When vanity is good for business
Photo via FabSugar
We’re all interested in what others say about us. Especially when it’s about our work. Now if, like me, you act as your own PR team, discovering these snippets and citations rests solely on your shoulders. And in today’s business environment, it’s not just vanity. It’s a necessity.
Cue the ego search.
Otherwise known as egosurfing, it involves searching online for your personal or company name. You might say, “But I already know about me and my company.” The thing is, it’s not about brushing up on your personal achievements. And it’s not just for the vain amongst us either.
The ego search is about managing your brand.
PR teams of the 1900s had weeks and months to plan around potential bad press. Today, however, and as Domino’s Pizza knows all too well, that timeframe has been reduced to hours and days.
With the speed of electronic communication, bad press can spread like wildfire, but by keeping close tabs on any mention of your brand, you can extinguish fires before crowds fan the flames.
How to automate your ego search
It’s easily done using Google Alerts and Twitter Search.
To receive citations via email or RSS, the Google Alerts service is straightforward enough. Simply enter the search term(s) you want to monitor, then choose the frequency of updates (“as it happens” / daily / weekly), and enter your email address for receiving notifications (users with a Google account can receive updates via RSS, as I do).
“But trackbacks already tell me when I’ve been mentioned.”
This is true. When you log into the WordPress admin, you see a small area that displays “incoming links”, so when a blog or website links to one of your posts, you’re automatically notified. What this admin area doesn’t cover, however, is when your brand name is mentioned without the use of a back-link, or when you’re talked about in the comment section of an article. So with Google Alerts those scenarios are taken care of.
My RSS “Alert” doesn’t show when I’m mentioned on Twitter (a good thing where “retweets” are concerned) so I use Twitter Search on a near-daily basis. I search for the terms “david airey” and “logo design love”, then again without spaces i.e. “davidairey” and “logodesignlove”. The latter covers when someone has typed your web address in a tweet, or if your brand name appears in your Twitter username.
It’s possible to automate these results by subscribing to the search RSS feed. To do this, simply pull your chosen query, then cast your eye to the “feed for this query” link at the top of the results page. Personally, I find it takes less time to read the results on Twitter.
It’s not all about bad press, though
Most of the negative thoughts directed at me arrive via blog comments, so I don’t really need to go looking for them. An ego search can, however, actually be very encouraging. Yesterday, for instance, I came across this tweet from Chris Green of Freelance For Money. I don’t know who Chris is, and he kindly took the time to produce this short YouTube video where he talks about my blogs. Thanks very much!
Chris appealed to my ego, prompting me to link back to him and embed his video in my post. Take note (but don’t let me get too big-headed).
How effective is your ego?
Are you keeping tabs on your brand press? Do you get tempted to check more often than you should? If there’s a more efficient way of receiving vanity alerts, please do let me know.
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24 appreciated comments on “When vanity is good for business”
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I google myself all the time. I do it to see how I rank with SEO. I do it to see what people say about my design work. But most of all I do because I really really like reading my name. Ha ha. I’m kidding.
Some handy tips David, been using them for a while. It’s a good way to monitor your online presence and competitors. Technorati search I’ve found also pulls up some links / phrases that Google Alerts doesn’t pick up.
And talking about ego boosts, Chris also did a video about “How to get clients using LinkedIn” and used my profile as the example so I understand how you feel! Don’t let it get to your head.
Hi David, thanks for featuring the video. I created it to show people how they should be running their blogs and yours was one of the best examples I could find. Hope we can connect in some way soon.
Chris Green
That’s another reason for the ego search, Mario, to see search engine rankings. I had to stop myself from searching too often, though, it can be easy to obsess.
Chris, no worries at all. It was a welcome surprise. Good luck with your blog efforts.
Edit: I seem to be getting quite a few false positives in my spam folder these days, so excuse any delay for comments appearing.
David, your blog always provides great tips that have helped me in spreading my “brand” around the web. I have started using Google Alerts, but I didn’t think about using Twitter to keep tabs on my brand which I definitely will now start doing.
And I know what you mean about checking some of these stats too often. It is amazing the amount of information that we have access to now and I have to make sure that I don’t become obsessive about it, haha.
That’s some great info you’ve shared David. I think I’ll give it a go when time permits, however, I also share the same name of the Poker player “Andrew Kelsall”, so no doubt any bad press about him will appear in the search results, lol.
I’ve checked out the Domino’s Pizza link, and now I’m quite disturbed. I think I’ll stick with Pizza Hut.
Glad to be of help, Jeremy. Thanks for letting me know.
Andrew, a good friend of mine sent me a .jpg this morning. It showed the final notice he received after finishing PartyPoker’s Sunday $300K tourny. He finished first! 8 hours of poker playing earned him a cool $63,000. But anyway. My weekend wasn’t as successful.
I actually stopped eating from Domino’s Pizza before I saw the bad press. I used to like their “sizzler”, but there’s a kind of “sizzler hangover” that I’d rather avoid.
Haha I know how you feel Andrew. My unfortunate middle names is “Michael” meaning when I do a vanity search I come up with a lot of “Michael Bolton” results. Who knew he was still alive and touring?!
Although, more and more people I meet like to reference the movie Office Space with the character who shares Micahel Bolton’s name as well—that reference I don’t mind as much since I think that movie rocks!
I’d say that the Google Webmaster Tools is another good option to find websites that are linking to yours, although you have to filter a lot specially if you comment on other blogs frequently.
I don’t know about vanity, but that’s a pretty sweet photograph!
I just made a post on my blog about a site I came across that helps with this very same subject. This site tells you some basic stuff like how many other sites are linking to your site, how many times your blog is mentioned on the Internet and other handy stats. It also gives you an over all ranking for you blog. I don’t know if that helps make things a little easier. Here is the link:
http://ocondesign.com/?p=837
Mario, that’s a really cool tool. In fact if you check out the rest of the stuff that Hubspot do they have some pretty neat tools for marketing. One thing to bear in mind is that Google really values links that are from sites in your ‘niche’. For example, a link from this site to mine like the one above that David kindly gave me is really valuable.
@David, $63,000? That beats my £120 I won at Christmas last year :(
I see what you mean by managing the things written about you, both good and bad. I think it is very important to respond to any negative criticism that you may get immediately, so that the person who has complained knows you value their opinion.
Michael Bolton? That is unfortunate. ;)
João Pedro, nice tip. You’re right about the filtering, but I don’t know of a more comprehensive stat provider than what Google offers.
Mario, something similar? Website Grader
Andrew, I have about $300 in my poker account. Puts things into perspective, eh?
Jessica, that can be true (about responding to criticism immediately), but on the other hand, you need to be careful that you’re not giving a hot-headed response out of anger (count to ten and all that).
I have another tip that helps weed through some of the chaffe, specifically for Google Blog Search. It’s best explained by brief example:
- Do a blog search at http://blogsearch.google.com
- Save the RSS feed (button on left) to your favorite reader
- Observe for a few days and notice if there are any repeat false positives.
What is a false positive? Say you are searching for “ham and cheese” because you want the latest news on your favorite sandwich. However, there is a blogger who writes about boats 14 times a day, but his blog is called “Ham and Cheese on a boat ride”. Every time he posts, you are going to get a false positive, and you have to step over his blogginess every time you check the feed. The same would apply to Google Alerts.
- Go back to blogsearch and do another search like this (with quotes): “ham and cheese” -”boat ride”.
- Save the updated search results RSS and delete the old one.
Over a few weeks you might also see something else popping up that you get sick of avoiding in the results. Simply repeat the process but ad another “-” modifier to the search string, save the new RSS feed, etc.
You can get some pretty cleaned up results and useful, niche-oriented feeds that way, over a few weeks.
Doug
I wasn’t aware of the [minus] request, Doug. Seems like an ideal way to filter the wheat from the chaff. Thanks for that.
I suppose we should mention the [plus] request as well.
Let’s say you are researching “cheddar cheese” as a phrase, but are not interested in Wisconsin Chedder, but only Vermont Cheddar. Your search could look like this:
“cheddar cheese” -Wisconsin +Vermont
Tough call though. I have had both but I think Vermont Cheddar, extra sharp, is better.
Hi David
Thanks for the heads up.
I’ve found that automating my username mentions on Twitter has led to some invaluable contacts and followers.
As I can’t ‘watch’ Twitter in real-time all day, for mentions or follow recommendations, it’s really nice to be able to go back and thank someone, drop them a line or follow them back etc.
Worth the effort (little as it is) in setting up and monitoring.
Cheers – Jonathan
Having never had the pleasure of tasting Vermont cheddar, I’ll have to take your word for it, Douglas. But it’s hard to beat some garlic and herb Boursin.
Well if you are stateside in the Boston area ever, let me know and we’ll make a wine and cheese tasting happen just for you, my compliments :)
It would be a pleasure, Douglas. And likewise, if you’re ever visiting Northern Ireland, do let me know. We can dine on potatoes washed down with Guinness, have a good ol’ pub fight, then go chasing rainbows for crocks of gold. ;)
I’ve been using Twitter Search since I first created my own Twitter account, but I was unaware of the Google Alerts. Thanks for the tip.
I’m Scottish, but potatoes washed down with Guinness sounds great.
Got two cans of draft cooling in the fridge.