Shelly Palmer’s Digital Boot Camp at ad:tech kicked butt.
If you are serious about your career your online presence must reflect it, with no room for error.
Shelly’s first advice was, ‘google’ your name with quotations around the words - like this, “Heather Smith”. DON"T google my name though because you will see Heather Smith, the Porn Star - lol! If your name comes up with good results on the first page you’ve got a great web presence. If it doesn’t Shelly has some tips to help you.
First, create an ‘Online Presence’ sheet as in the picture above. Then get to work - consistency pays off! Ask yourself what you look like, then create a positive online digital presence.
Shelly’s best tip, and something we all need to remember on a day to day basis:
“Don’t Be an Idiot Online!”
Be sure to match your online presence to your offline presence. Look profession, act professional and BE professional. Shelly Palmer is President at National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY and has learned to use humor the correct way during his Boot Camps. He has created a professional online presence and everything he does reflects that.
You will be judged by your PDA, cell phone and laptop!
What cell phone do you carry? Mine is an old ‘Razr’ - lol. You carry one of those or a StarTac, you cannot make any excuse in the world - other than if you live in an area of the Great White North where there is no cell service. Luckily for me I DO fall in that category so I showed Shelly my phone and told him I’m going to bring it to every seminar of his that I ever attend in the future - just as an example, because soon they will be extinct! Invest in a good cell phone! Did you know there are 4 billion cellphones worldwide?
If you are at this age: “49 and fucked” Shelly’s Boot Camp will guide you to midlife reinvention. The ‘socio-techno divide’ is reality for many of us born long before 1989. Think about the kids being born into this digital age - their lives will be incredibly different than ours.
You will be judged by your statistics.
How you appear on Google, your Alexa ranking and your Technorati tags are very telling! Work on it.
You will be judged by your Digital Brand Presence.
Your primary email is an important reflection on you and your brand, together with your website, Facebook page, MySpace, IM/chat, Skype, Wiki and LinkedIn page.
LinkedIn is the ONLY place you should post your resume - not on your blog.
Keep your blog content current, or get rid of it. A great alternative is to build a 5 page website about YOU without dates so it always stays current. Leaving an abandoned FaceBook page or blog will be a direct (and poor) reflection of you, basically implying you are “49 and Fucked” (Shelly’s term) when a prospective employer or client is searching the web for information about you.
