Raising Your Visibility and Influence in a Social Media World

I ran across a cute little tool the other day that helps you calculate your “online identity.”  It turned out to be on the Career Distinction web site, which William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson used to launch their great book on personal branding last year.

The Google Quotient calculation involves going ego-surfing on Google and then counting both the total number of hits you get on the first three pages of results that are about you (rather than someone else) and the number of hits related to the “brand identity” you want to create for yourself.

My Google Quotient was a somewhat acceptable 7.8, with my score reduced by the stretch goals I have in place for developing my own brand identity and by my family history.  I am named for my grandfather and great-grandfather, both of whom were men of distinction who still merit standings in Google searches.

It struck me afterwards that the idea of a Google Quotient is only one minor part of a much larger equation.  Searching on your name and finding you is a great thing, if someone already knows to be looking for you by name!

What about the times when someone is looking for someone just like you, except they don’t know you or your name?  Is your value proposition distinct enough, are your online activities focused enough, are you visible enough to be found by someone who knows nothing about you except that they need someone just like you?

That’s what this blog is all about.

Now, I just need to come up with some whiz-bang online calculator to help you do it.

I’m starting this blog on Personal Visibility because I had a flash of inspiration the other day.  It was one of those moments when things I had seen, heard, and done over the past few months came together in an “Aha!” moment.

As I shared on my Fun With Networking blog, I recently gave a presentation on effective use of LinkedIn for networking and personal branding.  One of the audience members sent me an e-mail later, asking me if her profile should be about herself or about her company.  While the obvious answer is that your LinkedIn profile is about you, it also can be a valuable tool for marketing your company, if you do it right.

A friend later asked me if I could help train the recruiters in her office on using LinkedIn.  Yet another friend asked if I could help coach him on marketing himself as an actor and as a life coach.

It suddenly struck me that the growing use of social media tools like LinkedIn and Facebook are creating a world where “marketing” and “business” will be driven more and more by personal relationships, personal networks, and personal visibility.

My background is in public relations, and, if there’s one thing I know, it’s how to increase visibility.  But I’ve also learned that you have to increase your visibility the right way.

This blog is about how to make yourself visible the right way in this new social-media, friend-of-a-friend, I-have-27,328-friends-on-MySpace world.  I don’t mean 15-minutes-of-fame-viral-video-on-YouTube visible.  I mean the sort of visible where you are known as the go-to expert, who knows everything and everyone in your corner of the world.  Sustainable visibility.

I see this as a companion blog to my FunWithNetworking.com blog, which is about reaching out to people and establishing new connections and interconnections.  For the most part, FunWithNetworking is about face-to-face networking, with discussion of how the Internet can help you do it.

This blog is about using the Internet, your face-to-face networking, and your expertise to position yourself as a person of power and influence – to increase your visibility.