Almost Savvy » Career

The #1 Reason You’ll Want to Use Google+

Irene Koehler — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:44:42 +0000

If you’re still wondering if you ought to bother spending time getting to know yet another social network, I’ve got one big reason you might want to give Google+ a try. It is clear that the team at Google thought long and hard about how people and brands use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and worked to incorporate the best features of all, while adding a few cool features we haven’t seen before. I’ll be addressing those features and how to get started using Google+ in the next few posts.

To keep things simple for the moment, let’s focus on the top reason you should care about Google+.

Google Search

I’m a huge Google fan. I use Gmail, Gcal, Google Voice and plenty of other Google products. Even if you aren’t using Google products like I do, chances are good that you’re using one…Google search. Google is the power player when it comes to online search. While there are many other search engines, Google dominates the field. Whether we’re looking for travel information for our next vacation or reviews and best prices for our next purchases, we’re probably searching on Google.

What’s that you say? You’re not interested in search engines and don’t see what that has to do with you? After all, you’re not all that into tech stuff. Fair enough, but I suggest that even if you think you’re not interested in search, you really are – you just don’t know it yet.

When a Brand Name Becomes a Verb, You Know Something Big is Going On

When was the last time you googled yourself? Do you know what information shows up at the top of the search results? Your current, past and potential employers, clients, and dates are googling you (oh, yes, they are) and you should be monitoring your online reputation and take steps to be sure the best information about you to be the easiest to find.

Google Gets to Make the Rules

How does the stuff at the top of the search engine results get to the top? Well, we don’t know exactly. How each search engine ranks content is a bit of a mystery:it is based on a proprietary algorithm, which is their own secret sauce. Google, Bing, Yahoo – none of them completely reveal the criteria they use to rank certain items higher than others.

It remains to be seen exactly how Google will incorporate content from Google+ into their SERP, but speculation is that it what we post and how others engage with our content (by commenting, for example) will definitely be a factor. Prior to Google+, my Google profile appeared at the bottom of the first page of search results. It now appears at the top, above even my own website. That makes Google+ pretty darn important right out of the gate. This make Google+ a critically important place to build a presence for your business or career. (Note that businesses are not yet allowed to set up profiles on Google+. Business profiles are expected to be launched in a few months.)

Does this mean that all the work you’ve done to polish and optimize your LinkedIn profile, Twitter, blog or website no longer matters in terms of what people will find when they google your name? Absolutely not. If Google were to no longer assign weight to your other online properties and engagement, it seems they’d likely have an antitrust problem on their hands. Don’t stop what you’re currently doing, but I do encourage you to either dive head first into Google+ (for those extremely familiar with Facebook and all it’s features) or approach it taking baby steps soon (for those who are still learning to use Facebook’s features).

Want an Invitation to Google+?

I’ve got a limited number of invitations left to share with my friends. If you’d like to sign-up for Google+ and learn as you go, you can grab an invitation here while they last. You’ll need to have a Gmail address to sign-up, but it is easy to create one if you don’t already have an account. Once you’re in, add me to one of your circles. This will enable you to see what I’m sharing on Google+. See you there!

If you enjoyed this post, sign up to receive free updates by email here to be sure you don’t miss any future Almost Savvy social media updates and news. You are also invited to connect with others interested in social media on the friendly folks on the Almost Savvy page on Facebook where we share news and tips.

How To Manage Your Online Reputation By Using Google Alerts

Irene Koehler — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:45:41 +0000

In addition to the wonderful feedback to my post last week about 3 Mistakes You’re Making Online, I also received questions about my third point – using Google Alerts to monitor your reputation online. While I know throngs of hyper-connected people for whom using Google Alerts is second nature, the fact is that this is a new tool for many people. If you’re part of the second group, I strongly encourage you to consider using Google Alerts. There are definitely more comprehensive and sophisticated tools out there, but this is the place to get started tracking what’s said about you online. Best of all – it’s free and incredibly easy to do.

What is Google Alerts?

Google Alerts is an extremely simple tool to help monitor what is said or shared online about any topic of interest to you. While you are undoubtedly interested in keeping up to date on industry-related topics, local news or your favorite sports teams, one of the most relevant topics to you should be you. This may include information posted online somewhere by you, someone you know, organizations or companies you’re affiliated with or public databases.

Here’s how Google explains the Alerts tool:

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Enter the topic you wish to monitor, then click preview to see the type of results you’ll receive. Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:

monitoring a developing news story

keeping current on a competitor or industry

getting the latest on a celebrity or event

keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams

Surprisingly, there is no mention of monitoring your reputation online, which simply is a must do step for every professional, business, non-profit and anyone who deals with other people who may want, at some point, to learn more about them. Really, who doesn’t this include?

Why should I bother?

Whether you know it or not, and whether or not you like it, everyone is looking you up online. You should assume that your current and potential employers, clients, customers, donors, friends, dates, family members and neighbors are typing your name into Google to find out what you’re up to, how much you paid for your home and to which political candidate you donated money. Sure, if you assume that everyone is googling you, you’ll be wrong in some cases. Still, don’t you want to know what they’ll be finding? You might be surprised to find out how much information is online right now about you.

In addition to monitoring your own reputation, it is also a simple way to keep an eye on what is being said about your company, your competitors, the company you hope to work for and so on. Don’t be the last to know!

Is it really that easy to set up Google Alerts?

In a word – Yes. Google has a simple guide to walk you through the steps, along with some helpful examples.

A few tips when setting up your alerts:

Use quotation marks when you want to get results for a specific phrase, as shown above for my name. Without the quotation marks, I will receive alerts for every instance online of when the words irene and koehler appear, but not necessarily together as in “irene koehler” and I definitely don’t want to receive emails for all of those thousands of pages which aren’t relevant to me.
Set up alerts for any nicknames or usernames you have on different online forums or social networking sites.
In addition to creating alerts for your own name and business name, consider creating alerts for your children’s names. Even if they’re young, you might be surprised to find their name listed online as a result of a soccer tournament or school activity. Set up alerts for your spouse’s name at your own risk.

Your turn…How have you found Google Alerts useful? If you haven’t used them before, do you plan to set them up now? Add a comment below to let me know.

If you enjoyed this post, sign up to receive free updates by email here to be sure you don’t miss any future Almost Savvy news. You are also invited to connect with others interested in social media on the friendly folks on the Almost Savvy page on Facebook where we share news and tips.

3 Mistakes You’re Making Online

Irene Koehler — Mon, 23 May 2011 14:53:30 +0000

Oy, the internet. Must it be so complicated? Can’t we all just have fun online and not worry so much? While some people do take that approach, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it. If you’re reading this, chances are you’re active online and chances are you’re making one of these mistakes. OK, maybe you specifically aren’t doing these things, but many of our friends are.

1. Multiple Personalities

You use different websites for different parts of your life. You’re the professional you on LinkedIn. You are the friends and family you on Facebook. You’re the silly I’m out all night on a Saturday with my friends you on twitter.

While this approach of segmenting our lives may have made sense pre-internet, it is no longer a luxury we have. When I want to learn about you, I head straight to Google. It’s entirely possible that what I will find shows me much more than you intended. In addition to finding the professional you on LinkedIn, I may easily find content you shared on Facebook which you thought was only visible to friends, your ranty comments on YouTube videos and blog posts, and all sorts of photos of you (whether posted by you or someone else).

2. Undersharing

You’ve heard so much about the perils of oversharing that you’ve decided to be smart about how you approach your online presence. You know better than to post personal information revealing your vacation plans and when your house will be left empty and vulnerable. You know better than to complain about your neighbors and your boss online, lest they find out about it. You’ve heard the horror stories about people losing their jobs or destroying their reputation because too much was shared online.

You’ve heeded lessons that others have learned the hard way. The only problem is you’re overcompensating by not sharing enough information online. When someone Googles you, and believe me they are, are they finding the information that you want them to see or are they finding information that doesn’t tell your story in the best possible light? If you are not intentionally and strategically sharing information online, you may be defined by a hodgepodge of links to your extracurricular activities or from various sites that aggregate content about someone with your name, which may or may not indeed be you. It’s really a question of brand or be branded. Do you want to be defined by what is online about you by default, or take an active role in telling your story online?

3. Sharing, But Not Monitoring

You’re busily posting photos and updates online without taking the time to keep on eye on what the internet has to say about you. You’re under the impression that any information online about you is under your control because you decided to put it there.

When was the last time you googled yourself? Everyone else is googling you, so you’d better know what it is they’re finding when they do. While there are many sophisticated tools and strategies to monitor your reputation online, the first place to start is to set up Google alerts. Set up a Google alert for your name, nicknames, name of your business and other terms of particular interest. You will then receive an e-mail when that term appears online in a blog post, for example. Sure, it’ll also alert you when someone else with the same name is mentioned online, but this is a good thing. If another Irene Koehler got herself into a little legal trouble, I would definitely want to know about it so I could be sure to clarify things is anyone thought it was me.

This list is by no means complete. What common mistakes are you seeing people make? Please add them in the comments so that others can learn from your questions and suggestions.

How To Get Feedback on Your Profile Photo

Irene Koehler — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:41:34 +0000

Welcome to my shortest blog post ever. The response to my recent post about how to select the right photo for your online profile has been fantastic. I invite you to watch this video to find out…

How you can get valuable feedback on the photo you’ve chosen for your profile As my friend, Hjortur Smarason says, we should think of this photo as our own personal logo.
How you can support others by offering helpful feedback.
Why doing #1 and #2 above would be helpful to me personally.
Why this post is so short and the video isn’t edited at all.

Click here if you aren’t able to view the video above.

As mentioned in the video:

If you missed it earlier, read the tips here: 8 Tips: How to Select the Right Profile Photos
Post your photo and share feedback on others’ photos here: Almost Savvy Page on Facebook

I look forward to seeing your photos and feedback!

If you enjoyed this post, sign up to receive free updates by email here to be sure you don’t miss any future AlmostSavvy news. You are also invited to connect with others interested in social media on the friendly folks on the Almost Savvy page on Facebook where we share news and tips.

It’s All About.Me (Your Identity Online – Simplified)

Irene Koehler — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 07:35:12 +0000

Have you ever received an email from someone and their signature block seems to run on forever with so many links that the signature is longer than the email itself? Are you guilty of this yourself? It’s okay to admit it, you’re among friends.

I have several links in my own signature block. I want to make it incredibly easy for the email recipient to learn more about me, so I include links to find me on my own website, my professional profile on LinkedIn, Twitter (two accounts), and the Almost Savvy page on Facebook. I’ve seen others with even more links to Flickr, YouTube, SlideShare, to name just a few of the more popular sites.

Did you ever wish that there was an easy way to lead someone to all of the various pieces of your online presence with one simple link? If so, you may want to check out about.me.

Reasons to set up your own about.me page

You’re able to include all the links to your online presence and drive traffic to those sites.
With an interesting photo and small amount of text, it’s an opportunity to have a little fun and show some personality.
It’s easy. All you really need to do is connect about.me to your LinkedIn profile and any other sites you think help to showcase who you are. Limit yourself to those that show you in a positive light.
By registering your page, you’re making sure that a valuable piece of online real estate tied to your name is yours before someone else with your name claims it or a you-wannabe claims it.
Think online reputation. Having solid skills and a credible reputation are critical keys to success. If it isn’t easy to find evidence of your skills and reputation, however, how valuable are they? This is one more tool which will help you make it dead simple for others to learn more about you.

Tips when setting up your page

Find the balance between having enough text to say something interesting about yourself (enough) and not having it begin to look like marketing material (too much).
Use one photo for the page. You have the option to tile a small photo (have it repeat several times to fill the page), but this usually ends up looking too busy. Choose a good photo, one that makes you look good or makes your story or brand more compelling. Don’t worry if you don’t have the perfect photo when you get started; there are several stock backgrounds from which to choose when you first set it up.
It is extremely easy to experiment with different photos, fonts, text – everything. Try it out, send the link to friends to get their feedback, edit, repeat.

A little inspiration to get you started (click on each image to enlarge)

Here’s mine. I consider it a work in progress. I wasn’t able to find many interesting photos of myself. It turns out that years of being the one holding the camera has its downsides.

Here are more examples of interesting about.me profiles.

Do you have an about.me profile? Please share the link in the comments so that we can easily meet you.

If you enjoyed this post, sign up to receive free updates by email here to be sure you don’t miss any future AlmostSavvy news. You are also invited to connect with others interested in social media on the friendly folks on the AlmostSavvy page on Facebook where we share news and tips.

Top 10 Most Commonly Used Words on LinkedIn

Irene Koehler — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 18:23:30 +0000

Ah, the challenge online. How to appear that you fit in while also appearing to stand out from the crowd. We really work hard to think of just the right words to use to let others know how irresistibly awesome we are. According to the LinkedIn blog, it appears that many others believe they are as irresistible as we are and are using the exact same terms in their LinkedIn profiles.

Is it a problem that we’re using the same terms as others? No, not necessarily. The problem with these terms is that they are vague. They are like smoke and mirrors; intended to create a positive impression, yet they actually tell us nothing specific.

Take a look at the list of words. Are these words anywhere on your own LinkedIn profile? Which words would you suggest using instead?

1. Extensive experience

2. Innovative

3. Motivated

4. Results-oriented

5. Dynamic

6. Proven track record

7. Team player

8. Fast-paced

9. Problem solver

10. Entrepreneurial

If you enjoyed this post, sign up to receive free updates by email here to be sure you don’t miss any future AlmostSavvy news. You are also invited to connect with others interested in social media on the friendly folks on the AlmostSavvy page on Facebook where we share news and tips.

How to: Keep Your LinkedIn Profile Visible to Everyone

Irene Koehler — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 15:53:41 +0000

From the AlmostSavvy mailbag:

Rod asks: “I’ve noticed that I’m able to see some people’s full LinkedIn profiles when clicking on their link, but when clicking on the link to my own profile, I see very little information. Do I need to have a paid membership to have everything visible”

Excellent question, Rod! The good news is that this is easy to fix and it will cost you only a few minutes of your time (and that includes viewing the video below). How’s that for a great deal!

When you share the link to your profile on LinkedIn with potential employers or clients, do you know what they’ll be able to view when they click? If they aren’t a LinkedIn member or aren’t currently signed in, they may not be able to see your complete profile. This is bad news – bad, bad news. I mean, you wouldn’t have shared the link with them if you were secretly hoping it would be really hard for them to see your information, right? Of course not.

Here’s how to find out what they can see and, if there’s a problem, how to fix it right away:

While this seems like a small tweak, this can make all the difference. We feel more comfortable doing business with people who have put in the time to make a good impression and who are savvy enough to make it dead easy to learn about them.

If you enjoyed this post, sign up to receive free updates by email here to be sure you don’t miss any future AlmostSavvy news. You are also invited to connect with others interested in social media on the friendly folks on the AlmostSavvy page on Facebook where we share news and tips.

BREAKING NEWS: It Takes Work To Get Ahead

Irene Koehler — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 21:41:35 +0000

Lately, I’ve found myself repeatedly faced with the same request. Whether the goal is the increase sales or to find a job, the request is often the same. “Tell me the one thing that I need to do.” While the request may come in different forms, it is really the same.

“I’ve heard that all businesses should have a Facebook page. Should I get one?”
“Should I just call the HR Manager to say I’d like the job?”
“I need to get more leads. Should I get a LinkedIn account so this will happen?”

It seems everyone wants the sure-fire and easy answer. People, it’s just not that simple. Success isn’t that simple. Life isn’t that simple. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but getting ahead takes work. Hell, just getting noticed takes work.

Sure, you are fabulous; no one is disputing this. We all are. But, no one will know this if we don’t work our tails off to make it dead easy for people to see hard evidence of the valuable assets we are. Just because we proclaim ourselves to be fabulous on our resume or on our website doesn’t make it so. What good does it do to work hard to become fabulous, only to stop there? What an enormous missed opportunity it would be to become something special, only to hover just below the radar, remaining a well-kept secret?

It’s a big world out there. That big world is full of people who, at least on paper, are equally fabulous. The challenge is figuring out how to stand out amidst all the others. And here’s the bad news: this takes work, lots and lots of work. And the news gets worse; what worked for the person next to you may not be exactly what will work best for you. There are no cookie-cutter approaches, so stop asking what you “should” do and start learning as much as you can so that you can determine what will work best for you.

Figuring this all out is hard. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. Herein lies the good news: everyone isn’t doing it. If you are willing to put in the time to develop a plan and learn how best to use the tools available to tell your story, you’re already ahead of the game.

Instead of looking for that one thing that you “should” do, you may want to take a step back and begin by asking yourself a few hard questions, such as:

What have I accomplished?

This is not a list of tasks or duties. This is a story of what you’ve learned, along with the value and results you’ve been able to deliver.

What makes me special?

On paper, you may have held the same job as or received the same degree as the person next to you, but the two of you are as different as night and day. What is it about your style, thinking process or voice which sets you apart?

How do the two items above make me uniquely prepared to deliver?

Whether you’re trying to get business or a job, it is critical to define how and why you are the solution to the problem your audience may not even know that they have.

Am I prepared to prove it?

Rather than just telling someone how talented you are, how can you creatively prove it in a way that is easily accessible to them? Here, the internet is your friend. Have you taken the time to understand social media and social networking tools which can be a huge asset in this area?

Am I connected?

Relationships are critical to business success. Have you virtually connected with your real-world connections? Are you actively working to build new relationships with key influencers in your field of interest?

So, stop looking for someone else to supply the answer and start looking to create your own opportunities. If you thought this could happen from the passenger seat, you’re wrong. Slide on over to the driver’s seat, grab the steering wheel and take control. Don’t worry, you don’t have to hit the gas right away. There are many excellent resources around to help you learn – if you’re committed to doing the work.

Image courtesy of elfon.

If you enjoyed this post, sign up to receive free updates by email here to be sure you don’t miss any future AlmostSavvy news.

LinkedIn-apalooza! Ready to rev-up your profile?

Irene Koehler — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:00:04 +0000

If you’re a professional or business person, you know you need to be using LinkedIn wisely, right? And, college students, that goes for you, too. If you don’t know why it matters or know deep-down in the pit of your stomach, you know that you’re really not all that sure what to do with LinkedIn, then this is for you……

I’m excited to be partnering with O’Reilly Media to present a free webinar on using the more advanced features of LinkedIn on April 20. Here’s the deal…this webinar is for people who have already customized and optimized their LinkedIn profiles. If you start actively using LinkedIn’s more interactive features without having done the critical work on your profile first, you won’t get nearly the value out of your efforts as you would have otherwise. In fact, this can work against you.

To bridge this gap and make sure to catch everyone up so you are ready to get the most out of the O’Reilly webinar, I am offering another webinar before then to cover all the customization tips and details which are often overlooked.

Be sure to register and mark your calendars for:

April 20, 10:00 am (Pacific) LinkedIn Beyond the Basics – In partnership with O’Reilly. This is FREE
April 23, 10:00 am (Pacific) LinkedIn Basics Webinar – Regular price $39 (a great deal!) 50% Discount code to be shared during O’Reilly session

What questions or tips would you like to have covered in the sessions? While I probably won’t be able to cover everything, your input is most helpful as I prepare the best presentation to meet your needs.

Do You Have a Digital Business Card? (Register for .tel for free)

Irene Koehler — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:12:41 +0000

We all want to be found more easily online when our friends, potential clients and employers Google us. We’ve set up our LinkedIn profiles, started blogging, created websites, invited others to be our friends on Facebook and tweeted like crazy on Twitter. With all of these fragmented presences online, wouldn’t it be nice to have a directory of all the places we can be found, plus the option to include our email address, phone number and tags which help the right people find us and get in touch? That way, we could direct people to just one place to be referred to the various ways to contact us and find out what we’re up to. It’s sort of like a virtual phone book; you remember the phone book, don’t you? They used to be useful way back when, before we found contact information online and started using them only as doorstops and booster seats for kids not tall enough to reach the dining table.

There are plenty of easy ways to do this now. Each offers their own features and options for customization and discoverability. Among the options are:

Today, I am focusing on registering a .tel domain (you may be more familiar with other domains, such as .com, .net and .org). To help me understand the benefits of owning my .tel domain, I met with Vincent Largilliere of Digitrad, who was kind enough to walk me through the set-up. First, it is important to understand that registering a .tel domain is similar to registering any domain – it is not free, unlike the other sites I’ve listed above. For that fee, though, you have more control of your information because it is a completely different site, rather than just a page on someone else’s site. I encourage you to look at the features of each type of directory listing. There is no reason you can’t use more than one of the options above.

What is .tel?

From the Digitrad website:

(click image to enlarge)

The .tel allows you to store, publish and update online all your contact information and keywords under your unique domain name, without the need for a website

> For individuals, .tel is a business card fully secure and customizable.

> For companies, .tel is both a limited public directory open to customers, and a internal directory, complete and secure for you and your co-workers .

All the extensions are identical, .tel is different: classical extensions link a website to an address, .tel links an address to an identity. This is its specificity and main strength.

.tel will allow you to increase your visibility on the Internet, to optimize your referencing, but also and more importantly to manage your personal digital identity as you see it, with the flexibility and the security that you need

More information can be found on the Digitrad website here.

Want to register .tel for free?

Vincent has offered free registration of a .tel account for AlmostSavvy readers. If you’d like to grab a year’s free registration of your very own .tel account, take a look at the video and keep reading.

In the video, Vincent answers a few questions about the value of .tel and walks me through the set-up process. You’ll note that I had to do quite a bit of editing (it seems we both talk too much!).

Following our session, I continued the set-up process. Take a peek at IreneKoehler.tel now.

To get a code for free registration of your own .tel account, simply add a comment below sharing why you’d like to try it out. Be sure to add a valid email address in the appropriate field (that’s how I’ll get the code to you).

Many thanks to Vincent and Digitrad for offering free registration to AlmostSavvy readers to allow you to see for yourself how you might use it to your own best advantage to manage your online reputation and visibility.

Thanks also to the kind folks at the Skoll Foundation who loaned us their conference room to tape the interview above, and thanks to Adin Miller for connecting me with the Skoll Foundation.

Also, in the name of full disclosure, Vincent did buy me a crepe while I was in Paris attending LeWeb. The crepe was not in exchange for this blog post, but I understand that perception is everything. Frankly, if anyone ever wanted to compensate me for a blog post, I’d hope the going rate would be something greater than one crepe and an offer to give blog readers a discount code. Evidence of said crepe.

Almost Savvy » Career

The #1 Reason You’ll Want to Use Google+

Related articles which may interest you:

How To Manage Your Online Reputation By Using Google Alerts

Related articles which may interest you:

3 Mistakes You’re Making Online

Related articles which may interest you:

How To Get Feedback on Your Profile Photo

Related articles which may interest you:

It’s All About.Me (Your Identity Online – Simplified)

Related articles which may interest you:

Top 10 Most Commonly Used Words on LinkedIn

1. Extensive experience

2. Innovative

3. Motivated

4. Results-oriented

5. Dynamic

6. Proven track record

7. Team player

8. Fast-paced

9. Problem solver

10. Entrepreneurial

Related articles which may interest you:

How to: Keep Your LinkedIn Profile Visible to Everyone

From the AlmostSavvy mailbag:

Related articles which may interest you:

BREAKING NEWS: It Takes Work To Get Ahead

Related articles which may interest you:

LinkedIn-apalooza! Ready to rev-up your profile?

Related articles which may interest you:

Do You Have a Digital Business Card? (Register for .tel for free)

What is .tel?

Want to register .tel for free?

Related articles which may interest you: