By Judy Kirkland
Concerned that it seemed to be getting harder and harder to win new business, the CEO of a mid-size IT company asked EchoPoint Marketing Partners to look at the marketing efforts she was using. In doing the assessment, we discovered a real problem: while the IT company came up in searches, our client herself was completely invisible to Google and every other search engine we tried.There was nothing about her on the company’s Web site. She didn’t appear on LinkedIn. She didn’t come up on Facebook. But another person with her same unusual name did come up on Facebook — complete with bar photos of friends, including a tattooed friend sticking his pierced tongue out at the camera.
Imagine a prospective client doing a routine search on your name and coming up with bar photos! Even if those aren’t your photos, it leaves a bad impression — especially if there is no other online information to counter it.
I asked my client why she didn’t put a profile on her Web site. She said she was concerned about privacy. For the same reason, she didn’t have a profile on any of the social networking sites. I absolutely get the privacy issue. But these days, everyone Googles before doing business. Being totally invisible online sends a damaging message about you and your company: “I’m not plugged into what’s new, I’m not well connected, I’m nobody in my industry or community, and I may even have something to hide.” That’s lousy messaging if you’re trying to build credibility for your company — or close deals.
So here’s some advice:
1.If you have a Web site, post something about yourself. No need to pour out personal details about your kids or the year you graduated from college. Just focus on your experience and enough details to show prospective clients you’re a real person with valuable skills and a passion for what you do.
2. Sign on with at least two social networks. LinkedIn and Facebook are good starting points.
3. Keep information current, and professional. Don’t display private information or inappropriate content. “Duh,” you say, but you’d be amazed at what I’ve come across Googling otherwise brilliant business people — including one person who touted his TOP GOVERNMENT SECURITY CLEARANCE on his Web site, but poured out lurid details of a messy relationship right there in his publicly available Facebook profile. Yikes — and yuk!
Remember that whatever you post can stick around the Internet forever. To paraphrase my grandmother: Live your life [online] in a way that would let you give the family parrot to the village gossip.
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