Optimizing Your Google Personality

A few months ago I posted an article over at Blogcritics about "Google numbers." The post was rather popular so I thought I would post it here for readers of Small Business Trends. Here it is, along with an additional quote I've attached at the end from Faith Popcorn:





Do you know your Google number? Better yet, how big is your Google number?



Your Google number is literally the number of times your name pops up in the Google search results. But, that number has taken on greater significance. To some, it means you are a thought leader, an influential person, an expert -- maybe even famous.



Having a high Google number is becoming a matter of competition in some circles. Here's what colleague Valdis Krebs has to say about it in an article he wrote in HR.com:

"We were discussing the current economic climate, when one of the consultants started bragging about a just published book. Soon others were talking about their books. Eventually we were verbally jousting - who amongst us was the most 'well-known' consultant? Being the only consultant present without a book to my name, I had to quickly turn the measuring stick from 'books published' to something else. *** I said, "That's nice, but what's your Google number?" Puzzled looks soon overcame everyone in the room. Google number? What's that? I quickly explained that it was a rough-order measure of your reputation and influence as a thought-leader - it is how much buzz, or word-of-mouth, you have as an expert."



So, how do you interpret your score in Google? Here is what the author has to say:



"If your Google Number is around...

100 or less - keep your day job and start publishing ....



400 - do a nice web site and publish more



800 - it is probably safe to hang out your shingle



1,000 - you are getting some real attention



2,000 - you are well known in your field



5,000 - you are an often quoted expert in your field - a thought-leader"

Faith Popcorn, the trend expert and futurist, predicts that 2004 will be the year in which people actually start optimizing their Google personas: "Google has created the concept of the "Public Resume" -- a new kind of pervasive, email-able DigiTruth. Now that everybody can know everything about almost anyone, an industry will soon evolve to help you manage that public persona-creating the perfect online profile, optimizing your own Google search, giving us control over our digitized public identities."