identity
Building and promoting your online presence
You can have the best web site on the internet, but if no one knows it’s there – what’s the point? Things to consider in your promotional strategy: Online advertising with Google/Yahoo; Search Engine registration and optimization; Privacy Policy; Copyright and Disclaimer
Now let’s consider building and promoting your online presence. Does your self-marketing strategy for include a strong web presence? It should. You can expect to be ‘googled’. When your name (brand, key word) is googled, you want it to be you (your blog) that the reader sees. What does a search of your name reveal? Or not reveal?
I’d like to share some tips for professionals working online that I believe bloggers can relate to and should act upon.
Andy Beal’s four good tips on Building your online professional presence:
Buy your domain name. Even if you don’t do a lot with it, you should own a domain name that matches (as close as possible) your name. Your online brand is important, and guess what, despite how many employers you may ultimately have, you’ll likely keep that same name for life!
See: How and why to buy your own domain
Understand your Google profile. Most potential employers are going to use Google, so you may as well focus on the search results there. What’s being said about you, what pages are indexed? Don’t just look at stuff that is about you, look at listings that are about someone with the same name, yet maybe negative. You should be prepared to explain that the person convicted for 3 counts of armed robbery, is not actually you.
How can I create a Google friendly site?
Own your brand. When someone searches for your name, you should try and make sure you have as much control over what they see, as possible. Set up a Flickr account, LinkedIn profile, blog, user-group profile, etc. While you may need the talents of a search marketer to ensure these pages appear in the top 10 of a search engine, you don’t stand any chance if you don’t actually take the time to create the profile in the first place.
See:How to Become a Better Blogger 4: Essentials
Destroy the evidence. Ok, so while most stuff you put online is there for eternity, that doesn’t mean you can’t try some damage control. That blog post you uploaded – the one where you went on an all night drinking binge and broke into the local Krispy Kreme – remove it! While it may still exist somewhere on the web, it is less likely to show up in the Google search results, if you’ve removed it from your own blog/social network.
I recommend reading the following:
Web Anonymity 101 – Digital Breadcrumbs as an introduction;
Web Anonymity 102 – A Case Study of how easy it is to find information about a person online;
Web Anonymity 103 – Online Privacy on steps to protect your online identity;
How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else)
Related Posts found in this blog:
How to structure a reader and search engine friendly blog
How to Become a Better Blogger 1: Introduction
How to Become a Better Blogger 2: Online Privacy
How to Become a Better Blogger 3: Ethics and Links
How to remove data from Google’s cache
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ian in hamburg
August 27, 2008
About destroy the evidence: what about Google cache? Isn’t there supposed to be a google cache page for everything on the net?
timethief
August 28, 2008
@ian in hamburg
Hi there,
You can remove information from Google’s cache. I forgot to include that link yesterday and added it today. :) http://onecoolsite.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/2008/03/21/how-to-remove-data-from-googles-cache/
cb
August 28, 2008
I think the advice is very pertinent, unfortunately for me (or not, because generally it doesn’t bother me!) I share a first name/surname with a well-known singer. I don’t think we’d be that hard to confuse but it makes it more difficult to find what might be out there about me and impossible to buy domains etc :) I accept that it probably isn’t a common problem though (and sometimes it gets me better treatment at the airport.. ).
timethief
August 29, 2008
@cb
That’s unfortunate or maybe not. If you insert a dash or an underline you may be able to secure a domain in your own name. Then some of the hits you get may come from those you don’t get the correct url for the singer’s domain … lol :)
Roads
August 29, 2008
It’s good to see you back, timethief, and some very helpful pointers there as always. Many thanks. I’ll go back and edit my Senate voting record now…
As far as the Google cache is concerned, its life is fairly finite and only lasts until the next time your site is crawled by Google – typically this will be every few days or weeks, depending upon how often you tend to update your site. Images (including incriminating ones) are crawled every six months or so, and so it may take much longer for Google image search results to reflect the changes you make to your site.
More permanent, but much less well known, is the profile of your site maintained at waybackmachine, which maintains a record of how your webpages look on different dates as your site evolves. Many of the historic links and images are likewise stored there, too, although it doesn’t show pages that are less than six months old.
As examples, here’s how my site appeared on 7th October 2007, compared with its very first recorded incarnation (at its original wordpress.com domain) on 20th October 2006.
Whilst it’s interesting (and most instructive) to use waybackmachine whilst looking back over the development of your site, it’s always worth bearing in mind that others can do the same.
All kind regards from London …
timethief
August 29, 2008
T@Roads
It’s so good to hear from you and thanks so much for the thoughtful comment. :)
MuzikHidupKu
August 29, 2008
wow… thanks… as a beginner it very helpful for me..
Matt
August 30, 2008
Wow, I don’t do any of those things. That should solidify my presence as the worst blog ever. (That’s what I’m going for.) :)
RichTucker
August 30, 2008
Great post. I have read several articles that also recommend using a Mashable Profile to increase the your online visibility. @richtucker
BarterMan
August 31, 2008
This was a really helpful blog, thanks for posting this up. I’m trying to attract more readers to my new online “comic”… as per the icon: BARTERMAN…!
It’s still very much a work in progress, but I thought I’d at least start promoting it now…
AJD
timethief
August 31, 2008
@MuzikHidupKu
Hello there and welcome. I’m glad you found this post to be helpful.
timethief
August 31, 2008
@matt
I don’t believe you. If you aimed to have the worst blog ever then you wouldn’t be reading my blogging tips. Am I right?
timethief
August 31, 2008
@RichTucker
Mashable and linked in profiles, etc. are helpful just as profiles on any social media sites are helpful. However, they can only be helpful based on the information provided by the blogger. In some cases some bloggers do present themselves well on structured profile pages. In other cases other bloggers prefer less structured profile pages.
timethief
August 31, 2008
@Barterman
Welcome. I hope you will find what you need to learn how to establish and promote your online presence in my blog.
southernofficechairs
September 5, 2008
Very helpful article. We have an e-commerce site and I just recently found out that blogging was another valuable resource for web presence.
I appreciate all your tips and have bookmarked you for future reads.
I read another of your posts about “short blog posts” and found that interesting as well.
I actually thought “short and sweet” was the way to go, but now I’m re-thinking it. If you have time, I’d love for you to check my blog out and offer any pointers you may have.
Good job!
SOC
timethief
September 5, 2008
@southernofficechair
Thanks for letting me know you found my blog posts to be helpful. Without doubt blogging will have an affect on your business so it’s important to develop your skills in that regard. I’m sorry but I don’t do blog reviews. I suggest this post on building a reader friendly blog. Thanks again for commenting. :)