Ellie's Blog

Do You Own the Search Results for Your Name?

I won't even attempt to deny I'm not a marketing geek. One of the things I loved about Kyle James' blog post "Jokes: 36 Reasons You Might be Addicted to Social Media" was "#6: You own the Google search results for your name." That definitely held true for me.

Here are all the top results for my name - x right in a row.

1. My blog
2. My blog "about me" page
3. Twitter
4. Facebook
5. FriendFeed
6. MITX
7. LinkedIn
8. Twitterholic
9. SEMPO Meetup
10. AMA Boston
11. Amazon.com
12. RSSmeme
13. one of my recent tweets
14. BoardReader
15. one of my flickr photos
16. my comment on a blog post
17. Digg
18. FriendFeed (again!)
19. Tweetree
20. another flickr photo
21. Twitter mobile
22. a mention on another blog
23. BackType
24. Insightory presentation I did on Twitter
25. HubSpot blog article I posted
26. my comment on a blog post
27. a reposting of one of my articles from the HubSpot blog
28. my comment on a blog post
29. SlideShare presentation I did on Inbound Marketing
30. my comment on a blog post
31. my listing as a speaker for Geek Girl Camp

OK, I'll stop there. The results actually go on and on - and rightfully all about me. I actually made it 12 results pages deep before giving up on finding that first non-me-related result! Of course, I understand that there aren't a lot of Ellie Mirmans out there (if any!), and that even my first or my last name separately are not very common. But, damn, that was a lot of content!

Some things I realized:

• It's easy to create a lot of bits of content. I don't consider myself to be such a prolific writer / content producer (at least for the public web). Most of the results were either profiles on different social media sites, blog comments, presentations I had posted on sharing sites, or blog posts themselves.
• I've got a lot of social media profiles. Set up, not necessarily in use. Funny enough, they're almost ranked in the order in which I use them the most. First Twitter, then Facebook, then LinkedIn... In any case, social media profiles rank very well because of the reputation and optimization of the sites, and this actually serves as a good way for helping people connect with you online even via a Google search.
• What do your search results say about you? At first I was going to say, no one searches for your name (most likely) anyway, so who cares. But really, there may be a few who do, and they are probably either (1) trying to find/connect with you or (2) trying to learn more about you. Getting found in these top search results ensures that you're enabling connections. And producing more content ensures that you have good results (instead of potentially damaging results) at the top. What do my search results say about me? Well, that I work at HubSpot, and I'm pretty active in social media.

Of course, for those folks out there with less content or more competition for their name on the web, the Google profile gives everyone a good opportunity to get prime real estate on the first page of search results for their name.

Photo by silvery

How To Find A Job In A Recession - Use Blogs, Social Media

Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe came by our offices to talk to Brian Halligan, HubSpot CEO, to talk about how people can find a job (in or out of a recession, really).

In short: use blogs and social media to build your personal brand and expertise online so that companies find you and know who you are before you even send in a resume.

Watch the video:

Hungry? How About Some Cheesy Inspirational Quotes?

When I find something cool, I tend to get very excited about it, obsess about it for a little while, and then move on to the next big thing. Hopefully I can use my blog to capture those moments of excitement for me, and you, and the whole wide Internet.

My latest source of excitement is "the nametag guy" - a guy named Scott who wears a nametag 24/7 in an effort "to make people friendlier." He's an author and speaker (quite a young one, I might add) on the topic of approachability - both for personal and business use. He's got a blog and podcast and all that good stuff... but enough of my free promotion. Now onto the good stuff - the content.

I admit I can be a bit of a cheesball and so of course I latched on to his free ebook "66 Priceless Pieces of Business Advice I Couldn't Live Without". There are maybe a few things I'd suggest to Scott to better present his content for better distribution and better user experience, but hey, that's not what this post is about (we can do that stuff later). For now, I thought I'd share a few of the cheesy inspirational quotes that I particularly liked.

Be confident enough to be humble.

I love this one becuase one of the qualities I admire most in people is humility. And some of the most humble people I know are those that I find the most amazing in terms of their knowledge or kindness or any other brag-able quality. Humble people always manage to blow me away.

Anonymity is the greatest barrier to business success.

I relate this one to my growth and success in my role in my job. If you want to make it anywhere, you need to do something. And that means you need to have the courage and confidence to get out there, slap your name on and take responsiblity for your actions, whether they have positive or negative results. It may be a risk, but the higher the risk, the greater the payoff right? Take that chance, learn from your mistakes, and make a name for yourself.

Be unique, not different.

Though I haven't read the follow-up article all on this topic, I already see the difference between the two. Not only is this a great sentiment, but the tone of the sound bite itself speaks to the overall tone of Scott's speeches and purpose - it's a positive, optimistic tone. "Be unique" is a positive sentiment, creating yourself as a unique person, whereas "be different" merely defines you in relation to everyone else. It's the negative space instead of the positive space.

Act like you already are the person you want to become.

The new (broader) version of "dress for the job you want, not the job you have"? I like this one also for the dependent step of figuring out who is the person you want to become. Related quote: "Figure out exactly who you are, and then go be that person every day."

Love your zone of discomfort.

Love it. The quote I mean. You don't get anywhere being "comfortable."

If you aren't being criticized, you aren't doing much.

HubSpot TV co-host Karen Rubin and I were chatting about how she's now getting a few critics as the show gets bigger and bigger... a sign that the show is really starting to get big. It's true. If you're going to do anything significant, you're going to get critics.

Learning is not waiting to talk.

True and self-explanatory.

The best swimmers are always in the pool.

Recently I was advising someone who wants to learn and write about social media. First step: get involved. Now. This quote speaks to two elements: the best swimmers are those that are really engaged in the activity and also are so engaged likely because they have a passion for swimming.

And a great personal branding quote to end on:

It's not who you know, it's who knows you.

You can check out all 66 cheesy inspirational quotes here (and feel free to share).

Branding Yourself

Just found out about this free teleseminar "A Brand You World" all about how to brand yourself. The teleseminar will take place on Nov. 8 and feature 24 speakers talking on different topics and it's all free. I think this is quite relevant for any reader of this blog, as it goes into how to brand yourself to build a successful career, find a great job, etc. Pretty cool stuff.

I found out about the event through David Meerman Scott's blog - he will be speaking at 4pm EST on "Promoting Brand You with Viral Marketing on the Web." He's a very cool guy in the field of modern/internet marketing and I definitely recommend checking him out.