the webthinking blog

Ted Matthews, Brand Coach says “a brand is what people think of you”. He actually stated that couple of years ago. In this (digital) day in age, Mitch Joel kicks it up a notch to “your brand is what Google thinks of you”. I’m also a big fan of Chris Brogan’s vision on personal branding.

In order for me to measure the latter, I did a bit of ego searching.

Disclosure: I have used a freshly installed browser to conduct this search and take the screen capture – Opera for Mac, no cookies, no previous similar searches, no account history, nothing that could have altered the search results page (SERP).

According to the White Pages (I have no reasons to show up there), I am one of the few “Baldeans” in North America, and certainly there are many more in the world. So yes, I’m pretty happy with the current SERP, so far: my main site, my blog, my LinkedIn profile, my Facebook page, my tweets and some of my pictures.

How do you want to be found? How do you measure your personal branding? What do you want people to think of ya?

Finally a full-blown browser for a not so Bold BlackBerry! Last week Opera ASA announced the Opera Mini (beta) 4.2 browser. It has been a while since the 4.1 release, I was eager to try it out.

Beautiful! It has WiFi support, download speed is pretty good. Opera has added couple of North American hosted proxy servers – this should help as well. Get this: because of the WAP/socket/http support, I’m able to surf on a BlackBerry email plan only, when WiFi is not available. Yes, I had to disable the firewall, but that’s okay for now.

The address bar can be used for web search, much like your desktop browser.

Bookmarks – now this is a real plus. You can manage your bookmarks on the web, if you have an account with My Opera, and get them synchronized OTA on your BlackBerry client.

RSS feeds are here. I’m using Goggle Reader as my main feed manager, accessible from anywhere, but this mini browser has a built-in feed reader. Comes in handy.

There are two browsing options: mobile view and classic view. Javascript and CSS are rendered quite well. I like the magnifier option to quickly scan a page.

Best use so far? Being able to access my JahJah account and address book to initiate long distance (read international) calls without paying Rogers a fortune. I also have an unlimited incoming voice plan, so web initiated calls are a super-bonus in this case.

Go get the Opera Mini 4.2 now. It is supposed to work well on other smart phones.

See it in action.

Later edit: yes, I have switched to the iPhone 3GS in the mean time. Love it!

If you have met me, you probably know by now – I am sold to LinkedIn and its benefits.

Here is something to think about: Goldman Sachs made the headlines quite often over the last few months. Have you ever wondered why Goldman Sachs does not have a list of job openings on their careers web site? Because they know talent does not hang out every day on their corporate web site.

Now, why do you think they have recently acquired a stake in LinkedIn? Aha. That’s why. They know they need to be present in this place, listening and watching for skilled prospects. And Goldman Sachs is not the only company.

When did you last update your profile?

I had the pleasure to attend, for the 2nd year in a row, CMA’s Digital Marketing Conference, on October 29 and 30, in Toronto. I have translated some of my notes into couple of sound bytes:

Rob Master / Unilever
To be successful in today’s digital marketing landscape you need to figure out “how to penetrate the culture?”

Steve Levy / Ipsos Reid
Consumers outspend advertisers to avoid the advertising noise.

Top digital marketing trends: email, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, interactive consumer websites, blogging and podcasting, social network marketing, mobile marketing. Last one is still very complicated though. No kidding.

I was talking to Rick Bruner of Google over lunch – I wish the new Google AdPlanner had Canadian data as well. “Release early and reitrate often” is Google’s philosophy. Hopefully soon enough we’ll see those numbers: your web site stats and your competitors’.

First panel discussion
Barak Obama is the Digital Marketer of the year.

Charlie Gray, Head of Staffing and HR at Google and Bruce Powell of IQ Partners shared very interesting tips on how to find, hire and retain the best talent.

Tara O’Doherty / w.illi.am
Avoid web site information overload and band-aid design.
A blog is a tactic, not a strategy.
Only 50 per cent of your visitors agree with your web site design. Huh!
“F-pattern” web page scan determined by eye tracking still rules. There are still techniques you canuse if you really like to have a right navigation.

Stacey Grant-Thompson / Rogers
22 million mobile users in Canada. Of course, we’re still far behind the rest of the world, partially thanks to the big three carriers. Location Based Services (LBS) and the Electronic Wallet are the next trends in mobile usage.

David Pogue
“I interviewed Mark Zuckerberg. It turns out that the number one name in social networking is sociallly challenged.”

Interested in seeing tweets?

I’m not a big fan of widgets, but I’ll take the compliment: Chris Brogan says I’m a Rockstar!

Chris, you are the star – some of us are just rocking along. I know, I owe you big. Thank you again!

I have spent a great deal of time over the past week scouting for prospects on LinkedIn, to backfill a newly created position on my team, at work. I need someone really good, with a large set of skills, a “hybrid” if you will.

What really struck me was more than a dozen of good profiles with absolutely no contact information: no email, no website, no portfolio, nothing. I was looking for a web savvy person, not a doctor.

How can that be? Why bother creating a detailed online resume if you provide no means of contact what so ever?

If you have created your profile just because you have received ten invites from your colleagues and people you know or if you are just trying to “score” connections, set some time aside and update your profile. Be real and transparent, you have nothing to hide or to loose.

As a side note, other questions came to mind: how can you improve your keyword search results, so that your personal profile shows up on top of the list? What does “keyword relevance” actually mean for LinkedIn?