As an ASTD-San Diego member, you probably value networking and building professional profile. Posting to the ASTD-San Diego Blog is a great way to become known in the training and development community and to learn from and share your share your own experiences and perspective with your peers.
And it's fun and easy! Here's how:
- Keep it short. Optimal length is 300 – 800 words. If you have more to say, consider breaking it up into a few posts that we can post on a weekly basis. For instance, if you find your post on about “3 pieces of advice for new grads” running long, consider splitting it into three posts, with one piece of advice in each.
- set a timer for 20 minutes. and imagine your chatting with a colleague at a networking event. Keep the tone casual.
- The best posts are passionate and include a point of view.
- Share some news - we'd love to hear about happenings in the San Diego T&D community, your experiences with the PEAK and Mentor programs, volunteering experiences, how you got a job through your ASTD-San Diego member connections.
- Want to write but note sure what to write about? Some ideas:
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- Share your perspective on an article – or a book, chapter meeting presentation, conference session, piece of advice you’ve been given – and share why you agree or disagree with (include a link to the article/post, if you can). Share your personal experiences, how it applies or doesn’t apply to your work life.
- Choose an audience or anchor your post in a specific time of year: “advice for new grads” in May, New Year’s career planning in December, work life balance in the summer, how you've handled a specific milestone in your career (e.g., going internal to external).
- Speakers: *I'd like to be able to post Speaker blog posts about 2 weeks before the event*.
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- Use the blog to build interest in your session, build rapport with your audience.
- Take a few minutes and go beyond your session description to preview what you're going to be sharing during your session, throw out a provocative question, or tell us something relevant about yourself and your experiences. You may even get some comments that will help you learn more about your audience.
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- What sparked your interest in this topic?
- What is something surprising or practical about the topic?
- Why are you passionate about sharing it with the audience?
Look at other blog posts for the standard format – e.g., how to post your short bio.
Send your post to rebecca_gibson@yahoo.com. Make sure you include (1) a title, (2) the text of the blog post, and (3) a 2-3 sentence bio. I'll send you a confirmation that I received it.
Here's a sample: Rebecca Gibson is a proud member of ASTD-San Diego, a former Board Member, and the current ASTD-San Diego Blog volunteer. During the day, she's a Contact Center Solutions Consultant with Interactive Intelligence. Reach her at rebecca_gibson@yahoo.com or 443.254.3750.
