Proud to Be Googled
Will what you post online make you proud to be googled?
If we’re marketing online, then I think the goal should be simple. We should strive to always be proud to be googled. After awhile of building an online presence, we have bios and profiles posted all over the web.
Not only that, somewhere our tweets live on – even if Google isn’t indexing them anymore. Wherever we’ve commented on blogs, it’s there to be served up in response to simple queries that include our names, our urls, our companies and any other identifiers or keywords that pull up something we’ve posted or contributed to online.
The fun of marketing online – and what keeps me writing blog posts at the end of the work-a-day – is that you never know where what you put into the cyber world will end up. It’s exciting!
The whole history of my career in PR and online marketing is on the Web. Press releases for clients. Milestones in my agency. Columns I write. Blog posts. Comments here and there. Guest posts. Media coverage.
It doesn’t matter one iota what I say about myself. Everything I’ve done is there to be found, there to be seen by anyone who types my name or company name into a search field. It provides credibility. She says she writes columns? Oh yes. There’s her column.
Whenever I post something online, I say to myself, “If I tell someone to google me and this comes up in the SERPs, how will I feel about it? What will it say about me to someone who doesn’t know me and is thinking of hiring me?”
My clients and I are building our businesses on the web. None of us is perfect and we may all exercise an occasional lack of judgment about something we post. It can happen.
But why not build our online personae in a way that is both authentic and that we can be proud of…that we can say, “Here’s my bio, but if you want the bigger picture, google me!”
By the way…follow the link if you’re interested in how Inbound Marketing can generate online leads.
The image is by y0mbo under Creative Commons license.
New PR Words - and Music! 
This is particularly relevant as I offer both serious consultancy services and a lighter touch in keynote speaking. I used to worry about how to keep them apart, but came to realise that, like Lou Reed, “I do me better than anyone else”. i have had to find a way to synthesise these two ‘separate’ me’s into one whole. I’m not there yet, but making progress.
Peter
Peter Cook - The Rock'n'Roll Business Guru
October 18, 2011
Peter, you’re a cross over success story. Those who comment on your Rock ‘n Roll blog posts – even the most corporate types — are most definitely taking you seriously – and rightfully so! You’re a great tightrope walker, my friend! I look forward to your posts and the great rock videos you share with us. Follow Peter!! @academyofrock
Ellie Becker E.R. Becker Company, Inc. 203-852-8077 – O 203-858-4147 – C Web/Blog – http://www.erbeckercompany.com Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/elliebpr LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/in/elliebecker
Ellie Becker
October 19, 2011
It is nice to build an online persona. However, since I was networking pre-Web 2.0 it is my offline persona that pays the electric bills still. That is why I believe in hybrid persona – classic networking (e.g., speeches, working the room at a conference, etc.) + the best of the Web 2.0 collaborative tools.
Jim Matorin
October 19, 2011
Hi, Jimmy. Thanks for commenting. I’m big on offline networking, too. In fact, tomorrow is my networking day. Fortunately the folks I meet face to face have a much shorter memory span than the search engines/servers that catalogue the posts I leave online!
Ellie Becker E.R. Becker Company, Inc. 203-852-8077 – O 203-858-4147 – C Web/Blog – http://www.erbeckercompany.com Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/elliebpr LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/in/elliebecker
Ellie Becker
October 19, 2011
Sounds like a plan to me! Google Me! Is all over my things online!
Dagny Eason
October 19, 2011
Great post.
She Blogs About Music
October 19, 2011