Last week, one of my favorite bloggers, Ian Brodie, wrote about the good old days, when you could build a practice through "word of mouth." Back then, business development plans had three stages:
- Do good work.
- Wait for people to spread the word.
- Answer the phone.
But things are different now. There's this thing called Google that your potential clients use to investigate service professionals before they hire them. Their search leads them to your LinkedIn page, your website, and any organizations you belong to that have posted a profile on you. It also features that embarrassing picture you took back in 1986.
Try this exercise: If you have a Google account, log out of Google, then type your name into the search engine to get a sense of what your prospective clients are seeing. I was disturbed when I saw my own results. There were several versions of my bio, two of which I hadn't updated in a decade, and at least one picture of me from before the turn of the century. (That's the thing about the Internet—it preserves who you were long after you've evolved into who you are.) I don't think I was leaving a negative impression, so much as an inconsistent one. I looked like someone who didn't care about his professional image. It was reminiscent of a job interviewee who hands over a crinkled resume or a colleague who gives out business cards with outdated information—certainly not the brand I want to portray. I immediately updated my LinkedIn page and contacted the organizations that featured my old bios. Most of the inconsistencies have been addressed, but I'll never know how much business they've cost me.
So, don't make the same mistake I did. Google yourself and find out if your hard-earned word of mouth is being undermined by sloppy profile maintenance. Your potential clients are checking you out. Make sure they find the best and most current version of you.
