the site owner to remove it, generally it
will get taken down.
The other option is to push the
“dirt” down by creating high-ranking
content that reinforces your brand. The
way to do that is with the six Ps: Publish, Post, Pontificate, Publicize, Partner and Profile.
• Publish: Create your own content
online. There are plenty of free plat-
forms on which to get started. Cre-
ate a Twitter account that focuses on
your expertise, for instance, or bring
that Twitter account you started
months ago back to life. Start a blog
and update it at least once per day;
the entries can be as short as one
sentence with a link to something of
interest. Create a professional Face-
book page. Make sure your LinkedIn
profile is updated. Upload your Pow-
erPoint presentations to Slideshare.
net. All of this creates an online
narrative, the gist of which is that
you’re active, engaged and knowl-
edgeable.
Visit the Association Forum’s
“Recruitment and Retention of
Quality Staff” Professional Practice Statements at association-
forum.org>Resources>Samples
and Best Practice
Guidelines>Professional
Practice Statements.
• Pontificate: Pontificating is like
posting, except that the goal is to
demonstrate your knowledge. A well-timed bit of advice when responding
to a blog or message board post will
spotlight your expertise and show up
in search results.
• Publicize: Don’t be afraid to do a
little self-generated public relations.
If you get a new job or a promotion,
a speaking engagement or an award,
spread the word on your blog and
social media sites.
• Partner: Connect with others with
whom you share something and
leverage social networking sites to
build your identity. On Twitter, follow as many people as you can in
your field, or even tangential to it,
and follow those who follow you.
Ask your connections on LinkedIn to
write recommendations for you, and
offer to do the same for them. Join
industry groups on LinkedIn, as well.
• Profile: To ensure that people will
find the right information about you,
create a memorable biography and
add it to your blog and social media
sites.
Ensuring that your Internet presence
is what you want it to be requires ongoing maintenance. Step one, however, is
simply searching. So if you haven’t
already, Google yourself and find out
what the world is seeing.
Sherry Budziak is the founder and president of
.orgSource, a technology and e-communications
consulting firm for associations. She may be
reached at
sherry@orgsrc.com.
