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Joycelyn Elders says it's OK to Google Yourself
I want to apologize for any juvenile references to follow — my 40th birthday is ~ 6 weeks away and this may be part of my mid-life crisis.
Or as my friend Michael, a New Orleans commercial insurance agent, says: “go Google yourself”!
Surely you realize Dr. Elders didn’t really say that. But, what she did say is alleged to have gotten her fired. For those who don’t remember, Joycelyn Elders was fired by Bill Clinton in the 90’s because she said things that, while true, could have used a little more finesse. That said, she was talking about AIDS which clearly warrants a direct approach.
Talk about a reputation management issue…
This all came about as I was groping for a sticky
As a kid I recall the juxtaposition of “kids should be taught to respect themselves” with the aids Brian's Song rip AIDS messaging below and we of course came up with “respecting yourself” as a euphemism for you-know-what.
Words can get you fired. Jocelyn Elders could have used a little Reputation Management
Serendipitously, this seems to have been my theme for the last couple weeks.
No, not that (get your mind out of the gutter)… Reputation management.
We’ve had a few clients develop reputation management challenges with which we’re contending and it makes me think: in a world where many small businesses don’t even have email how are they supposed to manage their reputations.
I was having a conversation with a young attorney at the New Orleans NetSquared meetup who was actually taking the view that her clients should publish less online! And as I expressed to her, just because you’re not part of the conversation doesn’t mean it’s not happening. It’s happening without you and about you and you as the business owner need to Google yourself.
Start with your company name, then your name in various iterations and go at least 4 or 5 pages deep. It’s a heck of a lot easier to fix a problem before it’s on page 1. Not everyone is ready to spend the money for an industrial strength reputation management tool like Andy Beal’s Trackur
(affiliate link) but using this simple mechanism you can assure you manage potential issues before they get out of hand.
This may be the most critical issue for small businesses for the next few years. There have been some great writings from friends of mine on the value of ratings and reviews for small business but I’m telling you right now, off the coasts this is a relatively unknown issue.
Small business owners, Joycelyn Elders says it’s OK. Please go Google yourself.
Related:
Date: Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
September 19th, 2008 at 7:44 am
Amusing, but SO true, Will. I particularly like this line:
“in a world where many small businesses don’t even have email how are they supposed to manage their reputations.”
I can tell you that even ON the coasts, this is a relatively unknown issue. I contend that beyond awareness, the two largest problems are:
1) there are just as many portals (if not more) for SMB reviews as for Fortune 500 reviews. SMB’s just don’t have the resources to manage all of those different portals.
2) Fortune 500’s are more likely to have a bunch of smaller websites related to their own content and thus have more internal link juice to pass around to multiple domains.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
I’ve tried googling myself before and I was surprised that there are so many pages about m..mostly from social sites..^^
September 30th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Scott,
I have been to a couple of BNI meetings in Gothenburg, Sweden. I am thinking of joining a local chapter after I have checked them out.
I am google myself now and then. “Martin Lindeskog” has 8,410 hits and my blog EGO is on the top of the list.
All the Best,
Martin Lindeskog – American in Spirit.
Gothenburg, Sweden.
October 8th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
A great tool for companies now is something called http://www.SocialMention.com. Even more than Google, this search engine allows you to see what people are saying about you on Blogs, Twitter, and other social media sites… the EXACT places conversations about your brand/organization are occuring. It’s a great FREE tool for easy reputation management. But to use it properly you have to be willing to then engage in that conversation, something most still haven’t comprehended how to do yet.
October 9th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
[...] My buddy Will Scott has a tongue-in-cheek, grain-of-truth post on the need for small businesses to “Google themselves” here. [...]
October 10th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
[...] update my list of great small business reputation management posts every week! After highlighting Will Scott’s post yesterday, today I’d like to point to a terrific article I found via Matt McGee’s Small [...]
October 13th, 2008 at 7:44 am
I think that companies should start by Googling “Company Name Sucks…” to find out what kind of negative word of mouth they’re getting.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Who hasn’t Googled themselves? Tricky thing is, my name is very common.
April 27th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
[...] Related: Go Google Yourself [...]
May 2nd, 2009 at 11:26 pm
[...] My contention is this: Twitter (per the Nielsen data) is a 1978 fax machine. If you had one you thought you were really cool, but the reality is you were probably only impressing yourself. [...]
August 5th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
My name “Rob Abdul” for the last 3 years has been my brand name.
Google has 3,360,000 results for my name Rob Abdul.
I was so proud when my name appeared in Google suggest.
It may not sound like much but at least 60 to 80 people Google me a month.
It is nice for the Ego, I must admit!