Whether you’re looking for a job, seeking a promotion at work, running for political office, joining a civic group, owning a business or just being a neighbor, people are Googling your name.

There’s no telling what they’ll find.

A recent blog post from Seth Godin’s blog brought to mind a couple of important points about life online today.  First, anyone can Google your name and find out just about anything. Second, social media sites like Facebook, mySpace and others are blurring the line between personal profiles and professional profiles. If you think you can keep your personal and professional lives separate, think again.

There are some valuable lessons for you, especially if you’re seeking a job or own a business.  People have access to all kinds of information about you, and privacy is dead, even if you’re not on Facebook or mySpace.  Why? Because others can post photos of you on mySpace and Facebook, and that content can be searched.

If you want to realize the potential hazards of social media sites like Facebook, you need to look no further than the video below — “Facebook in Reality.” This parody — especially the last minute or so, demonstrates how others can damage your reputation.

Your online reputation should be monitored.  Not only can social media sites cause a problem, but many sites (like Google Local, Citysearch and others) allow people to publish reviews for businesses.  Many folks also write about exceptionally good and bad interactions with companies on their blogs. All of this content is indexed by search engines, and is ready to be shown anytime someone Googles your name or business name.

To monitor your online reputation, Google your name and/or your business name once per week. Set up a Google Alert. Be proactive.

Don’t get me wrong — I love social media sites, and they can be great for promoting your business. If anything, this teaches us that we should all lead more honest lives.  You simply can’t lead different professional and personal lives.  If you do, people will see things about you that you don’t want them to see.

I recently read an article on USA Today’s web site called “Bad news for workers is good news for LinkedIn” that stated that LinkedIn usage is catching fire as workers look for jobs through social networking.

Since early September — when recession started a domino effect of layoffs in the U.S. — LinkedIn has seen growth.  Traffic (page views), invitations to connect and connections made is up almost 10% as workers tap into their social networks to find jobs.

I’ve used LinkedIn for years now, and can vouch for its power in finding work.  I’ve found web projects from LinkedIn, and I’ve been contacted multiple times for management-level jobs by recruiters (I especially liked the last contact I had with a connection from a certain motorcycle manufacturer in Milwaukee).

Here are some ways to grow your LinkedIn network:

• Connect with past co-workers, bosses and contacts. In the business world, people move on to new positions and you can leverage those contacts later to help you find work.
• When you network, ask people if they are on LinkedIn. This one sounds simple, but it’s an easy way to make connections.
• Put social networking information on your business card. Including your LinkedIn profile address on that blank flip side — along with a personal note — can help grow your network.
• Work hard at growing your network of connections. The more people you’re connected to, the more visible you’ll be to recruiters and employers.

Here are some effective tips for using LinkedIn to find a job or develop business:

• Blast messages out to select connections. If you’re looking for a new job, you can send a mass message to connections that might be able to help you find work.  Personally, I like to network with recruiters in case this whole “being in business” thing doesn’t work out…
• Join (and participate in) LinkedIn Groups that are job-related. If you live in a city of over 100,000 people, you can often find a local group that focuses on networking for job purposes, groups of recruiters or trade/skill/professional groups in your local area.
• Complete your LinkedIn profile. Take an hour or so to post your complete employment experience and tasks performed, using keywords that are specific to your industry. Also list your interests, a good photo, and write a compelling “elevator pitch” for your Summary. Don’t be shy about asking for recommendations from co-workers or past co-workers that are connected to you. Don’t forget to list your contact information. Completing your profile is important because recruiters and employers will often search for people that fit a profile, and you just might bubble up to the top of the list.
• Answer questions. Prove that you’re a thought leader by answering questions (the Q&A feature on LinkedIn) that others in your network or groups ask. It’s all about visibility, and answering questions in an intelligent manner will give you credibility.
• Ask for connections at a specific company. Want to work at a specific company? Use LinkedIn’s search feature to find people, then either use the “introductions” feature and your network to get introduced or send them a connection request with a detailed personal note. When asking for the connection (if you don’t know the person) introduce yourself and express your interest in their company, then ask for the connection.

I hope you’ll consider using LinkedIn for networking, business development and job seeking.  You’ll find me at http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickwhittington and I accept all connection requests, so what’s stopping you?  You can also find me on Facebook and Twitter.

This isn’t a political post, rather to show you how not to keep your “customers” up-to-date.  After hearing today that the bill the US Senate passed last night included hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for manufacturers of wooden arrows for children, Puerto Rican rum manufacturers and American Samoa.  Wanting to read the bill myself (all 400+ pages, I hear), I went to senate.gov.

The fact of the matter is that you, the American citizen — the “customer” — won’t find any mention of the bill on the Senate’s homepage.  Matter of fact, I spent 20 minutes searching for it, and think I found it, but I’m still not sure because half of the bill isn’t about the economy.  I turned to a news site that offered a clear link to the legislation, and I found:

Sec. 308. Increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Sec. 309. Extension of economic development credit for American Samoa.
Sec. 314. Indian employment credit.
Sec. 502. Provisions related to film and television productions.
Sec. 503. Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.

…and the list goes on.

Why do the American people detest Congress?  Perhaps it’s because Washington doesn’t provide us adequate usable access to the legislation that crosses the floor.  Here’s a link to the bill, and if you’re for or against it, call your Senator or Representative, but good luck trying to find their contact information on their web sites.

Time and time again, I’ve seen that truly successful people (and companies) pay attention to the “little things.” This post is about one of those little things — specifically e-mail signatures.

Since nearly everyone has an iPhone, Blackberry, Smartphone or the ability to check their e-mail on their mobile devices, e-mail signatures become very important. Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit that everyone has e-mail ready mobile devices, but a good percentage of businesspeople use these devices to check their e-mail.

So why is the signature so important, and what should you include in your e-mail signature? The answer is rather obvious but goes overlooked by many — your phone number.

If you include your phone number in your e-mail signature, then the recipients of your e-mail have easy access to your phone number if they need to call. For example, if I send a proposal to a prospective client and they read my message on their mobile device, they can just “click” on my phone number to call me. If you’re like me, you probably don’t keep the contacts into your phone’s address book up-to-date like you should, so it’s really helpful when someone adds their phone number to their e-mail signature.

Making it easy for clients and customers to call you back just may net you some more business.

Here’s a good Monday morning find — a blog post from MarketingVox about how sponsors of last week’s Idol Gives Back show stack up in terms of PR. The show, which urged viewers to call and donate their money to a bunch of various charities, was sponsored by ExxonMobil, Ford, Coca-Cola and iTunes. The blog post cites a study on how the sponsors weaved PR messages into the show.

Read the blog post at MarketingVox

I read a blog post today over at MarketingCharts.com about how many non-profits miss out on the opportunity to connect with so-called “wired wealthy” donors online.

A Convio, Sea Change Strategies and Edge Research study showed that “wired wealthy” give an average of $11,000 per year, are active online and becoming more so.

Donors prefer donating online as it reduces administrative costs, and non-profits must learn how to connect with donors online to encourage donation. Not surprisingly, many don’t understand how to use the web as a marketing tool. The study showed that most non-profit sites don’t make an emotional connection, aren’t inspiring, and less than half of non-profit sites are well-designed.

There are opportunities to market to donors via e-mail as they are receptive to donation reminders and updates about how past donations were spent.

Having worked at a non-profit for a couple of years, I think that non-profits need to think more like businesses. There have been multiple comparisons between non-profits and small businesses, and I think this is a good comparison because non-profits can improve donations through entrepreneurial thinking. Non-profits don’t have to sacrifice their social cause by marketing more aggressively to donors and potential donors. More aggressive marketing doesn’t necessarily mean more frequency of message — it means finding new ways to solicit donations and make connections.

Perhaps non-profits should re-define themselves as “social entrepreneurs,” learning how to better support their cause through blogging, e-mail marketing, viral video, sponsorship opportunities, mobile marketing and other new, emerging technologies. Yes, and having a compelling, effective web site doesn’t hurt either.

Normally, abandoned shopping carts make e-commerce retailers frown. Not in this case, however. Check out this video on You Tube and you’ll have a whole new view of the abandoned shopping cart (and a good laugh).

This post from internet entrepreneur Jason Calacanis was just too good to pass up, even though it doesn’t have anything to do with web site effectiveness. Jason shares 17 tips for running a startup on a budget, and I’m sure that we can all learn a thing or two from this list.

My favorites:

Buy Macintosh computers, save money on an IT department
It’s no secret that Microsoft products require more maintenance and support, which is why I switched to Mac early last year.

Buy cheap tables and expensive chairs
A good ergonomic chair and a trusty computer is all most office dwellers need to be productive (comfortably, of course). I picked up a few desks from an ad agency that moved into a new office and purchased two Humanscale Freedom chairs, which keep me comfortable all day long.

Outsource accounting
Who has time to fiddle with the books (unless, of course, you own an accounting firm)?

Outsource to middle America
Small firms can only do so much in a day, so building a reliable team of 1099 contractors gives you a way to quickly ramp up your productivity for large projects while saving the costs of employing a team you can’t keep busy full-time. And a contractor in Nebraska won’t charge as much as one in NYC.

I’ve also discovered two other ways to save money and be more productive:

• Use Skype for voice calls and iChat for video conferencing.
  I can call phones all across the country using my iMac’s built-in microphone for only $3 per month. I can also hook a Skype phone into my router for cordless Skype calls. That beats a $40+ per month Verizon bill.
• Buy software brand new on eBay.
  This tip from my CPA saved me about $70 on QuickBooks — you can pick up software brand new on eBay much cheaper than stores.

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The Nielsen Norman Group — a well-known group of usability experts — is kindly offering a free download of their report titled “Beyond ALT Text: Making the Web Easy to Use for Users With Disabilities.”

You’d normally drop $124 on this report, which details 75 best practices for designing web sites for those with disabilities.

In my opinion, every web site should be designed and coded with accessibility as a consideration. This report will give you the fundamentals and you’ll be able to figure out how your site stacks up. Business owners, download a copy and send it to your designer as their holiday gift.

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Research shows that if your company is going to be successful selling goods or generating leads online, your web site needs to be credible.

So how does a web site become credible in the eyes of its customers? I recently found a document from the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab called the Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility.

The document lists ten guidelines to boost your site’s credibility, based of course on years of research of over 4,500 people.

The document is a good starting point for evaluating your existing web site’s credibility or to plan for a web site redesign.

And non-profits — these guidelines apply to you as well. You need people to understand your mission and donate, and a credible web site is paramount to accomplishing these goals.

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