This article was initially broken into three sections. I've combined them for ease of reading. You are nobody unless your name Google's well.
I recently did a presentation at the Gainesville Underground Tech Conference on just this, Identity 2.0 and it seems that someone other than Dick Hardt and myself have finally picked up on it. Web 2.0 and the internet revolution in general are creating a world where the Google position of your name, the contents of your Wikipedia Biography (or lack thereof) and the prominence of your profile in services like Facebook and MySpace are as important to your online persona as your credit card score is to your terrestrial well being.
Since this is How To Split An Atom, I am going to break down the debate into easy to manage chunks.
The Business Model
People want to know about themselves. As backwards as this seems, it's becoming absolutely imperative that people are able to find out more information about themselves in terms that once were reserved for corporations.
We now want to know how well we Google, what terms are most prominent for our names and how well we fit into the Web 2.0 matrix. Like my article on SEO tried to describe for creating a blog, people are now trying to SEO themselves to the top of search engines like Google.
Why? It's good business that's why. If you run a blog or online business, especially one that is linked to your name, every step closer you get to the top of the Google front page drives proportionately more traffic to your enterprise. According to a Atlas report, for example. Lets say that you received 2000 clicks in position 4. The traffic for the higher positions would look something like this:
Rank 4: 2000 clicks
Rank 3: 2436 clicks
Rank 2: 3067 clicks
Rank 1: 5128 clicks
An increase of 3 positions more than doubles the traffic to your site, on average.
The Wall Street Journal may have said it best,
About 7% of all searches are for a person's name, estimates search engine Ask.com. More than 80% of executive recruiters said they routinely use search engines to learn more about candidates, according to a recent survey by executive networking firm ExecuNet. Nearly 40% of individuals have used search engines to look up friends or acquaintances with whom they'd lost touch, according to a Harris Interactive survey commissioned by Microsoft Corp.'s MSN unit.
When parents are considering search engine optimization in the child naming process, you know that a revolution is right around the corner.
--Part Two--
Internet Website Spalding, Expensive Lawfirm Spalding, Calico Jacks Real Hot Casino Deals Spalding. Wait, you're back. I was just trying to come up with a baby name that would ensure that my future children have high keyword value.
Well, maybe this might be taking things a little too far, but celebrities and now even common people are doing this all the time. They are choosing names which are unique, not because they are tired of their children being having to sit through ten "Mikes" in school before they get to their name, but because they want their children to have a unique web presence in the future.
Like I said in my last article, people search is becoming an enormous industry and reputation management is on the rise. Lets see what Mike Arrington has to say about it,
Big statistics are thrown around when people talk about people search. Singh says around 30% of searches are people-related. Tanne says 2 billion searches per month are on people (Facebook data tends to suggest this is probably vastly underestimated).
People are searching for people, who are probably searching for people while people are searching for them. Since this industry is about the only exciting thing that has come out of Web 2.0 in the recent months, this article is going to give you the skinny on a few of the major players.
Dick Hardt
Not much more to say about him than I already have. Arguably, he pioneered the ideas behind Identity 2.0, and if you want to know more about him you would do well to listen to the presentation he made at OSCON. The Gorb
Index people by their email address and then rate them from 1-10. This system seeks to quantify reputation through algorithmic magic.
Spock
TechCrunch recently wrote about this company, it's a direct competitor to Wink and its system works something like this,
Once data is found, Spock analyzes it to de-dupe others with the same or similar name and then creates a user profile for the individual. Tags are created dynamically and relationships with other individuals are noted. Readers can then add additional tags or vote the existing ones up or down. An individual can also claim their own profile by proving their identity, and get enhanced voting power on their descriptive tags.
Wink
Take the Web 2.0 matrix (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIN etc..), and allow users to search for themselves across all of these networks. It's the metafilter of social networking and all their revenue is generated by advertising. ZoomInfo
Web 1.0 in the greatest sense of the word. They keep all their info behind their pay structure. You subscribe to their service for around $100 a month, and they pull classic corporate-style intelligence about you from the internet reserves. You get things like press releases and information off the wire. Orangeply
What is Orangeply? Well, let me admit that it's a Dark Horse project that I have been involved in making. I am not even going to try to explain it here, but lets just say it will be an interesting experiment in what this Web 2.0 thing has to offer for personal reputation.
--Part Three--
Let me start out by saying that if you have a name like John Smith, you are going to have a harder time getting yourself to Google's front page than if you had something like Internet Website Spalding (tm) . That notwithstanding, here are a few tips improve the Google search placement for your name.
Make a portfolio site.
Make a portfolio, make it a blog, add your name to it (preferably to the domain) and then produce content around it. We still live in a world that everyone, except those with the most common names, can write a blog around themselves and have a serious impact on their search engine rank.
Most of the duplicate versions of you are only on the engines for a few, specific mentions, if you swamp the internet with your name, in your context you are bound to push yourself up the ladder.
Participate in the web
If you are really concerned about your online presence, you have to participate in the Web 2.0 revolution. Create profiles on sites like MySpace and Facebook, use your real name (or your website's name) in comments on blogs that are relevant to you. Try not to simply hover around forums, but actively participate in them.
The more you participate, the better the chance that someone will link to your site. The more links you have from quality websites, the better your placement.
Find your niche
Everyone is good at something. It's a lot easier to SEO yourself if you are only aiming for a few, specific keywords. Find the niche that really speaks to you and generate content around it. Like me, for instance, I have a love for Commemorative Stamps of 1950s Elvis Impersonators. Surprisingly, there aren't that many people fighting me for the spot.
Write, Write, Write
I can't emphasize this more. You can do everything else in the world, but if you don't saturate the web with content, people will forget about you. The world moves on pretty quickly online, and if you are going to get a foothold you have to try to keep up.
I hope this helps. There are new business models coming out around online reputation and maybe they will offer better solutions. At the end of the day, like everything else in the world, it all comes down to hard work and a little bit of luck. Keep writing folks, and I hope to see you at the top of my next Google search.
Steve Spalding
How To Split an Atom | Internet Culture Split Open
