The Internet increasingly dominates our lives. Many parents find out more about their children by logging on to facebook than by casual conversation. Over 85% of new business requirements are researched with an on-line search. Like it or not, we are all 'known' to some degree or another by our 'net-presence'.
According to a recent survey by Harris Interactive 23% of professionals search new colleagues, business associates or prospective clients online before a first meeting. This goes for recruiters too; over 90% will search the on-line reputation of prospective candidates before preparing a shortlist for interview.
Whilst, as far as I know, no one is out to 'get me', the fact is once an item of information is on the internet it is there forever, it simply cannot be retrieved. Recent changes in legislation requires your ISP to retain copies of all email for a minimum of 2 years. Even legitimate material gets picked-up, copied, blogged and 'social-networked', such that the original material gets fragmented and duplicated. A prominent, easily found website under your personal control can guarantee that the most prominent information about yourself is written by you and provides the story you want told.
The idea is not new; indeed I initially created a personal website using a commercially available template website service which is primarily sufficient for most users and will allow you a controlled on-line presence for free in minutes. If you want it searchable on Google with all your business information, there are premium services with fees of about £6 per month. The one I used had a particularly useful feature that tells you how many people, from which parts of the world, and in some cases even who, searched and viewed your page. To my amazement, I currently have about 20 people a week looking for me!
It is sometimes all too easy to forget that selling ourselves, to get employed, win business, inspire confidence in clients, is an essential part of any professional life. Having a well designed personal website is fast becoming a vital tool in selling that product, you and your reputation. In its basic form, a personal website will act as your on-line CV and can be far more impressive than the constrained paper document. Better developed personal sites act as a potent marketing tool; today, for the first time in history people are looking with a focused search for marketing material about new services and your personal website will expose you to a much wider market than traditional media.
The interests you share on a personal website will help identify you with other like minded people and assist with networking in support of your business. Professionally published material on the internet is confidence inspiring and potential clients are more willing to trust companies and people they feel they know a little about. For the majority of contacts that first find you online through your presonal website you have created trust before ever meeting them face to face. A way of setting yourself apart from the crownd and establishing yourself as an expert in your field is to publish articles on your personal website.
For some people, the need for a personal website is acute because they have attracted unwelcome on-line publicity. It might even be someone with whom they share a name and might be confused with. For them, a search engine optimised personal website helps by getting their story across ahead of the one they either do not deserve or just do not like. If you can push the unfavourable material off the front page of relevant searches it often becomes effectively invisible.
There are a number of aspects to managing your PR online but a great start point is creating a good personal website.
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