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16 posts from February 2009

February 27, 2009


Social media, specifically focussing on the social networking sites, is rapidly becoming the staple form of content online – user generated content is also some of the most valuable, as it is the honest voice of the public.

Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are among the more popular and profitable social networks. They’re freely available for anyone to use, and are challenging the convention of traditional media. Social media optimisation, or SMO, involves using this new form of media to increase your web presence and overall credibility.

Clever Content
Optimise for your keywords, but always try and use fresh content rather than replicating old copy across the internet. Include the appropriate keywords, but not so much that the reader finds it repetitive.

Blog Above All Else
Blogging is the best way to create content on an ongoing basis, as there is always a new angle to take or industry news to relate – it’s not like setting copy into stone on your formal website; it has the potential to be much more personal and interactive than that. Read this post on how to use blogging to increase your online presence for more information on the topic.

Micro-blog! Even more uncomplicated, personal and interactive, micro-blogging platforms such as Twitter are great ways to increase search engine visibility through the community of users.

Create Profiles Across Social Networks
Scour the internet for areas where you can create a presence. You don’t necessarily have to be an active member, but by creating profiles with your chosen keywords you can claim the online address before someone else does and increase your search engine visibility while you’re at it. In comparison to many of the social networking sites, LookupPage is simple to use and focuses on getting high visibility for your profile.
If you haven’t signed up yet, find out more about this network now.

Share and Share Alike
Everything you do online should be easy for users to share. Chicklets are the little buttons which are inserted added to blogs and websites making social bookmarking possible at the click of a button.  Use them in your content, and bookmark your new blog posts. We will be looking at how to use social bookmarking sites to increase your web presence in the future, so remember to keep an eye out on this blog.

Interact and Be Part of the Gang
Possibly the most important aspect to SMO is social discussion and commentary. It’s no good being silent or stagnant online – the internet is way too interactive for that. Comment on blogs, ask questions, provide answers and generally just use your pulpit wisely.

Manage Your Online Reputation
If you don’t have any online reputation management services, it may be a good idea to invest in – or at least set up some simple reputation management tools like Google Alerts, Yahoo! Alerts and Twitter notifications to inform you of any content containing your keywords.

With ORM you can not only monitor your online presence, but also attend to it efficiently during times of both good and bad publicity.

February 26, 2009


Search engines are designed to find information located online, obviously – but there is so much more to it than that. Without search engines, the internet would be the world’s biggest library, but without the Dewey Decimal System.

Search engine marketing (SEM) involves leveraging search engines to bring traffic to your site, but more importantly, traffic from your specific target audience. You can use SEM to build your Google CV as well as to brand yourself online.

Below you will find an introduction to the main tactics of SEM. Over the next few weeks we will be taking a more in-depth look at each, so be sure to keep an eye out on this blog

Paid Search

Paid search adverts also known as pay per click (PPC) ads, account for a small percentage of the search results, and are paid for by the advertiser targeting specific keywords. These PPC ads are generally listed at the top or to the side of the SERPs and are usually highlighted as ‘Sponsored Ads’ to avoid confusion. We’ll be looking at PPC in-depth in the next few weeks, but remember with LookupPage you can get a PPC campaign for your name on Google for just $3.99/month by registering for the Basic Package. Find out more.

Organic Search

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of creating a website that ranks well on the SERPs for specific key phrases. A better quality site will receive more trust and credibility in the eyes of search engines wand will therefore rise in the organic, unpaid search results. As a rule, you want your rank to be ‘above the fold’ and as close to the number one spot as possible.

When you register for the LookupPage Pro package you will get a PPC campaign for your name as well as advanced SEO benefits for only $7.95/month. This package entitles you to guaranteed top Google listings, your own domain name, free advertisements and much more. Compare the Basic and Pro offerings now.

Social Media Search

Many social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have their own internal search capabilities. The various types of profiles on these websites are not always included in the results of traditional search engines, but it’s good to be registered so you can be visible on Google, as well as on the social networking site itself. As an aside, don’t forget to list your various social media profiles on your LookupPage Profile.

Here’s an example of what your Google CV could look like when you register for one of the LookupPage packages:

Ehud_Furman_Google_CV

Wrapping Up

PPC is a cost-effective tactic, but may not be for you, SEO is a fluid business, and can often take longer to yield rewards and social media search is still in its infancy – but a combination of these three methods is imperative to almost any worthwhile SEM strategy.


Untitled
YouTube has revolutionised our approach to video creation, marketing and appreciation. The old rules of TV broadcast are out the window, and now you’re free to ‘Broadcast Yourself’ online.
What could be better for increasing your online presence than rich video content?

Creating Video Content

Yes, you guessed it. The most important ingredient to using YouTube to increase your web visibility is content. Regular content creation means there is always something new and fresh online, and there are plenty of ways to create content without becoming repetitive or predicable.

Create your own YouTube channel, using your standard name (or other term you’re looking to promote), and provide detailed information about yourself. Befriend others with similar content topics and promote your YouTube channel wherever you can. Remember to add the link to your YouTube Channel from your LookupPage profile for maximum exposure.

Respond to other users’ videos through your own, join the conversations and become an active member of the YouTube community. Be it praise or a question posed, this web presence tactic is good for spreading your username across a large surface area while also interacting with others.

When you upload a new video, be sure to include the exact keywords surrounding yourself and the selected video, and provide enough information to make it interesting to the user (i.e. give it an accurate title as well as a catchy description).

Below are some ideas of what you could do to market yourself using YouTube:
  • Video blogs or a series of vodcasts.
  • Adverts and commercials.
  • Video press releases.
  • Competitions, contests and challenges.
  • Product and service demonstrations.
  • Tutorials.
Always consider your viral potential (both good and bad). This should always be on your mind when writing a video script or shooting footage. If your content is solid, you may just attract some valuable viral attention – if your content is not up to standard, it may receive negative attention. Either way, make it as easy as possible for users to pass on the knowledge of your YouTube channel.

How to Promote Your Videos

Embed your videos in your blog posts or website and create content to support it (remember those keywords). Now you can promote your blog post as usual and invite users to view your video (and also point out that you have a YouTube channel to which they can subscribe).

Submit both the blog post and the video to social bookmarking sites; Twitter and Facebook are also great places to release information about new content.Monitor those viewing numbers, ratings and comments to see what you’re getting right, and what you’re getting wrong.

Interested in other ways to increase your online presence? Find out more about how to do so by reading the following posts:

February 19, 2009


Facebook


Facebook is one of the Internet’s most popular websites, for consumers and businesses alike. Using Facebook to position yourself or your brand and establish your web presence is relatively painless, and can do a lot for your marketing.

Benefits of Facebook:

  • Great potential for consumer interaction (much like Twitter) and creating transparency.
  • Free to low cost.
  • Targeted, sponsored ads.
  • Over 175 million users.
  • Great for locating your target market.
  • If you track and analyse your traffic, you’ll soon notice how much traffic is being ushered from Facebook, and how to capitalise on this.
  • There are plenty of Facebook apps out there to make life easier.
  • The ability to create Facebook Groups and Fan Pages.

Creating a user profile under the name of your brand is the first step, but using Facebook Groups and Fan Pages is the best way to leverage Facebook in order to brand yourself online. Release information, build a database, host discussions and conduct polls, post links, ask and answer questions and further your blog readership.

Here are the pros and cons of the two Facebook services as web presence tools:

Facebook Groups:

  • Category and sub-category group classification.
  • Allows group messaging.
  • No content feed potential (manual content submission required).
  • Not visible outside Facebook.

Facebook Fan Pages:

  • Visible to search engines, and can therefore be used to build your Google CV.
  • More visible to other users than Facebook Groups.
  • More potential for external link building (posting the link on other websites, like your LookupPage profile).
  • Flash, HTML and blog feed options.
  • Advertising options.
  • Does not allow group messaging.

Visit the LookupPage Facebook Fan Page for more of an idea on what Fan Pages offer.

Here are some pointers to help you penetrate Facebook and increase your online visibility, transparency and ultimately your web presence.

  • Create a profile to manage your Fan Pages and Groups.
  • Use your logo as the profile picture and use your status updates wisely.
  • Include important information, without recreating your current website.
  • Offline: Instruct the public search for your group/fan page name on Facebook.
  • Search out handy Facebook applications such as the ‘Web Presence’ app.
  • Use Facebook events to inform and invite relevant users to functions/events.
  • Facebook messaging can include links, but keep them short and delayed (you wouldn’t want users leaving your group because of perceived junk-mail).
  • Invite members who join your group to the fan page, and vice versa.
  • Use Facebook Polls to define and understand your audience.
  • Join Facebook Platform Ad Networks.
  • If you have the resources, develop branded apps for use on Facebook.
  • Setup your email notifications so you’ll be aware of any activity immediately.

Remember to add your Facebook information to your LookupPage profile and vice versa in order to maximise your online visibility.


Depending on your name and how common it is, you may find mentions of other people in your Google CV. This can be a nightmare for someone trying to increase your online visibility.

Often, someone will be easily outranked by a famous, infamous or established branding industry personality with the same or similar name. Joe Smith the famous footballer, Joe Smith the bank robber and Joe Smith the family man all share the same search results.

Here are some self branding ideas to help instances of your name rise to the top of the search engine results pages:

Never Back Down

It’s your name too, and should be of more value to you than a pseudonym or other variation. Scour the Internet for places like social networks where you can create user profiles, add worthy information about yourself and engage with other users on these social networks. Remember to always link to these profiles from your LookupPage.
This will not only improve your chances of climbing the ranks of your own Google CV through content creation, but regular user engagement will help you brand yourself online.

Sometimes, there will be an overwhelming amount of bad publicity which is focused on someone else with the same name. In this case, try to create enough good content around strong keywords to drown out the perceived bad press.

Another great idea is to get a SEM campaign running for your name which will help you get your name into the search engine results pages, even if it’s popular. You can actually very easily set up such a campaign by registering for the LookupPage Basic package which only costs $3.99. We will be discussing more about search engine marketing in future posts, so be sure to keep an eye out.

Making the Switch

There may just be too many others out there with the same name – or one person with a massive persona. Okay, so maybe you can’t always stick by your guns and claim your name back, especially if your name happens to be Barack Obama or Charles Manson.

As a last resort, make your name unique without being ambiguous and perhaps use a middle name or initial to mark the distinction without having to use a pseudonym or nickname (which isn’t as personal).

Blend your name and your business. Joe the Plumber may be already taken, but JoePlumber might be just the ticket - or Joe the Plumber junior, or Plumber Joe and so on.

Be Consistent

Like anyone in the personal branding industry will tell you (or any kind of branding industry for that matter); consistency is key. Always use the exact same name and username for all content and user profiles.
As with your name, always use the same logos or profiles pictures. This will make you instantly recognisable to users at glance; much like a corporate logo can be for the consumer.

Keep At It

You aren’t going to rule the ranks overnight, but consistent content creation, honest and transparent communication and strategic presence will pay off in credibility, both with the search engines and users online.


LookupPage Email Signature  


We at LookupPage have come up with more innovative means for you to promote yourself!  
You can now attach the LookupPage button to your e-mail signature with every outgoing e-mail, thereby making more of a name for yourself out there on the World Wide Web!

We will guide you with these effortless steps on how to attach the LUP button to your signature and begin the process of generating a bigger buzz about yourself to your email recipients.
  1. To begin, Login to your LookupPage account, and click on 'my account'.
  2. Choose your preferred button (each features a slightly different logo and size).
  3. Copy the HTML code of your LookupPage button of choice, and paste it into Notepad, saving it as 'lookupage.html' in 'My Documents'.
  4. Go to your Microsoft Outlook agent.
  5. Click on 'Tools' > 'Options'
  6. Click on the 'Mail Format Tab' in the window that just came up.
  7. Click on 'Signatures' (bottom right of the window).
  8. Click on 'New' (on the upper right side).
  9. In the window that popped up, put down the name for your new signature as 'My Signature'.
  10. Click on 'Use the file as template' option and then click on 'Browse'.
  11. In the file dialog that will open up, choose 'My Documents' and select the file we created earlier (lookuppage.html).
  12. Click 'next' and then 'Finish'.
  13. Now click 'OK' on the 'Create Signature' dialog.
  14. We're back in the options window. Here open up the 'Signature for new messages:' drop-down menu and select 'My Signature'.
  15. From the 'Signature for replies and forwards:' drop-down menu, you also need to select 'My Signature'.
  16. Click on 'Apply' (bottom right).
  17. Compose a new message to make sure that the signature works and is in place!
If you would also like to add a LookupPage button to your online profile, website or blog, read our Blog post about the subject.

February 18, 2009


Improving one’s web presence through online branding is easy enough these days. But sometimes your Google CV doesn’t reflect your true potential – or maybe it is populated with results for someone with a similar name.

Bad associated publicity can hamper your online success, but with a decent amount of effort, your self marketing efforts can build your Google CV into masterpiece.

Personal Branding Tips

A good start to improving your Google CV is to try and penetrate the sites which are already listing results for your name. If possible, create accounts at these sites with information about you and your products or services. And make sure that all these sites are linked to from your LookupPage profile.

Make sure your own website is well optimised for search engines and always be sure to include your brand names and other valuable key phrases in your web content. A great way to increase online visibility is to own your domain and variations, or at least as many domains as you can which include your name, and redirect them to your site or blog.

Social Networking

Create a profile for yourself or your brand at all the major social networking destinations such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. These types of services can be used to gather information about your market, release information about you or your brand, and increase your visibility and transparency while making valuable contacts.

Submit your news to social book marking sites when you’ve published a new blog post or article. The most popular international social book marking sites include Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon.

Online Reputation Monitoring

By setting up a few simple reputation management tools, you’ll automatically receive notification about any content online which includes your keywords. By knowing what the public are saying about you or your brand, you have a better understanding of your audience, and how to go about creating content to improve your Google CV and overall credibility. For more information on personal reputation management, please read this recent post, You and Your Online Reputation.

Creating Content

Create a blog and always be sure to generate interesting content using the most relevant keywords. Blogs are free and a great way of creating formal content in an informal environment. Write articles and submit them to external sites (also keeping keywords in mind). Write them or have them written and then distribute to the many free article directories available online, linking back to your website or LookupPage profile.

How far you’d like to take self marketing is up to you. There are many things you can do to increase your impact online and start owning your Google CV – consider how you can create a relevant buzz. Create podcasts, viral videos or other interesting rich media and write a blog post to go submit with each one – be sure to notify users on Twitter of your YouTube videos – your YouTube viewers about your Twitter activity, and so on. Listing all your profiles on your LookupPage is one of the easiest ways to interlink all of your self promotion activities.

Honesty is the best policy - as your online visibility improves, so will your online credibility. By being more active online and engaging with users, you have potential to build relationships which are ultimately more important to both your credibility and web visibility than anything else.

February 17, 2009


Online reputation management, or brand reputation monitoring as it is often also referred to, is the result of the popularity of online media and ease of public accessibility, coupled with the rise of integrated and interconnected Web 2.0 systems.

Suddenly the Internet is more functional and easier to use than ever before. There’s been a dramatic shift in focus from traditional print and broadcast media which simply aren’t as three-dimensional, interactive and convenient as the Web.

Today’s consumers are encouraged to create and share their opinions online for free – a function not normally associated with conventional media. This allows for more consumer consciousness, freedom and advocacy - providing a soapbox for consumers to express their opinions.

Good or bad, sometimes these user viewpoints go unnoticed, but a lot of the time they are the active, uncontrolled voices of the authoritative members of the online public.

There’s no need to fret. By following a few simple tips towards setting up your reputation management tools, you’ll soon beware of any buzz about your brand and building your Google CV all the while.

Choose Your Reputation Management Keywords Wisely

Select which keywords you would like to monitor with your reputation management tools. These should include your brand names, employees’ names, unique product or services names and any other noteworthy terms.

Get An RSS Reader – It’s Really Simple

Before deciding which areas of the Internet you’d like to monitor, find an RSS Reader (Really Simple Syndication) to concentrate the incoming information from the various information sources into one channel.

Two of the free RSS readers include:

Google Reader: This easy to use RSS aggregator compiles your important feeds into one destination – all within your browser.
FeedReader3: Once downloaded and installed, FeedReader3 provides convenient filing of incoming data. Add your key phrases and click which suggested search services you’d like to utilise (e.g. Technorati, YouTube etc.).

Using Your Reputation Search Spotlight

With your key phrases and RSS Reader ready, it’s time to decide where to listen out for mentions of your brand. Your initial setup will probably return a long list of results for your keywords due to a backlog of online information. You may also need to redefine your search terms to narrow down your results.

The following websites can be used for manual search (e.g. meta search with KEOTag) or added to your RSS Feed, and are just a few of the essential monitoring destinations:

Which do you use? Drop us a comment.

We’ll be exploring online reputation monitoring and management over the next few weeks, so be sure to keep an eye out on this blog.

Remember that you can use LookupPage to keep track of where visitors to your profile are coming from. By ensuring that the link to your LookupPage profile is listed on any piece of communication that you submit online, you will get more visitors to your profile. By being able to track where they are coming from you can gain insight into what and where you should target in order to increase your online visibility.

February 13, 2009


Twitter  
What is Twitter?

Twitter is an increasingly popular online communication tool. Free to use and jam packed with potential, Twitter allows you to post and receive messages from friends, family and colleagues in real-time.

Also known as a micro-blogging platform, Twitter entries, or ‘tweets’, are limited to 140 characters. This may make entries sound too brief, but you’ll soon find it makes it easier to post on the fly – great for communicating with peers and building up a visible web presence.

How and Why is Twitter Useful?

Twitter can be used for:

  • Note-taking, jotting down ideas or bookmarking websites for personal use.
  • Sharing websites, blog posts and other interesting information with your audience of followers.
  • Instantaneous sharing of photographs and videos from your mobile phone with your followers.
  • Receiving answers to questions posed to your followers – but remember, the conversation is two way. Always be polite and try and help others as much as they help you.
  • Twitter is great for making worthwhile business connections.
  • Organise meet ups, or ‘tweet-ups’ with like-minded individuals.
  • Publish breaking updates of news, product releases and other information in real-time.

How to Join Twitter:

  • Point your browser to twitter.com.
  • Click “Get Started – Join!”
  • Enter your details (Remember to always use your full name or alias for consistency in personal branding).
  • Click “Create my Account”.

You’re now free to begin making connections, seeding content and engaging in conversation whenever and wherever you like. You’ll soon be getting the hang of it and will be on your way to improving your web presence and visibility.

Once you have created your Twitter account, don’t forget to add it to your LookupPage profile so your visitors know where else they can communicate with or follow you. You can also tweet your LookupPage profile. More people will find it and be able to get far more insight into what you are all about.

It’s all about making a connection with your potential audience, so don’t forget to maximise the benefits of your LookupPage profile by incorporating it into every online visibility exercise you undertake.

Next week we will be looking at how to use Facebook for corporate and personal branding, so keep an eye out.

February 12, 2009


Online reputation monitoring and management is vital for individuals and companies. Listening, understanding and engaging is the new protocol and it’s become a necessity in this age of citizen journalism / consumer generated media.

Listening To the Buzz

Monitoring your online reputation is rather simple once you have yourself an automated process. Choose your areas for investigation carefully, depending on where you would normally be active or where others would normally discuss you and your products.

  • Do a bit of research into search volumes and determine which keywords and terms you’d like to monitor. Include synonyms and common misspellings, but keep the list down to a minimum otherwise you’ll be swamped with unnecessary information. Monitoring your name and your company’s name should be the first port of call.
  • Make use of trackback URLs when blogging, and perform random searches for snippets from your articles to monitor content reproduction online.
  • Google Alerts (as well as Yahoo! Alerts) are great for reporting on external content. Set up alerts to respond to your name and slight variations (remember not to be too broad) and send instant notifications straight to your inbox.
  • Set up RSS feeds, and channel them into one thread. That way you’ll receive relevant real-time updates in one single location – automatically.

Recommended sources include:

Analysing the Noise

There is a considerable amount of online reputation monitoring software out there that can help you keep a tally of your reputation’s health – but for starters it’s relatively simple to understand the general feeling yourself. We’ll be looking at various tools which can help you monitor the conversation online in a future post, so stay tuned.

Check out the Google, Yahoo! and Alexa rankings for your website, blog or social media profiles and compare them with that of your competitors.

Influencing the Perception

The best way to improve credibility is through online visibility, which can be accomplished by befriending your audience or potential audience. Analyse your website, blog and LookupPage profile traffic and ask yourself: “where are my visitors entering from, and why?”

Identify these voices of authority in the crowd and pay them special attention – this will greatly increase your web presence and overall visibility.


It’s no secret that many employers – both in online and traditional industries – conducting interviews are likely to search the Internet for information on the candidates.

Why?
Why not? Using Google, Yahoo! or other search engines to run a background check is legal, free and often more honest than a reference from a previous employer.

What are they looking for?
Anything and everything. An employer can vastly increase their frame of reference of you before you even walk in the door – possibly knowing things you wouldn’t disclose in an interview.

By assessing the candidates and putting a face and a few background details to a name beforehand, an interviewer may already have decided for or against your application. It is for this reason that personal branding is so important if you want to land your dream job.

Any offensive or off-putting information will be quickly spotted and a candidate with a better Google CV may stand a better chance of receiving the job – regardless of the impending interview.

What You Can Do to Improve Your Online Reputation:

  • Join an online personal branding site in your industry.
  • Make business connections online and engage with them.
  • Upload your CV to a reputable site for review.
  • Control your image on the Internet with online reputation monitoring software.
  • Publish blog posts relevant to your industry.
  • Personalise your LookupPage profile with appropriate pictures and information.
  • Always be careful what you publish – nothing published on the Internet is ever truly erased forever.
  • Submit links to your profiles to relevant external sites (comments, discussion boards etc.) and also link between your individual profiles.
  • Be sure to distinguish between other people who share your name.
  • Set your Facebook and other social networking site privacies accordingly.
  • Make sure you’re easy to find, and easier to contact (especially for future job leads).

Following these guidelines will help you control what Google has to say about you – but also remember, you too can utilise Google to gain as much information about the employer or interviewer before meeting face-to-face.

February 11, 2009


Making a name for yourself in the digital age, whether you are a working professional or between jobs, is vital to the future of career. Whether you have orchestrated the content or not, your Google CV says a lot about you – especially since people really do tend to trust Google.

Getting to the top of the search results pages (SERPs) with worthwhile content is important to your career, especially during a time of increased job competitiveness.

Here are some ways to start improving your Google CV today:

  • Use What You Have: Chances are there is already content about you floating about online. You might find that someone with the same name is ranking in the first position – naturally, that’s where you would want to see your content. This content can be used as a base for personal branding.
  • Be Social: There are many popular social networking sites out there for you to start connecting and communicating. This allows you to make priceless connections while also creating content and getting your opinion out there. Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Flickr, YouTube and Yahoo! groups are great places to engage in online conversation – but definitely the most important; start a blog!
  • Use Your Profiles Wisely: Remember to link between your various profiles, and link between your blog and additional sites (and vice versa) whenever possible. You can do this on your LookupPage profile, if you haven’t yet, be sure to update your profile page with all of this information now.
  • Monitor: Online reputation monitoring is the most effective way of listening to and engaging in the conversation. There are plenty of sophisticated tools out there, but one manual way of keeping on top of the conversation is by setting up Google Alerts. These will alert you of instances of keywords such as your name, business or brand.
  • Be Careful What You Say: Remember, the Internet is a public domain and potential employers are undoubtedly going to Google you – so always keep your comments and conversations with that in mind. Never say anything online you wouldn’t say in real life (to your boss for that matter).
  • Always Think in Keywords: When creating content around yourself and your name, remember to use relevant keywords for search engine optimisation purposes. Do a bit of research into popular search terms around your job market and related themes. It’s amazing what a bit strategic vocabulary can do for your content.
  • Signup to LookupPage: With three online web presence packages (from free to professional), you get to display your professional information, an overview of your links and search engine ranking as well as many additional services.

Register with LookupPage today.

  • Follow LookupPage on Twitter

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