26/06/2014
Instalment three: Master of the Internet Universe - let's get on a roll
If you are still with me so far in building up your personal internet visibility, you now have a 100% profile on LinkedIn as well as a great WhosWho profile. This gives you an excellent starting point.
Where to now? In looking at my own visibility, I find that the next ten most effective places/platforms in terms of visibility for me are:
Google – you get this profile moving by going to www.google.com/business and completing your profile(s) there. You can build a very significant profile for yourself here with blog posts, use of google+, and other google tools. A very powerful place to build your brand and one which I have not really fully explored yet.
Own webpage – we’ll talk more in a later blog about your own website.
Facebook – this comes up well on searches. For me Facebook is for family, friends, and fun. With four generations of my family on Facebook, I don’t really use it as a promotional platform at present. I have shut it down to outsiders as far as possible and aim to keep it that way. If I receive friend requests here – unless they really are friends – I try to shift them to LinkedIn instead.
Twitter – Get yourself a free twitter account - in your own name of possible. In a subsequent blog, we’ll talk about how you can make tweeting as hassle-free as possible.
Brandyourself – I pay to be here. It’s not expensive but it requires quite a bit of maintenance. For me the jury is still out on whether it is of real value or not.
Skillspages – another free site and important for me as a freelance facilitator/trainer.
Skills-Universe – ditto the Skillspages comment. An important place for facilitator/trainers to be.
Slideshare – there are free and paid versions of Slideshare. I’m currently using a paid version. I don’t feel I’ve made as much use of it as I could. One academic I’m linked to on LinkedIn posts a presentation on Slideshare virtually every day! If you produce a significant number of presentations as part of your personal marketing effort this could be an important platform for you. In addition, there are some stunning presentations by other people to be found there.
News24 – this is a recent initiative for me and one that looks to be of great value. So far I’ve blogged twice, it’s showing up on page one of the search for my name, people are reading it and, I’m getting comments. So my initial experience is very positive. Assuming I don’t attract some of the mindless trolls that seem to plague some of the media blog sites I hope to build a good communication channel here.
Pinterest – I do virtually nothing on Pinterest and yet it still comes up high on my search page. A message perhaps that I need to put some more effort in here.
Well fellow strivers, that’s it for this instalment. Trust it’s provided some food for thought and a spur to action. See you in the next post.
New – Google My Business connects you directly with customers, whether they're looking for you on Search, Maps or Google+.
