Do I Need a Personal Website?

“The new phone book’s here! The new phone book’s here! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity I need. My name in print. That really makes somebody. Things are going to start happening to me now!”

Steve Martin, as “Navin R. Johnson” in The Jerk (1979)

This is extremely apropos as we think about an individual’s online identity management in 2010.

Job Seekers, recruiters, human resource professionals and even venture capitalists, continually ask me about the value of a personal website in 2010. Folks have trouble grasping the value of a centralized platform that they control.  Perhaps this is understandable, given the market reach of LinkedIn, Google Profiles, Facebook and a cadre of other social media.  Folks simply cannot accept that a personal website is still of extremely high value.

I ask…Do you think if you are a graphic artist or marketing professional that having a personalized web address to showcase your work has value?

…Is there value to password protecting work samples, white papers etc…?

…Why limit yourself to a template and compete with all the other folks with the exact same name?

… Where do companies spend the most money and time highlighting their service and value proposition on the Web? Why is personal marketing different?

…. Is there a competitive advantage for jobseekers to fully express themselves with graphics, color, navigation and depth?

My weekend case study:

I am active on the web.

  • I have a Google profile.
  • I have a Zoom Info profile that I manage.
  • I have a robust LinkedIn profile.
  • I have a Twitter account.
  • I have plenty of personal content on the web, including this blog.

This weekend I decided to “search me” using Bing (Microsoft). I did this because I am a Google junkie and never tried searching myself with Bing. It is also important to note that Bing now has 12% of the search market and is the fastest growing of the major search engines.

When I searched myself on Bing, nothing appears on page one for me accept one entry, my personal website.

Not my Blog, not my LinkedIn account, not my businesses.  Just the personal website I built using Site in 60.

I now have another reason to tell all the folks asking me, why individuals in career transition should have a personal website.  Bing me.

Posted via web from AndyWergedal