I first met Bernie Mitchell at a Be2camp event and I’d always felt that he was about ten steps ahead of me in his use of social media.  If it took signing up for a course to find his secret it was a price I was willing to pay.

So this week I found myself in the slick board room of London firm Pensar IT with two artist  promoters, a property management  consultant, lots of tea and biscuits, and Bernie, our trainer for the morning.

The prospect of three hours discussing the topic of blogging  initially  felt like a bit of an indulgence.   However,   when you run your own business you can sometimes get bogged down in the day to day tasks and lose direction – a few hours spent with like minded people who love what they do does wonders for your perspective.  The fact that each person was at a  different  point with  their  blog, from total beginners to more established bloggers who had lost momentum, (me) meant that we covered some of the basics that were easy to overlook if you began your blog on a different platform a few years ago (me, again)

I think the construction sector can be guilty of thinking it is different, that somehow the rules that apply to other sectors don’t apply to us.   Not true.   We still have to make sure that people know we are out there,   that we have the right skills and that we are someone they can trust.

Bernie uses his blog to do all three of these thing, with some unexpected consequences.   Marketing guru Seth Godin is one of his heroes and next month Bernie will get to meet Seth, all as a result of blogging.   On the basis of this Ted talk by Seth I’m very jealous!

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