Adding more ‘wisdom’ to the Cowbell blog

24th Tuesday, 2010  |   All we got, Guest Posts, MOO: Cowbell Blog, what's new  |  9 comments

Over the last few weeks I’ve had the pleasure of working with Kate Spiers. Kate is founding director of Wisdom London who in their own words “provides creative marketing communications that really connect by blending outstanding, original thinking with a solid understanding of what makes businesses work”. I’ve been reading the Wisdom blog for some time now and if you do the same you’ll find posts which not only inspire and provoke you into a different kind of thinking, but engage quickly and almost have a twinkle in their eye.

Here’s Kate’s guest post…

Taking a good look: The Digital Footprint Audit

Here’s a concept that’s not new (I was reminded of it in Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels of Separation) but worth revisiting on a regular basis. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it should be part of an ongoing digital discipline for any organization.

The precept is this: If someone hears of you, or your organization and wants to know more about you/it, they will 99.9% of the time Google it. So, put yourself in that potential client’s shoes (this is not even theoretical – sometime today someone will most likely Google you or your business) and Google away.

What do you get?

Chances are, you’ll get all kinds of stuff.  Hopefully, first off you’ll get your website. (If not, you need to do some SEO work, fast). Is the excerpt you see honestly up-to-date, compelling and relevant?* Would you click it?

You might see your sponsored link or Google ad, if you’re involved in pay-per-click activity.  How does your ad look?  If you’d searched the term it’s based on, would the ad you see talk to you enough to make you click it? If not, it only takes a few minutes to fix. (Do it!).

Hopefully you’ll also see mentions of your company or personal blog. Are the topics you see at a glance there enough to give you an authentic sense of what you’re about? Bear it in mind when you next plan a post.

Ditto Twitter.  If you were a stranger dipping into your own or business Twitter profile, would you see a stream you’d honestly want to follow, that does what it purports to do, according to your profile? There’s no right or wrong – it depends on what you’re setting out to do – but think about whether your stream reflects a conversationalist, a thought leader, a sharer…or someone who has been asleep for the past few weeks.

What about Facebook? Is your page loved and active, or old and stale with no updates for months? You don’t need me to tell you how that looks…  are you in or are you out?
Are there any third-party sites where you’re also getting m

entioned?  Maybe on external blogs, or discussion forum sites? Are you getting mentioned in articles, have you issued press releases? If so, it’s good news for search results.  If not, should you be?  (Hint: ‘yes’). It may be an objective you need to set yourself.

What about LinkedIn?  A lot of people still don’t get it, and it’s certainly not seen as being as cool, fun or fast-moving as platforms like Twitter, for example.  BUT it’s a very credible information source and even if you don’t buy into it, many of your potential clients do.  They want to know who you are, how credible you are, where you’ve come from and who you know. So do yourself a favour and at the very least update your profile…. and get set up if you’re not there.

Taking that step back, standing for a moment in your client’s or potential client’s reality, is surely worth 30 minutes of your time every month or two?

As Mitch Joel reminds us, “Your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what Google says it is”. And increasingly, that really is the truth.
Kate Spiers is founder of Wisdom London.

*Jill Ruthenberg recently blogged for us on assessing your website and its content in “The Ugly Truth”. It’s worth a read.

  • http://www.robertpickstone.com Robert Pickstone

    I love the Mitch Joel quote – very true.

    I think an awful lot of brands don’t really think about how the traces they are leaving will appear to an onlooker. Asking people outside of your company how they think you come across on different networks may bring some interesting feedback.

    Personally, I try to show some credibility across different network but can’t resist showing glimpses of my strange personality. But hey, personality goes a long way…

  • http://twitter.com/andynowlan Andy Nowlan

    Interesting post! An official website is no longer a company/brand homepage – Google.com is.

    Except, that’s not really true either anymore is it?

    A company/brand homepage is now Google.com, Facebook.com, Youtube.com, Linkedin.com etc. etc. This makes the digital footprint and the message of this article more important than ever.

    What I also find interesting is how a lack of a digital footprint on some networks alltogether could be as damaging as an abandoned facebook page or a stale twitter account – ‘They haven’t even got twitter?!’.. Is this starting to happen already? If not, will it?

  • Anonymous

    Of course! You need to be real! And I’m not suggesting that we start self-editing too greatly as this is counter-productive. But it’s the classic principle that we need to take a step back every now and then, lift up our heads and look around, and to see what others are seeing. A worthwhile exercise for us all!

    Thanks for commenting, Robert.

  • Anonymous

    We’re becoming very judgmental online – it’s a fact. So judging ourselves just a little bit is no bad thing – not to become too caught up in it, but to make sure that the digital footprint really is representative of who we claim to be, and isn’t selling us short….

    You’re on the money re all of those platforms that act as a window into our world. You don’t always see hat you thought you would when you take a look!

    thanks for commenting, and glad it resonated with you -
    K

  • Chris Hall

    I think that too many organisations don’t realise (or understand) that their presence on the social networks is sometimes the only one that many people see.

    Too many times these profiles are unprofessional and misrepresent the brand or company. Unfortunately it will take more disasters to occur [nestle, habitat, vodafone] to demonstrate how important and far reaching the digital footprint is.

  • Chris Hall

    Opening up and showing real personality is a challenge for all brands and companies. Of course they don’t all need to show the personality, but a professional, customer focus will go a long way.

    The digital footprint is easy to tread all over, through comments, tweets and forums. Brand owners must retain a professional approach to manage all of this.

  • http://twitter.com/CloudNineRec Steve Ward

    This is great advice – really good article Kate.
    How a professional is represented through social media channels (and Google’s eye!) could be considered partially industry specific, but there is a consistent message for a professional – that you need to be well… consistent, and professional! :)

    In my industry full of hungry wolves, I personally aim to give an air of approachability and warmth – but I am consistently conscious of stepping over the line into flippancy. But if I do, it’s just me – so I can recover easily. But for a big brand this message is so, so pertinent – but challenging to manage.

    Steve

  • Anonymous

    Glad you liked it, Steve! And as you point out, it’s not just a cautionary tale…. we can use that digital footprint as much as we like to seed the good stuff in the places we want people to notice!

  • http://www.pereramedia.com/ Paul Squires

    Chris / Kate – can’t remember who said it (might have been Chris Anderson) – Google is not a search engine, it’s a reputation management engine.