Raising Your Net-Cred – or How I Learned to Love the Search…

 It used to be, not so long ago, that when you wanted to know more about someone or something, you went to the Yellow Pages or the dictionary or asked someone you found to be knowledgeable.   Over the past few years, and especially since the coming of the search engines (namely Google and Yahoo) the world of finding information has changed a great deal.  It has become faster, more efficient and yet, less accurate, due to the morass of information available.  Finding a needle in the haystack has become easier – but is it the right needle? First, we all began using the internet to search for things.  Next we began to search the internet as if it were a huge dictionary or encyclopedia, seeking coveted knowledge.  Now, we are seeing people using the internet to find other people – to find out how to connect with or contact them, to learn a little more about them – and to quietly assess their “net cred.” (That’s like steet cred, without the street…) As such, the internet has become a prime resource for individual promotion, for establishing worth and for raising yourself to expert or at least, findable status.  Holding an upper hand online can be as critical as the difference between getting the next job, appointment, promotion or as seemingly minor as reconnecting with old friends, which as they say, can be priceless. However, if you don’t search well, it also says a lot about you – that you haven’t been found worthy by the search engines, or by the massively expansive world of the internet.  It says that you are not recognizable – at all, or as the person you are – a real universal issue for people with  common names.  It says that you are lacking in Net-Cred…so what can you do to position most effectively online – and take control of the information people find about you when you are searched?…and you will be searched, believe that. There are plenty of options for ways to be found online.  Let’s take a look at them – and you can find the one that helps you the most – and does the work you need done to increase your professional presence on the Web: You can often purchase your name as a web address, or url.  Costs are not too high to buy the url (about $20/year) – and hosting costs between $5-20 a month  But then, even if you can create and build a great website, you must maintain it, and then market it.  In a world where new websites appear every 3 seconds, the theory of “if you build it, they will come” no longer applies, if it ever did. There is space to post your information on popular social/business network sites like Linked-in, Ryze, Fast Pitch or Xing - for free, or for a monthly charge.  Here, you give them your information in a field driven input space, that is often then paid for through selling your presence to the 7 trillion dollar ad industry.  Also, although you have your “network” it is easy for anyone, including people who want to sell you things, to connect with you.  The people who do search for you have to be signed up to see all your info and to contact you - and you aren’t guaranteed priority on the search engine pages.  ‘My Space’ and ‘Facebook’, although massively popular, are not always what professionals seek to provide the proper docking space for the look, feel and net-cred most experts seek. There are also spaces like Ziki and Naymz which do help provide you space online to post your profile or resume – some are “free” like those above – but none provide guaranteed top page placement, and many sell your information, or candy-wrap your profile in ads.  Either way, it isn’t often helpful, unique or professional.   Then there’s qAlias (www.qaliassignup.com) For less than $10 per month, you gain guaranteed page one placement on the top two search engines, Google and Yahoo, when someone searches your name.  You become easily accessible and confident that your best self is represented when people are searching for your name.  With a service like qAlias, you can also provide a one-page find-me-all atop the search engines, linking together each of the networks, activities and interests that make you unique. Let’s face it, who uses the white or yellow pages anymore to find resources or people?  How do you search for people these days? Have you ever “googled” your business associates - or yourself even?  This search for online relevance is one way in which the internet is changing the surface of the business world.   From Baby Boomers down through Millennial’s, people are searching your information.  If you don’t know what your ‘web presence’ is now, then it is imperative that you find out. If there is no information about you on the first three pages of the search, then expect your clients or prospective employers to infer that you have not done enough in your life thus far to earn a web presence. (You’d surely want them to know otherwise, right?)  The other issue is – what if they find someone with the same name who is not really you?  How can you control that? Admittedly, we are facing of a new explosion of the internet where people that we meet, do business with or seek a job from are using the web engines to find out more about us. We certainly need to take control of our image, or ….as some would call it … our ‘personal brand’.  Be sure to check out all the resources and make your choice as to what best represents you, lets you be found and lets you claim your Net-cred.  Learn to “love the Search” like I did – Google me – Andy Greider – for a sample of what you can do to help yourself position wisely and gain traction online.