Dandelife.com's CEO explains that corporations must actively manage their web presence.
Existential ennui is the harbinger of any great society. From Descartes to Freud to Maslow, the ontology of the human being has been at the forefront of what makes us as a species thrive. Life, as it were, is about self-discovery. You didn't need philosphers and shrinks to tell you that. You knew it already because you blogged about it on your MySpace page.
One of the traditions I've let lapse in my recent career is the need to buy and hack at the techniques of so many books aimed at making professionals more apt. Self-help bridges all walks of life and while I am no fan of fitness or weightloss gurus, I tend to praise the likes of evangelists in the market to make me a better business man. I've got a bookshelf full of Drucker. Who doesn't? We're the Gladwell Class-- constantly working for the sake of self-improvement. For some it takes the shape of greed. For others it takes the shape of techno-lust. And yet, at the end of the day, the rat race is simply a manifestation of humanity: self-actualization and random acts of self-empowerment.
In mixed company I would argue that much of the corporate world is stuck somewhere in the tweak loop of figuring out just who they are. How do I know this? I know this because I've seen countless MySpace pages that my colleagues have created. If you'll permit me, I'll illustrate it with this oversimplified syllogism:
- My colleague's and/or friend's MySpace page is a clear act of rebellion designed to create a persona that s/he very definitely does not display whilst at work.
- Companies are made up of people, people like my colleague/friend.
- Therefore companies are staffed by individuals pretending to be something other than themselves.
Who is this person I work with?
Of course there are many problems with the logic presented above. Most professionals do not keep personal blogs or MySpace pages. And if they did, indeed a good portion of those would-be-lifecasters may not present an alternative version of themselves to the blogosphere than they do at work. That said, there is some truth there, and it lies in the fact that as individuals we have the opportunity of shaping people's perceptions of ourselves directly. We do it all the time with the kinds of clothes we buy, the make-up we wear, the way we do our hair, the language we use at the board room, and the people we hang with in the lunch room.
Your online identity is much the same. You want to be seen in the right place, then it makes a difference whether or not you're public profile is on MySpace or LinkedIn, whether you have a decent blogroll on your blog, how interesting your ma.gnolia links are, and how many people are reading your feed.
Who is this company I work for?
While individuals can benefit from services like iKarma, Zoominfo and ClaimID, which all help individuals manage what content exists about them on the internet and certify that content as legitimate or not, corporations can not. That is, my name is my brand as an individual. In order to fulfill the brand promise that my name holds, I have to evoke that brand identity with my actions in person and online. If you've ever had multiple personas online -- such as the you that you are on MySpace vs. the you that you are on LinkedIn -- then you know "what a tangled web you weave when at first you do decieve." These services help you reclaim what's legit and what's not, as it were.
Corporations, however, are the masters of sending mixed messages online. Indeed mixed messages are a part of the marketing plan for most. Given the many channels that you would advertise to, how does a corporation own the messages being claimed for or against it? This is no trivial matter. Google your company name and you're likely to find thousands of records about your company that you had no part in making. From customer complaints, to blogger praise, to ex-employee rants, to press releases and articles about you-- the task of organizing and certifying the content with your name on it is no small task. That said, because it is difficult it is also worth considering. After all, your name is your brand and letting it fall where it may could muddy up your corporate waters.
Zen and the Art of Internet Presence Management
What's interesting about services like ZoomInfo, ClaimID and iKarma are that they tend to perform well in search. If I want to look up the professional profile of individuals I'm interested in talking to, their ZoomInfo page often turns up in the top 10 results. Why is that? Most companies with a decently managed internet presence do keep an up-to-date press section with published press releases, past and upcoming events, and perhaps even a library of b-roll and stock photography to use freely. But they do so in order to be the relevant subject matter experts on their subject: themselves. While ZoomInfo has an interest in cataloging personas, your company has an interest in cataloging itself.
That said, I haven't ever seen a corporate website that "claimed" legitimate content written about it with any degree of thoroughness. Which is to say, short of traction in major online pubs, corporate websites are not interested in presenting further evidence of their brand promise by linking to and therefore "claiming" content written about them by bloggers, for example. As individuals, our professional lives may be at stake. As companies, much more may be at stake. The effort would take 10 minutes a day. ClaimID outlines how individuals should do it. Smart ambitious corporate marketing types would do well to extrapolate from these methods for the good of the company as well. Ten minutes a day is all it should take.
Kelly Abbott is the CEO of Dandelife.com and the co-founder and advisor for Red Door Interactive. Read full bio.