LookupPage Blog | Professional Web Presence and Visibility

Predicting Collision: Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0

According to a recent BBC UK report, the world of Enterprise 2.0 is expected to embrace Web 2.0 with a predicted annual spending of $5 billion by 2013 for social marketing and networking tools alone.  Predictions for 2009's biggest Internet trends seem overstated and quite obvious at this point, with over half of North American and European companies and corporate business already looking towards the Web 2.0 horizon.  Just as San Francisco, Los Angeles hosts the Web 2.0 summit conference, news of business converging to the Web 2.0 revolution and axis to form the next generation of what we know as the web.  Conference co-chairwoman Jennifer Pahlka says, “This is where we see the future of the web […] the companies making announcements here are building that future.”  Forrester Research Company, which has carried out the former Web 2.0 survey, believes that emerging technologies being developed and unveiled represent a fundamentally reformed channel for businesses to communicate with clients, customers, users, and employees.

The Forrester report has found that consumer giants such as General Motors, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, Wells Fargo Bank, and McDonald’s will be the driving force for much of Web 2.0’s growth.  Powerful marketing tools such as blogs, RSS feeds, social networking, professional networking/directories, and podcasting are paving the way for new industry giants to take the spotlight.  It is further estimated that an additional 56% of North American and European companies regard Web 2.0 as the top priority of 2008, and soon to be convergence with the ever larger giant, Enterprise 2.0 (Oliver Young, Analyst).  Speculation from research companies and surveys has now moulded itself to self-assured confidence that being on the Enterprise side in the Web 2.0 economy is the beneficial conduit for employees, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and businessmen alike.

Forrester Research Company analysed 7 Web 2.0 categories that will attract the largest levels of investment:
1.    Blogs
2.    Podcasting
3.    RSS
4.    Social Networking
5.    Widgets
6.    Wiki
7.    Mashups

Of the aforementioned, Social Networks are expected to capture the most attention and the greatest levels of investment.  Even these billion dollar capital markets are likely to be dwarfed by multi-billion dollar revenues that will be commanded by the software industry.

The point of saturation between the collaboration of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 is expected to slow as Web 2.0 applications become all to prevalent and absorbed in collaborative software packages on the Internet. Advertisers are finding it increasingly more difficult to monetise even from the high volumes of traffic.  The next big thing is capitalising on the business market where revenues are appearing increasingly appealing.

In our previous blog post, we discussed how by 2010 there are expected to be over half a billion blogs, giving people like you and me only about 3 years to make our digital footprint on the Internet.  You can call it the International Web 2.0 "Gene" project with the masses of people looking to map themselves in the ever growing dynamics of establishing an online identity before it’s too late.  Rest assured, that despite the bustling noise of everyone fighting for their share of spotlight in search engine rankings, online visibility, and professional identity – that once you create your LookupPage you are always represented on the first page of Google search results.  You know that they say – online visibility in the world of Web 2.0 is a good thing, but high online visibility in the right place at the right time is an unparalleled feat!  So why not do it the LookupPage way?

Battling Out The Quality vs. Quantity (Again)

A February 2007 survey estimated that there are over 108 million unique websites on the World Wide Web (Netcraft Web Server Survey).  Even this number seems a bit muddled bearing in mind that the Internet is not really under just one jurisdiction.  The pervasive and omnipresent Blog phenomenon has prompted even more speculation to the number of blogs on the Internet.  Andrew Keen predicts that by 2010 there will be a total of half a billion blogs.  That leaves us with only about 2 more years to try to make our voices heard, alongside those millions of people who have already tried to stake their claim for public wakefulness.

Web 2.0 has morphed in a gigantic hustling fête and has turned into more intrusive, bewildering, and perplexing than ever. Most of the alluring products on offer are free, and there are so many distractions to deal with: emails, web browsers, information, chatting, chat groups, forums, social networks, social memberships, video entertainment, maps, blogs, ping sites, professional networking, job sites and a myriad of others. 

As the search engine ‘bots’ dig deeper the sheer quantity of information exponentially available is so overwhelming (with drastic and varying degrees of quality) that new initiatives are sorely needed to sort information more qualitatively, rather than offering a choice of 2 million superficially sorted search results in a mater of 0.04 seconds.  Google as we have come to know it is the colossal multi-billion dollar information empire with its illusive algorithmically-derived financial nirvana.  Whatever Google’s ‘bots’ scour up from an infinite cyberspace is then presented in a bundle of information under a person’s name. You may want to start wondering how many other people have your name? As an experiment, try to feed in any familiar names and see how many of the resulting profiles are relevant to that specific person. Is there any reasonably balanced portrait?  The biggest surprise may come after perhaps you see yourself profiled along with other ‘body parts’ from other people with the same name.   

It is our first and foremost responsibility to ensure that we are represented appropriately on the web, especially with so many observers such as employers, clients, and customers stealing canny glances at our informative 'bundles' or profiles that are spewed out from the search engine results. According to YouGov, a public policy and market research consulting company,  59% of employers have used information online to dictate their decision for recruiting potential employees.  Similarly, over 20% of employers found information online that was not volunteered by an individual (often this may not be factual at all).   

With everyone contending for a noticeable spot on the Internet, the time has come for individuals, professionals, businessmen, tradesman and entrepreneurs alike to employ search engines to their fullest capacity to promote their name and leave an inimitable digital footprint.   Create your LookupPage today and see how you could put yourself at the top of Google’s search results and take one step ahead of the competition with qualitative results that will strengthen your online presence resulting in unlimited business opportunities.  We love making individuals discoverable (and true to who they are) in today’s ever growing global economy.   

LookupPage Launches New Features

April has been a very exciting month at LookupPage with new releases and even more changes on the horizon.  As part of our continuing efforts to provide you with the best experience possible, we have been working hard this past month on adding some useful features to the site.

From our understanding of how essential and vital communication is in shaping our world, business or personal relationships, we have launched a messaging system that allows all users, and people who visit your personal page to communicate with each other through direct emails.  All of this, while protecting your privacy at all times and of course, never exposing your personal email to anyone.

1.  Direct Messaging Feature:
We have added a messaging feature which allows users, visitors, and yourself to communicate with other people at LookupPage. 

Where can you send a message from?

• On the People Search page, you can click on the “Send Message” link that is displayed next to every individual.

• On the Business Users page, you can select a business organisation from the list, and then click on the “Send Message” link that is displayed next to every individual.

• You can also send messages from the personal pages themselves!  Go to any LookupPage and click on the “Contact Directly” link that is located towards the top of the page.

How does it work?

• Sending a message:  You can contact anyone on LookupPage using the “Send Message” or “Contact Directly” feature.  When sending a message, you will be prompted to enter your name, your email, and a message (limited to 2,000 characters).  Once you click “Send”, your message is sent automatically to its recipient.

• Receiving a message:  Once someone has sent you a message, you will receive an email with the message details, and the sender’s email. 

2. Business Users:
On the Business Users page, you can select any company from the list to view all members, with an option to contact them directly or view their LookupPage.

3. New Page Design:
We have updated all LookupPage's with a new look that we hope you’ll find fresh and professional.  Login in to your account today and have a look at some of the new features on your personal LookupPage!

You can expect even more new launches in the coming months!

Identity Conundrum? We’ve Got The Solution.

Just when you thought you knew best how to promote yourself on the web – you hear the following riddle: What do you know that he knows that she already knows which has already been known to everyone? While that may sound a bit perplexed, it represents a growing truth of how information is spread on the web by word-of-mouth.  Most of us do not bother to concern ourselves with information that does not necessarily pertain to us, on a personal or professional level.  But what happens when information about you on the web is presented in a way that makes you start thinking of how others perceive you.

Considering the fact that the second most popular search criterion on the web is searching for a person’s professional background (Pew Internet American Life Project) – it may get some people thinking that it’s time to create a web presence for themselves.

It doesn’t take long to conclude that creating a web presence for yourself is something of necessity to ensure your professional growth, your business success, and taking action to represent yourself accurately on the web. The challenge is to find something unique and innovative the tackles all of the following issues:

• You want people to find you when they search your name on the web

• You want to manage the information people see about you

• You want to create a strong and professional online presence for your name

With all of that said – there is really on one place to make the most of your name, and that place is LookupPage.  We understand the challenges of promoting your name online, and that’s why we take it very seriously.  Our motto is clear:  At LookupPage it’s really all about you and giving you all the tools to promote yourself in one place, without having to rely on other networks or services.  Nothing is better than being your own boss – especially when the results are always positive.

Viral Marketing is on Your Side

Viral marketing has evolved from traditional word of mouth to a highly recognised marketing endeavour in the online world.  Viral Marketing has been defined on Wikipedia as “marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness, through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses.”

The beauty of viral marketing and its impact in the online world is incomparable to the palpable results of viral publicity.  Online marketing is rapidly changing with exponential growth of opportunities for individuals and businesses.  What was once thought to be an environment where anything was guaranteed to go viral, has shifted to one in which people are looking for more and more creative ways to market themselves.  Viral marketing has now paved the way for individuals to use this preferred method for promoting their name on the web.  We have all heard of viral marketing, but what are the implications for individuals on the web? 

Google, the world’s leading search engine seems unassailable in today’s search environment.  In the UK, it has an 80% share of the search market and shows no sign of losing ground to its closest rivals Yahoo!, MSN, AOL and Ask.  According to Nielsen Online, 3.5 times as many UK searches are conducted on Google as on the other 38 leading engines combined.  Furthermore, according to Comscore, in the U.S. alone there are over 10 billion core searches per month performed on the search engine giant.

Your personal LookupPage gives you the opportunity to leverage your own publicity and manage your professional reputation online – you can call it the viral LookupPage.  There are millions of web searches a day, and the second most popular search criterion of searching for a person’s professional background is growing with conceivable results that generate business opportunities for promoting yourself online.   At LookupPage, we know that when your name appears on Google’s first result page (we guarantee that it will) that you are not only establishing a powerful web presence, but also acquiring the highest level of viral publicity and personal branding.  Now, that’s called being in the right place at exactly the right time – thanks to your personal LookupPage.   You can read more about the benefits of your page and how they all play an integral role in promoting your page on the web.

The Impact of Your Mindset on Media

No one has just one personality trait.  But when it comes to describing the people around us – we usually rely on one predominant trait to sum up that person in just one word. We are all familiar with those solitary words that say it all: egoistic, pugnacious, spontaneous, assertive, narcissistic, amiable, dogmatist etc.

In order to do justice to these complex set of traits that are intertwined to create our personalities - it is first important to understand the fundamental definition of personality: 

“…the sum total of the physical, mental, emotional, and social characteristics of an individual; organized pattern of behavioural characteristics of the individual.” [Source: Dictionary.com]

When it comes describing our personalities, we habitually presuppose that in order to do justice to our integrity we should depict ourselves as others want to perceive us.  Interestingly, we try to lull ourselves into thinking that no number of words can possibly describe us entirely.  You’d be remarkably surprised that it only takes 20 personality traits to fully describe every person in the world!

Mass-targeting has been one of the largest and most recognised tendencies for marketing on the web.   Online ad marketing agencies are exploiting and confounding the Internet today with mass-targeting strategies and appeal.  On the other side of the marketing spectrum, there is micro-targeting with more effective strategies and payoffs that are principally overlooked.  Which is exactly why brand advertisers have been conducting vast amounts of research to gain insight into their buyers mindset (personality traits), and understand what makes them tick, what speaks to them, and what they are interested in.  This type of marketing efforts are translating research results into what is known as psychographic profiling – which have been powerful and proven predictive models for buyer behaviour.

Just ask Mindset Media, former brand advertising agency, that has invented a proprietary psychographic planning & buying standard based on 20 most recognised personality traits. Each personality cell is divided into five levels of degrees, and everyone has some degree of all 20 traits, which is equivalent to their mindset.  Accordingly, it is estimated that each mindset has approximately 2 million unique users in the U.S. alone.  Individual mindset does matter – and plays a critical role in deciding what brands, products, and services we respond to.  Based on large representative sampling, Mindset Media has conducted research that demonstrates a strong statistical correlation between personality traits and predicting buyer behaviour.
                                       

                  

Here are some interesting facts based on Mindset Media research:

• People with high self-esteem are 48% more likely to drink premium coffee at Starbucks


• Deliberate people pay off their credit cards more regularly.


• Highly open people buy organic foods at nearly forty three the rate of the general population.


• Assertive people are 58% more likely to read more than 3 magazines regularly.

This research can provide insight into how your personal brand does matter in your evolving understanding of who you really are.  Even as individuals, we need to understand how to better brand ourselves on the Internet, to be true to our essence as a person while still maintaining the highest levels of integrity related to our reputation online.  That’s why at LookupPage we take the most extensive efforts to ensure that you are always on top – and always one step ahead of the game so that you can harness the full power of your personal brand.