Dec06
13
Personal Branding Online
The traditional CV is losing it’s power. Time and time again I meet with industry players and professionals, experts and thought leaders, who tell me one of two things…
“I found your blog online and liked what I saw - that’s why I got in touch”, or even scarier, “I Googled you before we met… very interesting”. Yikes. When I dived into the world of social media I never expected that two years later I would be monitoring Technorati watchlists, del.icio.us tags, Google Alerts and more in case the words “Mike” and “Stopforth” popped up somewhere in cyberspace.
Call me a vain, self-interested tosser, and you’d be right to a degree. It’s kinda nice watching your Google CV grow - counting the number of ‘o’s as they expand in Goooooooooogle. But above and beyond satisfying my ego I simply have to watch out for citations of my personal brand online - it’s good for business! You see, by monitoring any conversations that might be happening around, or including, my personal brand, I give myself the opportunity to do what so few companies do well these days:
JOIN THE FRIKKIN’ CONVERSATION!
Any smart businessperson will tell you that every smart businessperson is a salesperson. You’re always selling. Even if you’re a dentist. A lawyer. A gardener. You and your work is embodied in a brand - more often intangible (we can’t all be Coca Cola) - and that brand either looks good or smells bloody rotten (especially when it’s backed up by lists of negatively-oriented search results). In the past news and views on your brand would be passed from one potential customer to another via a phone call, a cup of tea, a letter.
Today Google remembers EVERYTHING you’ve said, done, written and created online, and worse yet, everything anyone else has said, done, written or created about you. Whether the conversation is positive or negative is inconsequential - to stay ahead of the game you HAVE to engage it.
Thus begins a series on Personal Branding Online. Not because I’m an expert - I know very little about personal branding. But I have learned a thing or two about how to build a brand online, how to monitor a brand online and most importantly, how to engage the conversation authentically and transparently.
We’ll cover necessities and luxuries, strategies, tips tricks and hints for ensuring that your personal digital brand is true to who you are and representative of what you do.
[...] No link to the nearest dealer’s website, a telephone number & an email. I’m a Web AddiCT, before making contact via telephone or email let’s see what you Google CV says about the company I’d wish to procure my Linux Laptop from. [...]
[...] It is good to know how meetings like this can influence for the good! Word up, Imel! Welcome and thank you for joining the conversation! [...]
[...] Mike must be very serious about JOINING THE FRIGGIN’ CONVERSATION! since he always writes it in capital letters. And this is why Stormhoek slipped up. Do they ever read our blogs? Sure, I can understand that my blog might not be all that interesting to guys like them. Thing is I often read other blogs and comments on them, yet I NEVER see Graham nor Hugh commenting on ANY of my feeded blogs. Almost everyone on the blog awards has commented on my blog. If they have not commented, then they are a part of the MyBlogLog community and I saw their pretty little faces in my sidebar widget and went out of interest to see who they are and what they blog about! I’ve never seen Hugh nor Graham’s face on my widget. At the 27dinner Graham gave a FANTASTIC speech. Why did he not join everybody that was there in the convo that was happening? Why did he not give his take on the event or commented and joined the conversation JOINED THE CONVERSATION? [...]