Making Yourself Visible Online
If you aren’t sure about your visibility online, an easy way to check is to Google yourself. That will tell you a great deal about what other people see (and if they see you at all).
If you find that you don’t have a great deal of visibility online, your situation doesn’t have to stay that way permanently. There are several different ways in which you can strengthen your visibility online.
Leave comments on blogs: It is critical that you read other people’s blogs and that you leave comments for them that will generate a lot of discussion. Having engaged and enduring conversations online will do a great deal for your reputation. It will allow people to get to know you better and to learn to regard you as a subject matter expert in your niche. It will also make people trust you eventually and your professional credibility will be strengthened, as a result. Leaving comments on blogs does not necessarily have to be tedious or arduous. It can be fun to engage in animated discussions on topics about which you share a passion with other people. You will start to feel (and continue to feel) that it is well worth the time and effort that you put into it. If you truly have a desire to increase your online visibility, keep leaving blog comments. You should also understand that if you leave blog comments, the engagement can certainly lead to other really important things, such as relationships that are mutually beneficial.
A good-quality, professional profile photograph: If you think that your profile photo doesn’t mean a lot, you are totally incorrect. You should attach your photo to absolutely everything you do online. It is obviously an important part of who you are and it gives people a visual association of you that will stay with them forever. Your photo should be recent (no 20-year-old photos, please) and it should be a good-quality headshot of you and only you.
Make a video: Making a video on YouTube is an incredible way to increase your online visibility. You can make a really short and really effective video that will entertain people and get them thinking at the same time. Most people love to watch videos and you really have no way to tell which of your videos may end up going viral. Let’s hope that all of them will!
Use strong and effective keywords: Keywords and key phrases are critical to the success of your business. They are what people type into the search engines when they are looking for a product and/or service such as yours. If your keywords and key phrases are not rich enough, those prospects will choose someone else with whom to interact.
Give more than you get: The more you give to other people, the more they will trust you and want to interact with you. Additionally, the more you give, the more other people will want to get from you (in the form of valuable and interesting content). As part of the content that you share with others, you should try to share links to valuable content that other people have shared. Everyone loves be honored in this way.
A wide variety of social media channels: If you are not on several social media channels already (some of the most popular ones as well as some more unusual ones), you need to connect with them as soon as possible. You should start with LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter and then do some research to help you determine which additional social media channels might be appropriate for your business and your niche. Once you have established connections on your social media channels of choice, start interacting. Remember that your approach should always be how you can help the other person.
Widen the scope of your diversity: The more social media channels with which you connect, the more people will interact with you and get to know you. You may want to consider some social media channels that are geared more toward graphic images as well as others that are geared more toward the written word. Having a variety of capabilities is extraordinarily important.
Conclusion
The wonderful thing about your visibility online is that you have some control over it (unlike many other things). It is really up to you if you want to have a strong online presence and visibility or if you don’t want people to be able to find you. Considering that you are in business, it is most likely safe to assume that you have a vested interest in getting out there online and making your visibility as strong as it can possibly be.
We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. For a free assessment of your online presence, let's have coffee.
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Innovative Marketing, PR, Sales, Word-of-Mouth & Buzz Innovators
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
Enlightening post, very good advice, I am a beginner at social media marketing and I am trying to build social media for the company I work for. Well, if you do not get your hands on something and try to make it work you will never learn. I really believe both in video making and promotional writing….. well it seems that I am better in writing but videos are like "a picture it is a thousand words".
Posted by Mina
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Guerrilla Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
Micheal – I quite often find myself Googling my name or my companies name to find out what sites are showing in the top positions.
Posted by Ray
Thanks for taking the time to compile this list Michael, there are certainly things I could be doing better. I'm really starting to see the importance (and the fun!) "in giving more in value than you receive in payment" to quote my favourite book of the moment, The Go-Giver! I'm still not sure if I'm ready to video myself for my blog yet, but I'll work up to that!
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Social Media For The Clueless
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
Good advice…and it is cool to see what comes up. To add to this, I suggest:
• Going 3 or 4 pages deep to find more obscure references (or more, if you're a prolific marketer)
• Reading each entry to uncover any less-than-flattering info you may want to weed out
• Looking closely at the information Google pulls to describe each page. If you don't use metatag titles and page descriptions to control this information, what Google thinks is relevant about the page may not match your own thoughts. For SEO purposes and a consistent brand, metatag titles and page descriptions are important.
It is important to know what Google says about you, if only for reputation management reasons.
These days, when someone wants to know more about me or my services, I've replaced "here's a link to my portfolio" with "google me". Everything the client will ever want to know is all there on display.
You can run, but you can't hide 🙂
Posted by Victoria
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Advertising Production Professionals
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
It important to make sure that the info out there is correct and current and that you are a professional make sure that you have good quality photos. Your online brand is important and something everyone can see.
Maria Botta
Posted by Maria
You are right but I have to stress that Online presence must also be about personality, being unique and being focused. Your suggestions on content helps make it more "viral" in a sense or perhaps, more active / effective but we don't want mechanical efforts done for robots. We want people available on our online streams 😀
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Guerrilla Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
To help save time I set up some RSS feeds to post for me to my social networks from news stories on the web and from my website. Makes getting my name out there much easier.
Posted by Ray
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Harvard Business Review – Reader's Forum
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
I truly agree with your views, in today's market place if one has to make an impact he/she should be visible to the entire world.
Simple Tip: Keep yourself updated with the latest trends in technology and posting your views in social media.
Posted by Sachin
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Bergen County Business Professionals
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
You can also set up a google alert with your name to find out when ppl search for your name.
Posted by Sarit
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: B2B Social Media
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
Yes Michael, you're right. I've just googled my name and hey presto, my name was up there with the high and mighty!!! How wonderful! I've never thought of doing that.
Nina Gaskell
Posted by Nina
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Strategy, Marketing & Innovation Forum
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
And better yet —– Use the Google alert function to set up various alerts on you and your business name. That way you will receive daily emails citing any hits.
Posted by James
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Writers World
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
I have 'Googled' myself. Problem is that nobody else seems to be doing it.Not many visits to my website either.
Posted by Morgan
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Online Marketing Network
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
Just like Eagle Eye! Good thing we now know what to do to be visible online! Thanks!
Posted by Maybelline
There must be something to these great tips…ALL the experts and those "in the know" through personal experience are giving them as well! It is time consuming to search the bazillion blogs out there to find the ones you enjoy and are moved to subscribe to and comment on. But it is time well spent. You end up making great on-line friendships and their blogs are an added bonus. I think the best advice is "Give More Than You Get". You get back what you give out, true fact!! I do enjoy your blog posts, they are very informative. Thank you.
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: "Write It Down"-A Website for Writers
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
A friend did that about 10 years ago. Back then, it became almost like a status symbol. The more hits you found about yourself, the more you felt like you just made it; you're a
known entity. Today, with better search engines, and the way they can find items in cyberspace, the thrill of finding yourself has decreased.
Posted by Robin Leigh
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Writers World
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
And if you want to show up more in search engines, consider making a "digital business card" with About.Me. It's free and easy to create one, and as soon as you do the site will prompt you to enable it to show up in Bing, Yahoo, and Google searches. If I remember correctly, it also prompts you to add tags that will help you show up in search engines — like "writer," "editor," "your name," etc.
Posted by Dianna
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Writers World
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
A good idea is to set up Google alerts. Then anytime your name pops up on the Internet anywhere, you'll get an email telling you! Put your name in quotation marks, though, so you only get emails about the stuff that is really you — not everybody else with your first name, etc. I also set up Google alerts for my books (in quotation marks). Another way to monitor your identity online is with a tool called socialmention.com. You can check and see how you pop up in all sorts of social media sites.
Posted by Dianna
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Writers World
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
Just did. Only thing I found is a post I made for a animal shelter last year, to help them get food. If something that small is outr there. I must be careful how I act here
Posted by Robin Leigh
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Digital Marketing
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
I think its important for everyone to google them selfs at least once a year just to make sure there is not results that are not about them that could be false or others people sharing the same name. A great exp of this is the time my little sister googled herself and found that someone sharing the same name had been in trouble with the law and we were sure to inform her so that she knows this in case she is looking for a job in the future and can let a future employer know that it is not her
Posted by Jonathan
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Digital Marketing
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
This is a great tip. Also, i would say that getting out there on Twitter,LinkedIn and Facebook will help your Google search be more prominent.
Posted by Kanupriya
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Social Media For The Clueless
Discussion: Making Yourself Visible Online
This actually brings up a very good point. EVERYONE should Google themselves and see what shows. However, it's best to do it from a fresh machine and browser as Google and Bing make assumptions based on previous activity and location. If I search "Victoria Ipri" from Seattle it will not look the same as it does for Victoria doing the same search. One thing to do is have a friend in another city do it and send screen shots.
I have a friend that has a page one position four hit that isn't pretty. Fifteen years ago he was discharged from a job and because it is a public entity and they are putting all their records online, there is a PDF of the discharge. Yikes. In another case, I was contacted by a guy that married a woman who wanted to run for local office. When she announced, the press Googled him and found a page one hit for a site called "Don't Date This." It was a "review" from his ex girlfriend and it wasn't pretty. Press had a field day.
It is very important that individuals and businesses take control of their name online. It's not hard. It just take a little planning and time.
Finally, I would say to get proactive even if you look okay to Google today. Do it now before something strange pops up.
Posted by Brent
The most interesting thing that happened to me when I searched for my name online (which isn't a common name) is that I found a winery called "Comtesse Therese". Since I'm a wine drinker and love my wine, I found their Facebook page and liked it and mentioned that the winery shared my name. As a result, the nice people at the winery sent me a complimentary bottle of their wine. I got a free bottle of good wine just for searching for my name.
Another way to prevent "mistaken identity" issues online is to set up your Google profile with a picture (especially if you have a common name). Be proactive (as Brent mentioned) and don't wait until it's too late. Also, don't breathe a sign of relief if you don't find anything at all about yourself or your brand online. That could be the kiss of death because that means you don't exist to the search engines. It only takes one negative comment on social media to get your name out, and you don't want that to happen. It's all about creating valuable content and spreading a positive buzz around your brand. I think the biggest mistake business professionals make is that they wait until it's too late and take a knee jerk approach to their online reputation. It's all about being proactive BEFORE anything bad happens.
It is important to remember that VISIBILITY leads to ATTRACTION and from there you are able to get TRAFFIC to your website and online destinations. Having traffic leads to LEAD GENERATION and ultimately the process begins with the end goal of closing a sale and getting a customer or client. Visibility is the "kick starter…"
Thanks for the information. I’m a Realtor in West Garden Grove and your topic is essential in my business.