Are you creating a powerful business profile for yourself?

In this show, Zef Zan, host of Creative Chat Cafe and cohost Lirone Glikman of www.LironeGlikman.com discuss "Are you creating a powerful business profile for yourself?"

Discussions include:

• The importance of creating a powerful business profile that will help you build your brand.
• How to monitor and manage your online profile(s).
• Tips and ideas on what you can do to create a powerful business profile.

The Conversation

Zef: Hey Lirone, what do you do first when you’re meeting a potential new client or, you just want to learn more about someone whom you’ve just met at a networking event? Do you check them online first?

Lirone: Yes I do.

Zef: And as a networking coach, how important is it to have a powerful business profile? 

Lirone: It is very important to have a powerful business profile. It’s about communicating online and offline what you stand for and what problem you solve. What is your value for others.

It starts with your appearance followed by what you say, typically, it is your pitch. It should include your name and title, who do you serve (target audience), and how do you make your audience’s life better?. It’s important to describe your message and the value you bring.

Zef: I agree! I too check out people online before and after I meet them for the first time. What I have learned is, many people do not invest in creating a good business profile online. And when I meet them in person, who their are online and who they are in person sometimes do not match.

The reason I checkout online profiles before or after I meet someone is to get a “feel” of who he or she is. When doing so, I often start with the website or LinkedIn. My favorite is LinkedIn because the profiles are usually specific, easy to navigate, and I can usually find out who they are and what they do very quickly.

What I have also learned that more HR teams are using LinkedIn profiles to “preview” applicants and candidates.

Lirone: Yes. And one value LinkedIn offers is the LinkedIn groups feature. What people don't realize is, being a member of any of the groups that compliment your expertise carries weight and value in your profile. It gives HR teams and others the ability to see who your connections are and what kind of value you may offer them.

Zef: Great point Lirone! That is why we all need to have a business profile that represents who we are and most importantly our brand!

The Hangout.

Our Tips!

Zef: We’ve discussed why it is important to create a powerful business profile for yourself and Lirone has some tips that can help you make it even better. Lirone? What tips do you have for our audience?

Lirone's tips:
The two fundamentals of creating a powerful online business profile is to "Monitor and Manage."

1. Monitoring your online reputation.

Everyday, you may accumulate more and more online information about you and your business that is either initiated by you or others.

Make sure to regularly monitor what has been said about you online. That will enable you to know how you are being presented online and what kind of impression you currently leave on others.

• Google yourself - Google your name, your business’s name and any related keywords. Have a close look on the first and second results pages, as most people usually don’t search further. Click on the related links and make sure all the information about you is good and correct.

• Use online alert systems - use online monitoring systems such as Google alerts, set the system by inserting your name and related keywords and you will get notified anytime they appear on the web. That’s how you will know what is said about you online.

• Social media checks - make sure to read others comments on your social media profiles and discussions. If there is a need, answer positively and wisely. Check your Linkedin profile including groups that you took part in, Facebook, Twitter, Google + and the like.

2. Managing your Online Reputation.

You should and can design your online reputation. Affect what is written about you by being active in a smart strategic way and share positive information that relates to you.

Generally speaking, the information published online is hard to be removed; however, it can be pushed further away into secondary search pages as Google prefers to show newer, fresh, more valid content first.

The following tips will guide you to create new and positive content about yourself and your business, and so, will represent you in the way you want to be seen.

• Blogs – write and publish great new blog posts on your own blog or on other blogs.
• Social media - get more active on social media and make sure to post public discussions that search engines can locate and show.
• Forums – get involved in relevant industry forums which are well known and that search engines may like.
• Q & A Sites - Share your knowledge and provide smart answers on your field of expertise in Q&A sites such as Quora, Yahoo answers and others within your industry.
• Articles – publish articles in various places – it can be on your site, colleague’s blog, article sites such as Go Articles, Ezine and more.
• Public Relation - Notify the mainstream media (online edition preferred) about news that is related to you, a deal you just closed, a new manager you just hired and also, charitable work your business may have been involved in. Mainstream media sites usually rank high on search engines and will provide more insights about your good work.
  

Your Hosts

Meet Zef Zan here!

LIRONE GLIKMAN
www.LironeGlikman.com

"Lirone Glikman is an energetic business networking coach, blogger and international speaker. She shares her networking knowledge and philosophy in order to help others take control of their lives, reach their goals, succeed, and most importantly, enjoy doing it! She is based in Tel Aviv, Israel and works with audience worldwide."

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Need An Inspiration?

Ok, if you folks out there are looking for some kind of inspiration on where to start and how else you can create an online profile, here’s one.

Other than your website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google +, there are many other ways for you to create a powerful business profile. One of it is called "About.me." You can use About.me to help you make a beautiful homepage that inspires people to connect with you. So of course, you too can build a simple but powerful business profile page for yourself especially if you want to be a little bit more creative.

Check it out below!

About.me

See this sample profile!

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