Is it necessary for businesses and professionals to have online professional profiles to succeed and distinguish? Short answer, YES!
In the ever-changing world of business communications, the one emerging constant has been the internet and the importance of an online presence. In a free-for-all type manner, everyone and everything is now on the internet in a cluster of information. How do you rise above the cluster and stand out for your benefit?
One way people have been able to make names for themselves and brand themselves have been through the use of blogs. While blogs are a very valuable way to get out your ideas in a casual manner, how is one able to market themselves as a professional?
The answer: Social Networking Sites. I’m not necessarily talking about Facebook.com or Myspace.com, but rather sites such as LinkedIn.com, Naymz.com, AboutUs.org. These sites can give one the advantage over colleagues by establishing a presence online as a professional. Social Networking Sites have created a network of individuals looking to find one another in a confusing and clustered internet dominated age.
Futher, these sites can allow professionals to search for one another, find job leads, find client leads, and to promote each other as many of them act as an online resume database.
There is a new product/solution/service that is being launched right now called Social Harbor. This service is designed to bundle certain social networking sites so that they may be easily managed. In making social networking sites easier to manage by establishing a consistent message over the different sites, establishing consistency throughout their online presence.
Businesses could potentially profit the most from professional profile management. If organizations as a whole sign up for this service, they could unify their presence on the internet and create added value with their presence on the internet. It has been said, “the sum of all parts is less than the whole.” Further, organizations could reach critical mass, create optimized profiles for ease and consistency all the while amassing inbound links that will increase their PageRank.
All-in-all, the importance of an online presence is growing and will continue to grow. This is the future of branding and who better to brand than yourself and your organization!
