Social Media writers describe how blogging can be used to connect with customers and influencers...and at a personal level, to build your brand and personal network. But so often, they are talking about people who are already established or who have now made it "big." Blogging can be valuable for everyone, even if your objective is not to start a company or become a celebrity. Here are some examples of how valuable my blogging--which reaches an audience of perhaps a few hundred people--has helped me achieve influence at work and within my community.

Work

At first, I was apprehensive about people at work finding my blog(s). When I started DaveWrites, I was isolated in a small startup company and looking for a new job, maybe a new career. But I had no network and no connections to anyone on the east coast. I started blogging because I really wanted to be a writer, and rather than sit around trying to figure out how to become a freelancer and support my family, I realized I could just start writing. It helped me personally to see that I was multidimensional and no longer defined by my job. Eventually, I found a new job at a great company--although I was doing essentially the same kind of work, the blog had added a personal and satisfying dimension to my experience.

I believe the blog also helps my influence at work. Coworkers are reading my blog--and I think that is good. It's obviously not a blog about technology (my primary responsibility at work), but part of my challenge is to grow beyond my image as a tech expert. The blog exposes more of me than people experience in the office. I think it helps communicate a more complete view of who I am. It is not a replacement for developing more connections and relationships--but it is a thing I can do easily and well that is better than trying to strategize in a vacuum about how to change my image.

I don't know how generally applicable that is for others. If people think you are wasting your time blogging when you could be working, that's a danger. And of course you can't blog about stuff that you don't want everyone in the office reading. But I do think it can help present a more complete image of you as a person, if you do it well.

Community

When we moved to Westwood 2 1/2 years ago, we (my wife) knew a few people from her Mom's groups. I wanted to get involved in the town both socially and with respect to local issues. I set up a blog at http://westwoodblog.org and then worked to get relevant content on the site. I solicited the local candidates for selectman to write articles and conducted podcast interviews with them. I published anything I could find that I thought others would find valuable. As our election and town meeting came up last month, I found my blog in the midst of a discussion over highly contentious issues and suddenly local media and prominent people in town wanted to talk to me. Things have quieted down a bit now that the meeting is over, but I did what I set out to do: I used the blog to help the town and get myself involved.

I am not saying the blog was a "launching pad" for me, but it has helped me over a most fundamental hurdle of involvement. Some of the early entries on this blog talked about town meetings and community and whatnot, but it was all talk until I started talking with and about my town. This doesn't mean that everyone should start a blog about their town in order to get involved, but for me, it was a good move.

Profession

I really enjoy writing, but I feel this blog is not something I would want to fill my life. So what is my plan? Well, when I considered a career change, I ran into so many roadblocks and "leap of faith" no-gos that I realized I needed not to find the perfect answer, but just to do something. But my passion was more in writing than in many of the interesting things I fantasized about. Just to digress...some of those ideas were:

• put my law degree and admission to the bar to use by practicing law
• go to graduate school in political science or urban planning
• get an MBA
• start my own internet company

It's overwhelming to scheme big plans. I know, fundamentally, if I want it bad enough, there is nothing I cannot do. But those kind of all-or-nothing dreams are hard to find and sustain. It is inspirational to read books like Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus along with other books about social entrepreneurs who dedicate their lives to making the world a better place. But it is hard to wake up one day with the idea that will carry you forward on a journey like that. You need many little things that allow you to discover your purpose.

DaveWrites was born out of my job search and it was originally intended to focus on Economic Development. One thing I have been doing offsite along these lines is to write book reviews at All About Cities:

• Concrete Dragon - the urban revolution in China
• Suburban Transformations - a planning and development methodology to reform our suburbs
• The Missing Class - the "near poor" in urban America
• Wikinomics - implications for cities

Is that a career for me? Hardly. But it is something I can do with a blog that I can't do otherwise. It contributes something valuable and people seem to like it. Publishers have started sending me books to read. I met Paul Lukez (author of Suburban Transformations) here in Boston and have made some basic connections to people in the practice of planning and architecture. Baby steps, definitely. But steps nonetheless and far better than just sitting around thinking maybe I should have done something different 20 years ago. If I had read Jane Jacobs when I was 20...

Another fascinating thing to me is how blogging connected me to other writers. My blog review from last week (and the commentary from the bloggers I talked about) illustrates how I am not in isolation anymore. When I started, I was impatient about everything; now I look back and see a lot of growth, for me personally at least, in a short period of time.

I don't have a strategic plan for blogging and my career. But I have used the platform and technology to engage much more effectively than anything else I could think of at the time I was wallowing in a sea of unrealistic fantasy choices. The plan for now, probably for the next 5 years at least, is to just keep it going while we raise our kids. Some people have a plan; I don't. But I know you don't get anywhere by standing still.