog that allows you to build your personal "brand". Personal Branding Blogs give bloggers some control over what information there is on the Internet connected to their names. The thought behind every post is "this is something I want people to read and associate with my name." Whether your goal is to land a specific job, to flesh out a résumé, or just to present a professional image of yourself, a Personal Branding Blog is something that can be of tremendous value to many people.


Here are some examples of blogs linked by NEPA Blogs that fall into the Personal Branding Blogs category, as well as some key posts that help to explain the concept :

Karla Porter
http://karlaporter.com/
See: 

- When They Search You Who & What Will They Find?

- What’s Personal Branding Got to Do with Job Search?

Cheri Sundra is the New Black (according to me, Cheri Sundra)
http://cherisundra.blogspot.com/

See:

- THE BRAND CALLED (insert your name here)

- WHY YOUR BOSS CARES ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

Mandy Boyle
http://mandyboyle.com/
(Described by Mandy as "a patchwork of posts surrounding marketing, social media, branding, and my own reflections.")
See:
- How I Build My Personal Brand

You can also find my own Personal Branding Blog here:
Harold F. Jenkins
http://haroldfjenkins.blogspot.com/

(A word of caution: Don't assume that every blog that has a name for a title is - or is intended to be - a Personal Branding Blog. There are many examples of "Life" blogs - the meandering personal online journals that probably represent blogging in its purest form - linked by NEPA Blogs that use the blogger's name as a title, but aren't being used for the purpose of building a personal brand. Sometimes a blog is just a blog! But we'll talk more about "Life" blogs in a future installment.)