| 07, the Pew Internet & American Life study | | | | medium of video. All of these can generate a good |
| found that one in ten internet users had a job that | | | | footprint online for you, but you need to keep the |
| required them to self-promote or market their name | | | | momentum up. |
| online. Two years later, it found that the share of | | | | Take Control of Your Online Presence |
| adult internet users who have a profile on an online | | | | You may already be utilizing social media sites such as |
| social network site has more than quadrupled in the | | | | Twitter, which enable people to converse and |
| past four years, from 8% in 2005 to 35%, and | | | | market to potential customers at incredibly low cost. |
| it’s very likely that with the internet being at | | | | That’s a positive and controllable way of |
| the front and center of international business, this | | | | engaging with potential customers (as long as you |
| proportion will continue to increase in step. | | | | don’t drunk-tweet – what goes online |
| There’s no doubt that doing business as an | | | | can potentially stay online forever!). However, how |
| individual or in a team internationally has become | | | | do you maximize the potential of your efforts in |
| much easier with the advent of the internet, new | | | | social media, and point people to the things online |
| networking technologies and more diverse ways of | | | | that you want them to see (and perhaps fewer of |
| collaborating. But, as can be seen by the statistics | | | | the things you don’t want them to see)? |
| above, the ability to differentiate from the | | | | The best way to do this is to centralize all of the |
| competition is much more difficult as more and more | | | | things you want people to see and where you want |
| people join business networks, use job-hunting sites | | | | them to interact with you under a .tel name. A .tel |
| and build their professional brand online. | | | | domain gives you the benefits of discoverability and |
| Personal digital branding is just beginning to emerge | | | | ownership that a traditional domain brings, but |
| as a new tool for recruiters and career managers to | | | | without the hassle of having to build and pay monthly |
| help differentiate people online. It’s only been | | | | for hosting and developing your own site. It’s |
| in the past year or two that celebrities and sports | | | | proven to be an excellent resource for individuals |
| stars have started really thinking about personal | | | | using free resources for blogging, but wishing to be |
| branding online in a consolidated fashion, especially in | | | | found in an authoritative place online under their |
| light of new ‘celebrities’ being | | | | control, where they share what they want to share. |
| launched from sites like YouTube (think Susan Boyle). | | | | From as little as $10 per year, you can brand yourself |
| So if it can work for them, it can certainly work for | | | | under your own .tel domain name and easily change |
| you. Here are three tools to help you stand out | | | | the information quickly as you need to. These |
| further from the crowd. | | | | domains can also act as a single point of contact for |
| Be Social, Go Glocal | | | | customers. |
| What’s glocal?! It’s the ability to talk | | | | Network |
| about local issues on a global stage, using social media. | | | | There’s no doubt that more niche business |
| Basically, you have an expertise that you can share | | | | networking sites are starting to ‘up’ |
| that may be best expressed using local examples. | | | | their game in terms of the quality of relationships |
| You can share the benefit of your experience on a | | | | that can be built on their platforms. Joining LinkedIn, |
| global platform by utilizing all of the free social media | | | | Viadeo or Xing will bring benefits, especially from the |
| channels at your disposal, enabling you to have a | | | | networking groups that are starting to appear on |
| global voice. It’s not just blogging these days | | | | things like LinkedIn. With more integration of Twitter |
| – although ‘long form’ content | | | | and other elements into these business networks, |
| is still extremely useful for search engines, and | | | | the ability to promote a professional side to online |
| it’s important to consider easy-to-use | | | | networking is really starting to come to the forefront. |
| platforms that can be branded with your personal | | | | Marketing yourself, your skills and your potential is |
| brand such as Posterous, which can be updated from | | | | now one of the most important things you can do as |
| email. Micro-blogging, like Twitter or Google Buzz, can | | | | a professional. Take time to implement a few of |
| enable you to tell your story to a whole bunch of | | | | these easy online marketing tools to help stand out |
| people. Qik enables you to tell your story via the | | | | from your competition. |