Digital Biographer™ » googlicious

Twellow adds more features to increase your online visibility October 1, 2008

Posted by David Petherick in : 2.0, authority, brand, googlicious, linkedin, microblogging, online identity, search marketing, social media ,

Twellow, the ‘yellow pages for Twitter‘, has improved its utility with the ability to create your own biography entry.

As well as being able to claim your twitter profile, and classify yourself in up to 10 categories (although I’m in 14 for some reason), you can also add your own social media links to your profiles on Pownce, LinkedIn, Flickr, FriendFeed, etcetera - as well as creating a brief summary and what’s termed a ‘bio’ or biography entry.

The search facility in Twellow includes the data in your summary and pick ups keywords and links used there, and your biography information can also include basic HTML, so links and visual formatting can be added. The summary is indexed in search - the biography does not appear to be indexed yet.

Apart from being a great way to find people using Twitter with similar interests, and pinpointing interesting people to follow, categorized Twellow profiles are also becoming visible in Google and Yahoo searches. So I’d recommend making sure you claim your profile at Twellow and add your details and social links to ensure your online visibility and credibility stay high. It’s free, and there are over half a million people listed there, so it’s worth spending a few minutes to make sure you’re visible, coherent, and linked up here.

One in ten US College Admissions Officers checks social networks in admissions process. September 23, 2008

Posted by David Petherick in : 2.0, authority, brand, digital biographer, facebook, googlicious, online identity, search marketing, social media ,

A Kaplan survey of 320 admissions officers from the United States’ “top colleges and universities” revealed that one out of ten admissions officers has visited an applicant’s social networking Web site as part of the admissions decision-making process.

It’s not all bad news, of course - 25% of those surveyed said that viewing social network content had a positive impact on their evaluation. However, a greater percentage (38 percent) report that applicants’ social networking sites have generally had a negative impact on their admissions evaluation.

“The social networking frontier is a bit like the Wild West for colleges and universities — everyone is trying to figure out how to navigate it,” said Jeff Olson, Executive Director of Research for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions. “The vast majority of schools we surveyed said they have no official policies or guidelines in place regarding visiting applicants’ social networking web sites — nor are they considering plans to develop them.” For schools who reported having a policy, generally the policy is not to look at or factor these sites into the evaluation. One admissions officer reported, “Staff can visit them for narrowly defined reasons, but can’t go on a fishing expedition.”

Kaplan conducted similar surveys at business (9%), law (15%) and medical schools (14%), and it is interesting to note that there have been a whole series of ‘clean’ online-profile-building services appearing, which of course, are specifically designed for the college admissions process, and significantly, over a quarter of survey respondents (26 percent) say their schools subscribe to one or more of these sites.

Examples of these sites include Admish.com, Cappex.com, EdSoup.com and Zinch.com.

So it looks like college kids don’t have to worry too much about what material they place on Facebook or MySpace (yet) but they should certainly throw together a profile on a college admissions profile site to boost their chances of admission to their preferred schools. At the same time , it seems that there are a lot of institutions out there who need to draw up a policy of some sort (even if it’s a blanket ‘no online screening from social media’), otherwise they may lay themselves open to claims of bias or discrimination.

More than one in five employers will screen your social media profiles before they decide on hiring you. September 16, 2008

Posted by David Petherick in : 2.0, authority, digital biographer, facebook, googlicious, online identity, social media, sound, streams ,

Twenty-two percent of hiring managers said they use social networking sites to research job candidates, up from 11 percent in 2006, according to a nationwide survey of more than 3,100 employers from CareerBuilder.com. An additional 9 per cent said they don’t currently use social networking sites to screen potential employees, but plan to start.

Of those hiring managers who have screened job candidates via social networking profiles, one-third (34 percent) reported they found content that caused them to dismiss the candidate from consideration. THAT IS MORE THAN ONE IN THREE.

Top areas for concern among these hiring managers included:

41% - information about them drinking or using drugs
40% - provocative or inappropriate photographs or information
29% - poor communication skills
22% - screen name was unprofessional
19% - shared confidential information from previous employers

On the other hand, social networking profiles also can give job seekers an edge over the competition. Twenty-four percent of hiring managers who researched job candidates via social networking sites said they “found content that helped to solidify their decision to hire the candidate“.

Top factors that influenced their hiring decision included:

48% - candidate’s background supported their qualifications for the job
43% - candidate had great communication skills
36% - candidate’s site conveyed a professional image
31% - candidate had great references posted about them by others
24% - candidate’s profile was creative

So, if you’re aiming to be hired, you need to make sure your online profiles match the picture you want a potential employer to see, because there’s a greater than one in five chance that they will check out your profile online, and an even greater chance that if they see something they like there, that fact will help you to get the job you have applied for.

The careerbuilder site gives a number of fairly obvious tips to ensure you are viewed favourably, but I have a few more:

Use online profiles to create positive information about yourself, and ask for recommendations or testimonials from others that can be placed on these profiles. LinkedIn is probably the best example where you can receive testimonials from work colleagues, associates and employers.
Monitor your own name with a service such as Google Alerts - or if you are really serious about managing your reputation online, try Trackur - it has a 14-day free trial.
invest in your own name as a domain name, especially if you have a common name. I own both davidpetherick.name and davidpetherick.com, for example. And add content and commentary there - preferably right in the heart of your area of expertise - but also as a place where you can show diverse aspects of your personality or interests.

The survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 3,169 hiring managers and human resource professionals (employed full-time; not self-employed; with at least significant involvement in hiring decisions) and 8,785 employees (employed full-time; not self-employed) ages 18 and over between May 22 and June 13, 2008, respectively.

Free Competition: Take 2 minutes to win a domain name. September 15, 2008

Posted by David Petherick in : awards, corporate blogs, googlicious, online identity, search marketing ,

This month, Certain Host are giving you the chance to win a free domain name!

All you need to do to have a chance of winning your very own .com or .co.uk domain name is to give the correct answer to the simple question below, and send us your name and email address (which will be only be used to notify you of the winner). Good luck!

If you can’t see the entry form here, please visit the competition entry page.

Now, it should be well known to you that Certain Host offer a free domain name with three of their most popular hosting packages, but, we’re just making sure, and spreading the world a little.

Remember - this competition closes on 30th September at 6pm Eastern Standard Time.

PS: If you need a clue with the answer to this question, try looking at the web site of a certain reliable small business web host.

12,000 of our Blog Visitors are missing… September 11, 2008

Posted by David Petherick in : digital biographer, googlicious, microblogging, mobile, mobile search, search marketing, share, social media ,

I was checking my blog statistics just the other day, and found an unfamilar link to a story I’d written in January. I clicked through to find that Koollage, which produces a mobile version of my blog, had linked to my blog from their ‘press’ page, and someone had recently followed the link to my original story

But I was also intrigued to find that the widget version of this blog shows that is has been viewed 12,553 times since January 2008, when it was set up. That’s 12,000 visitors that never showed up on my web stats - rather more than I’d anticipated! The power of the mobile web is getting greater every day - and although this site is already optimised for viewing on iPhones, I see all of those stats through the wonderful Clicky.

The size of our audience is missing…

I think there’s a market for the company who can figure out a way to measure and pinpoint the ‘hidden traffic’ that comes to blogs and news sites through through widgets, RSS feeds syndications, friendfeed references and so on. These figures are not insignificant, certainly for a little blog like this, and knowing where an audience is coming from always helps when you’re working to address that audience - quite apart from simple curiosity.

Koollage Widget for Digital Biographer. Koollage were featured this week at DEMOFall08 in San Diego, and the beta version of their product is now open to the public.

Social Media Management Fees, Authority Blogging and Calling yourself Names… September 10, 2008

Posted by David Petherick in : 2.0, authority, authors, brand, digital biographer, googlicious, online identity, search marketing, social media, Кибер-биограф ,

Two terms have come to my attention in the last 24 hours. One was “Social Media Management Fees“, the other “Authority Blogging“.

Social Media Management Fees

Yes. The term makes sense, now that I’ve heard it.Mike Coulter of Digital Agency coined the term today, in a thoughtful blog exploring why what should be an invoice item adding significantly to the bottom line of numerous ad agencies, pr companies, digital agencies and general ‘new media’ outfits, isn’t.

I realise I’ve been charging customers Social Media Management Fees (SMMF) since 2006, but only now realised there was such a concise term to describe what I’m charging money for. I always hated ‘online reputation management’ because it always suggested spin and PR, and glossing over things - something I don’t, and won’t do for customers.

Blog Authority / Authority Blogging

I added the term ‘Authority’ to the list of functions for my company Clarocada in 2005. Clarocada Russia, Clarocada Emedia, which is now termed Clarocada Interactive, Clarocada Barcelona, and Clarocada Authority. I initially was aiming to help authors (those with authority, if you follow) to create a voice online, through blogs and social media, and to help them to promote their work to readers, and to perhaps gain other writing assignments.

I’d forgotten, of course, that authors are, in general, a complete pain in the butt to work with. (There are exceptions, but I am not one of them). So I moved more towards offering my services to those in business, who were idea-rich, but time-poor, in order to let them gain ‘Authority’. The term ‘Digital Biographer‘, which I was tentative about using up until it became the headline in a story on the BBC, has always been one that’s not entirely described ‘the full story’. If it’s good enough for BBC News, it’s certainly good enough for me.

I was also interested to note that in May 2007, Technorati coined the term ‘Authority’ to refer to the number of blogs linking to a site in their ‘Technorati Authority’ - so if 193 sites link to you, you have ‘higher authority’ than if, say, 6 sites link to you.

But it was when I read an article referred to by Chris Brogan yesterday, in his Google Reader Share List, where the term “Authority Blogger” was used to describe a service ‘to learn how to use a blog as a way for growing their profile, credibility and influence’. As I looked at the term, I realised this was what I should have called ‘Clarocada Authority’ three years back.

Never mind. A similar phrase did still appear in the description of the service for writers as ‘Blog Authority’.

Calling Names and Bad Language

It’s natural that as a new set of terms and services evolve, language evolves and new terms are created to describe them - some of which dates and is irrelevant very rapidly, and other elements of which becomes common usage. The term ‘new media’ is already looking a bit tired, but it was all the buzz around 2001. By the same token, the term ‘blog’ is far from universally understood even now, in September 2008. And don’t let’s get started on what ‘Web 2.0′ really means…

However, it’s nice to see that a term I’ve used in the past has come to roost in a niche it describes fairly precisely, and that others use the term with essentially the same meaning. As Mike Coulter put it - “I might be on to something.” An accurate way to describe the service I’m asking people to pay for is most definitely an example of good language!

Google Knol arrives: Fountain of Knowledge, or Spurious Source? July 25, 2008

Posted by David Petherick in : authors, commerce, googlicious, knol, search marketing, share ,

I first wrote about Google Knol when the topic was first aired in December 2007 on Google’s Blog, in my article “Knol is on a Roll: Google’s new economy for online authors?“.

A knol is a term Google had created for a ‘unit of knowledge’ and the announcement created a great deal of interest and speculation, as much for the lack of details as for the excitement at what it might evolve into. Many commentators called it ‘Google’s Wikipedia killer’ but as I said then, that was simply a lazy and incorrect generalisation - but there was little very specific information. And today, many commentators are again likening Knol to Wikipedia - see related links below.

Today, Google has announced its public beta of Google Knol, defining a knol as “Knols are authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects.” So from today, you can start to add your knol, or knowledge. This is a beta version, so of course there are rough edges, and Google will be looking to get feedback on many aspects and issues. (I for one found that I could not log at all in using Firefox on my Mac, but have had no problems with Camino or Safari.)

Some positive features are what Google calls ‘moderated collaboration.’ “Any reader can make suggested edits to a knol which the author may then choose to accept, reject, or modify before these contributions become visible to the public.” Nice.

Google, why I can’t verify my identity?

However, one issue that seems a very basic oversight is that ‘Name Verification’ (so you can verify that you, as an author, are who you say you are) is only available for those based in the USA. The systems available for those Knol authors in the USA are via Phone or Credit Card checks. Pardon me for pointing out the obvious, but there are telephone directories and credit cards used all over the world, Google. The raised credibility that Google cites arising from verifying yourself is therefore, at present, reserved exclusively for you only if you live in the USA.

So if you live anywhere outside the USA, do not send to know for whom Google knols, it does not knol for thee. (Apologies for that play on words to John Donne)

This is not the sort of even-handed approach you’d expect from a global player like Google - and the fact that there is no mention of OpenID or even Google’s own identity systems like Google Checkout or Adsense strikes me as a missed opportunity, even for a beta-stage development. The fact that one can share revenue with Google by electing whether or not to show Google Adsense Adverts on one’s Knol content makes this a very strange omission, and I fear, one that may open Knol up to a lot of spam entries or gaming.

I managed to log in and add a Knol to Google this morning entitled ‘How to read Russian in 75 Minutes‘ (I’ve proved that this works in a 75-minute lecture in 2005, by the way) but at present, my Knol on Reading Russian only appears in a search when I am logged in with a Google login (the login I use for Gmail, Google Reader etc), but it the knol is reachable with a link, whether or not I am logged in.

However, the range of ‘Featured Knols’ as samples that appeared on my screen today had me speechless - they covered Diabetes, Lung Cancer, Toilet Clogs and Tooth pain. Wow. Maybe that’s Google’s way of encouraging you to add better content - or at least, to add more cheerful and uplifting content!

UPDATE: The Google Knol I created yesterday entitled ‘How to Read the Russian Alphabet in 75 Minutes‘ is on Page 1 of a Google Search for “read russian” with 12,300,000 results following. I have updated the title from the one showing in the Google index, but that’s still pretty impressive.

Online Reputation Management: I spy a bandwagon. July 21, 2008

Posted by David Petherick in : 2.0, brand, commerce, googlicious ,

When individuals and companies working as web designers, web programmers, in public relations and search optimisation experts all begin to start dropping the same buzzwords and approach into their promotional material, you know there’s a bandwagon rolling…

The latest big bandwagon is Online Reputation Management which now appears in the famous ‘Web 2.0 Buzzword Bingo’. It’s popping up in hundreds of blogs highlighting how ‘if you Google Company X, the first page is full of people dumping on them‘ and invariably points to the author, or their associates as the expert who can fix the problem, and make this bad coverage disappear. A search in Google for the term ‘online reputation management’ finds over 4.6 million entries, and the sponsored ads are full of phrases like ‘Remove Bad Information’, ‘Fight Negative Publicity’ and ‘Defend Your Reputation’.

The organic listings within that search contain content from many seasoned Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) ad Search Engine Marketing (SEM) experts and there are a few respected and familiar names I recognise there like Lee Odden and Andy Beal, who has also written ‘Radically Transparent‘. However, there are also a lot of links to those who are clearly doing their best to game Google’s search results, and offer to do the same for you, in a fairly cynical ‘digital dirty laundry cleaner’ approach.

Now, that’s a fair enough business model, and good luck to those seeking to take advantage of a new opportunity… (more…)

Digital Biographer moooving in the right direction… February 9, 2008

Posted by David Petherick in : Utterances, authors, brand, corporate blogs, digital biographer, googlicious, online identity, share, social media, sound, streams ,

You may have noticed some sound files being added to this blog over the past few days. Well, you’re not alone - the people who run Utterz.com seem to have noticed too, and have created a rotating banner for the site that advertises my content.

I am deeply flattered, and felt the need to reciprocate the attention by writing a little about the site - click the image below to see why I find Utterz such a useful resource to enhance my personal brand online, and do add your own comments when you see the full-size image - you can do so easily thanks to the great Skitch application. I also enjoy the humorous cow metaphor subtly used throughout the site, where Utterz = Udders (Geddit?), so you can ‘be herd, add ‘mooving’ pictures etc.

Utterz - davidpetherick's utterz - Click for full-size view and to add your comments and thoughts

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!
Click image for full-size view and to add your comments and thoughts

My Utterz Profile: http://www.utterz.com/~h-davidpetherick/profile.php
HTTV Shortcut: http://httv.biz/utterz/

Facebook Business Pages are GO for Search Marketing: they now get Page 1 at Google January 31, 2008

Posted by David Petherick in : brand, digital biographer, facebook, googlicious, mobile search, online identity, search marketing ,

A few weeks ago, Facebook changed something slightly. They made their business pages and personal listings include an extra section in their centre, with the subject of the page written in there. Why? Search visibility.

Previously, my Facebook page was at
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=850265552
Now, it’s at
http://www.facebook.com/people/David_Petherick/850265552

So what? Well, OK, so it’s easier to remember - but it’s also visible to search. The old one still works, but the new one is in the top 20 for a Google Search for my name between long-standing entries at Association For Community Networking and 43 Things.

My Business Page for Certain Host is right up on Google, as you can see below - and that’s a search with more than 7 million pages in my wake.

So if you want to be found for a specific search term, just add a page to facebook, name it accordingly, and convert your customers from there. There is a catch though - I can’t edit my Business Pages on Facebook this evening. I suspect the reason is because this news is spreading…

How is your business page doing on facebook? Got many fans yet? What are you going to do to monetise it, manage it, and keep it fresh?

http://facebook.digitalbiographer.com arrives 12th February 2008.

Digital Footprints: What size boots do you wear? January 26, 2008

Posted by David Petherick in : 2.0, digital biographer, googlicious, online identity, search marketing, social media ,

Pew Internet have published an interesting report, with a topic that’s absolutely my focus, but which I’ve only just had time to absorb. It’s clearly titled “Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency” and it’s free to download as a PDF from Pew Internet.

The original questions that the report is based on are also available, a very useful measure to allow interpretation of any report - hats off to Pwe Internet for that simple addition, in addition to the report’s methodology being included at the end of the report.

Digital Footprints: Summary of Findings at a Glance

The nature of personal information is changing in the age of Web 2.0.
Internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint; 47% have searched for information about themselves online, up from just 22% five years ago.
Few monitor their online presence with great regularity.
Most internet users are not concerned about the amount of information available about them online, and most do not take steps to limit that information.
Internet users have reason to be uncertain about the availability of personal data; 60% of those who search for their names actually find information about themselves online, but 38% say their searches come up short.
One in ten internet users have a job that requires them to self-promote or market their name online.
Among adults who create social networking profiles, transparency is the norm.
More than half of all adult internet users have used a search engine to follow others’ footprints.
Basic contact information tops most searchers’ wish lists.

Source: Madden, Fox, Smith and Vitak. Digital Footprints. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project, December 16, 2007.

There are some interesting terms and stats thrown up in the report which I include to pique your interest.

Passive Digital Footprint: Personal data made accessible online with no deliberate intervention from an individual.
“Second degree” personal information is material about you that may not be connected to your real name or is provided by someone else, with or without your knowledge.
11% of adult internet users say they have searched online for information about someone they are thinking about hiring or working with.
19% of adult internet users have searched for information about co-workers, professional colleagues or business competitors.
Most users in search of information about others have some difficulty finding the information they want.
The drive to be recognized online is so strong in certain circles that some parents have even begun to consider these issues when naming their children.

Google quietly launches free viral social network. It’s called Reader. December 20, 2007

Posted by David Petherick in : blonging, corporate blogs, googlicious, search marketing, share, social media ,

Google Reader is a free (and excellent) tool to let you manage your web feeds - to easily keep track of your favorite websites and see all the updates in one convenient location.

A few days ago, a little extra feature appeared. It was simple, and unobtrusive, and gently prompted me to add more information. What it means is that I can share my news from sites and blogs I find of interest with a click. But in addition, there’s a profile appearing on that page - my Google Profile. With as much or as little information as I choose to add there, including links to my choice of sites or resources.

It’s for sharing news and sites I find- for the moment. But think about it - that’s where facebook scores so highly. And delicious, and stumbleupon. And it does what bloglines and Rojo do, nicely…

Google just created a simple, easy, social network that already has some great content that i have selected. And like most of Google’s offerings, from Search to Alerts to Gmail, I’m using it simply because it’s really very useful.

I’ve created a widget from my shared Google Reader links to add to other resources online, and also created a shortcut to the shared links page: http://httv.biz/shared/

Knol is on a Roll: Google’s new economy for online authors? December 15, 2007

Posted by David Petherick in : Uncategorized, authors, commerce, googlicious, knol, search marketing, social media ,

Google. They keep doing this. Coming up with a large-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare events beyond the realm of normal expectations…

So, here is the next Black Swan from Google:- a highly improbable event that is unpredictable, will have massive impact, and which, after it has happened, we’ll all pretend we could have seen it coming. This is Google Knol - encouraging people to contribute knowledge.

Many mainstream media observers see this as Google’s a direct challenge to Wikipedia - a vandal-proof version - but this is a very blinkered viewpoint, and rather too easy for hack journalists to regurgitate: Google launches Wikipedia rival. I’m surprised the ‘For whom Google knols…‘ headline has not been coined yet. Oops, it just has been.

No, too simplistic. Knol is, and it is not a Wikipedia rival, because it is something different - it is, typically for Google, a whole new ball game. Authors will share revenue from the Ads that surround their content - but what content is found is likely to be that which is most popular, with content also measured by reader review. Unlike a Wiki, where the author is invisible (and often multiple) in a Knol, the identity of the author, is central to the authority of the content, with the author’s affiliation being cited in an early Google mockup.

From The Official Google Blog: Encouraging people to contribute knowledge

“The key idea behind the knol project is to highlight authors. Books have authors’ names right on the cover, news articles have bylines, scientific articles always have authors — but somehow the web evolved without a strong standard to keep authors names highlighted. We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content. At the heart, a knol is just a web page; we use the word “knol” as the name of the project and as an instance of an article interchangeably. It is well-organized, nicely presented, and has a distinct look and feel, but it is still just a web page. Google will provide easy-to-use tools for writing, editing, and so on, and it will provide free hosting of the content. Writers only need to write; we’ll do the rest.

A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read. The goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions. Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors. We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line. Anyone will be free to write. For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject. Competition of ideas is a good thing.”

The news came out on the Google Blog on the 13th Of December, with no major media announcement or fanfare. It just appeared, but it immediately was caught by my antennae, and by that of several commentators of note. Today, the mainstream media are picking this up, and there is a definite buzz in the blogosphere.

I think this is a very significant development, and I have set up a Ning Social Network to discuss Knol at http://knolroll.com - just don’t ask me where it will lead - but do join the network, and let’s find out for whom the bell knols…

Digital Biographer hits TopRank’s “Best Blogs on the Net” list December 8, 2007

Posted by David Petherick in : awards, digital biographer, googlicious, search marketing, social media ,

Online Marketing Blog is TopRank’s internet marketing blog about the intersection of social media, search marketing and online public relations, and is ranked #8 in the AdAge 150 top web sites. Today, the Digital Biographer Blog was listed in their Top Search Marketing Blogs BIG LIST.

I get to show off a nice BIG LIST logo, and our web traffic is already showing some healthy curves and clicks from the listing. My thanks to Lee Odden, CEO at Online Marketing Blog for the recognition.

Please make sure you keep up to date with our news by adding our RSS Feed to your reader, or subscribe via email using the form on the top right to get a summary by email every time there’s something new worth reading here. You can also follow The Digital Biographer on Twitter - all posts added to this blog automatically appear in the twitter timeline.

older posts »

Twellow adds more features to increase your online visibility October 1, 2008

One in ten US College Admissions Officers checks social networks in admissions process. September 23, 2008

More than one in five employers will screen your social media profiles before they decide on hiring you. September 16, 2008

Free Competition: Take 2 minutes to win a domain name. September 15, 2008