Personal Branding Online

Julia Angwin wrote a great article in today’s edition of the Wall Street Journal, about SERPs (search engine position ranking) and controlling your reputation online. She writes that among the top spots result in the search results for her name has been an (in her opinion dissatisfying) article she wrote four years ago.

Since he was about to publish her new book and wanted to make this unflatering article disappear from the the Top 10 of her SERPs, she explored various options how to achieve that. Her insights mentioned in this piece are part of ‘SEO 101′ and illustrate the Do’s and Don’ts when trying to control your online reputation (since Google is the dominant search engine in the U.S. and most other markets, she’s focusses her story on the ‘Big G’).

These are my favorite six takeaways from Angwin’s article:

1. It’s extremely difficult to remove items from Google search results. Persue other others. Only if you can prove that another site has stolen your social security, credit card or bank-account numbers and posted them online, the search company might consider to remove the offending data. In that case it’s still recommended that you contact the owner of that site directly.

2. You should take control of your own web presence. Create original content that is compelling to readers and can be easily accessed by search engines – and you’re in the right direction to be in charge of your reputation online.

3. Develop a linking strategy. Get incoming links from relevant and authoritative and websites. (In Angwin’s case, this certainly paid off.)

4. Make search result with the annoying content disappear with your social media efforts. Increase your online visibility by creating accounts at social bookmarking sites (Del.icio.us, Furl, Stumble Upon), social networking profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and micro-blogging sites like Twitter. Talk about your expertise, share insights, thoughts, web finds and other links with others.

5. It’s the crawlability, stupid! A beautiful website with tons of stunning pictures doesn’t do the trick. You need high-quality content which can be easily be crawled by the major search engines.

6. Don’t forget the meta information on your site. You know, texts like the “title tag,” which is displayed at the top of the Web browser and describes the page to a search engine. Often forgotten by noobs, but crucial.

7. You can work to boost your results, and then lose control in an instant. Even if you think that you did a great SEO job, your work is never done. Among many reasons: the search engine constantly update their algorithms, other web content than texts is becoming more and more important (videos, music, podcasts, etc.), your competitors (who are trying to grab the top spots of the same keyword like you) never sleep.

Do you have other suggestions on how to get control of your own SERPs? Leave a comment!

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Having a presence on the World Wide Web is a must for everybody nowadays – whether you’re a job seeker, a small business owner or a boss of a large corporation. Not only is it crucial for networking, but also important in order to ‘control the message’ related to your name or business. Especially if you haven’t launched your own website yet and belong to a profession which is regularly discussed in online chat forums and professional rating websites (I recently wrote an article about doctor rating sites) – then you definitely need to become proactive.

Here are 7 tips what to do to manage your internet presence and take control of your online reputation:

1. Reputation management in the internet age requires commitment, willingness to communicate and openness to new technology trends. Google yourself. If you don’t exist online, that’s bad. If there are websites with unflattering stuff (binge parties etc.) about you (or another person with the exact same name) in the first 10 search results, that’s worse. Act immediately.

2. Take control of your web presence. Start to create of improve your online brand today. If you don’t have a personal website, don’t waste any time anymore. Don’t go for a cheap solution. It will look unprofessional. Hire a web designer or an internet consultant to help you to create visually appealing website to reflect sincerity and credibility. Even better, add a blog to your site. These economically challenging times are the perfect opportunity to be proactive and stand out from the crowd.

3. Update your website regularly. Add new content at least once, ideally two to four times weekly. Write about your biggest passion, write articles discussing your specialty, or share news about your industry, for example. Weblog software products, such as Wordpress or Typepad are user-friendly and therefore ideal content management systems for your website.

4. Use the internet to advertise your services. Many online directories like AnyWho.com offer to publish your website and business profile at no charge or for a low fee. It’s also highly recommended to create a profile on LinkedIn, the most popular and fastest-growing social networking site for professionals worldwide. Take advantage of all the possibilities the internet offers today to promote yourself, make new contacts and grow your business!

5. Initiate a dialog. If you have been mentioned on one of these rating websites, address any negative comments and respond to them. Many opinion forums will publish your answer directly below the comment about you. Make sure your response is factual and refrain from adding personal insults. Enable comments on your websites, interact with your readers – and be part of the online conversation in your niche or industry.

6. Continue to monitor what’s being discussed about you. Set up a Google Alert – or check with Twitter Search what kind of comments have been made about you. If you find negative remarks – try to establish a dialogue and find our the reasons for the criticism. Don’t let emotions get in your way.

7. Don’t sue – communicate instead.. Unless somebody’s comment is completely false, defamatory and has a damaging effect on your business. Before you take action in the heat of the battle, talk to your attorney or another legal advisor about your options.

Last, but not least. If you run a business, remember this: The importance of the World Wide Web as a consumer empowerment tool will continue to escalate. Countless other service providers and product manufacturers have accepted this new reality and faced it head-on. Take a leading role and use the opportunity to create a positive image with existing and potential customers by developing a well-defined internet communication strategy.

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The presidential candidate of the Democratic party, Barack Obama, is a online media phenomena. No other politician seeking the highest office in the U.S. has used to web so skillfully like him. He has a great multi-media website for raising donations and coordinating his 50 states campaign.

He also uses YouTube to get his message out and has a profile on all major social networking websites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn to raise his online visibility and reach out to communicate with his fan base and reach out to web-savvy people who would like to know him and his political ideas better. Between January and April 08 alone Barack spent $3 million for online advertising. Needless to say – the lion share went to Google.

The Obama campaign also knows how to use the world wide web for reputation management and damage control. It recently launched a website called FightTheSmears which debunks false rumors (i.e that he’s a secret Muslim, or he won’t say the Pledge of Allegiance – a especially smart move in in the age of the 24/7 news cycle.

As the following charts show, Barack is hard to be when it comes to online media & online social media strategies. He has by far the most followers of all presidential candidates – especially than rival John McCain:

Facebook: Obama has 7 times more supporters than McCain.

MySpace: Obama has almost 8 times more ‘friends’ that McCain.

YouTube: Obama’s videos have 50 million more views that McCain’s.

Technorati: Obama gets 800 more blog mentions that McCain.

By the way: All this charts come from the fantastic website TechPresident, powered by the Personal Democracy Forum. (PDF)

Who are the wizards behind Barack Obama’s well-coordinated and successful internet strategy? Business Week tried to find the answer to this question in a fascinating article. But the reporter only found out the “Obama’s secret digital weapon” (the title of the story) is a small firm called Blue State Digital which was founded by four former members of Howard Dean’s Presidential campaign in 2004 . (Given that Dean’s campaign ‘discovered’ the internet as a essential fundraising and marketing tool for a presidential candidate, that is not a surprise).
Business Week writes:

The (Obama) campaign declined to discuss Blue State, but the firm says its handiwork and technology can be seen in the more than $200 million Obama has raised online, the 2 million phone calls made on the candidate’s behalf, and in barackobama.com’s social network of 850,000 users, who have organized 50,000 campaign events.

Well, I am very interested to see how Obama’s huge internet advantage comes in play when the race between the senator from Illinois and the self-declared war hero is heating up after the two men are officially nominated by their parties in September.

P.S. I guess the fact that John McCain “is aware of the internet” – as described by an unnamed McCain staffer during one of the panels at the PDF in New York – is just not sufficient enough as a campaign strategy in the digital age.

P.S.2. Experts estimate as much as $3 billion could be spent by political campaigns leading up to the November election. The share of expenditures for internet advertising is currently a one digit percentage number. But I bet this number is going to change quickly if internet-savvy candidate Obama wins the presidency.

What do you think about how Barack Obama’s internet marketing strategy?

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