Why do you choose who you choose to work with? Maybe because they offer you a good price, or they appear to be the only one selling what you want to buy. But often its because you like the person themselves. And a lot of the training behind internet marketing today is teaching you to promote yourself as a brand. There will always be somebody else offering what you offer but it won’t be you – you are unique.
That’s why we all work at having blogs and Facebook profiles, we ’round out’ our business persona with a little personal information too (not too much) but just enough to give people more of a flavour of who we are. And if that chimes with them in some way then they are more likely to do business with you, recommend you and keep coming back.
So it makes sense to keep an eye on your online profile. After all, they may lose you business card. If they remember your business name that’s good and they will probably search on that. But if they really got on well with you, then its YOUR NAME they will search on. So if they do that, what will they find?
Do regular Google searches for your business name of course, to check where you are in the rankings, how your business is squaring up to competitors. But don’t forget to search your own name too. You may be surprised. The internet is a big place. Does a search on your name bring up some old website you had years ago and had forgotten about? Do you need to get rid of it or update it? Has your name been picked up by some directory and is giving out inaccurate information about you? Keep an eye on what’s being published about you.
And be careful about what you put on social network sites like Facebook, Twitter etc. If you want to put lots of personal stuff up for friends, but that might be a little embarrassing in the board room, then use a nickname or lock your account for friends access only.
Have a look at the Online ID calculator to give you an idea how your online profile is shaping up.
Feeling creative? 