Talking to some collaborators, they expressed surprise that I blog regularly. Really?

My business involves consulting with people about strategies to grow their influence online. The core of my message is that the most important part of anyone’s online presence is their own domain.

Your own domain is the only place you own and control. Regularly creating fresh, relevant, value-adding content on your own domain is the most important way you can build your online influence.

If I didn’t blog regularly, how could I encourage others to do so? If I didn’t regularly show up on social channels to make true relational connections, I would have absolutely no credibility to tell others to do so. If I didn’t practice what I preach, would anyone be listening?

I have had some people tell me that they can’t do what I do because they are busy running a business, serving clients. I am doing the very same thing. It would be easy for me to coast, but integrity demands that I do the very things I encourage my clients to do. I blog regularly. I tweet regularly.

My online presence is far from perfect (please don’t look at my neglected LinkedIn profile), but showing up online consistently and helpfully is an important part of every work day for me.

I have created efficiency – scheduling content in the early morning and spending brief moments checking on channels in real time to interact. I also have support – a team who manages our company channels and helps in marketing our company in the exact ways that I would recommend to my clients.

But, of course! Of course I blog.

To write this post, I set my timer for 12-minutes. I typed furiously, clicking away from the edit screen to distractedly send some tweets. I finished a first draft with two minutes to spare.

I will spend 5-10 minutes adding a photo, meta data, adding links and copy editing the draft. I will publish. I will spend 10 minutes scheduling a few tweets. I will move onto the business of running my business.

What about you? Do you blog? If not, do you have 10-minutes to start a draft?