This post follows on from a post that I wrote last week called Social Media and Bringing Projects to Life Across Geographies and expands on part of a list post that I wrote back in June called Social Media for My Business: 16 Lessons Learnt so Far, where I talked about some of the things that I had learnt on my journey over the last few months.

The lesson that I want to expand on today is:

• The internet has a long memory and is an echo chamber – Be careful what you say and how you act as the internet has a long memory as everything gets archived

Have you completed a search on the internet on yourself or your company in the last couple of months? Do you know what is being said about you or if what you have said is being picked up? Are you listening to what is going on around you? Are you thinking about what you say and how you say it?

The reason I ask these questions is because unless you have completed these type of searches on yourself you will not know what is coming up in search results around your company or your name. It’s not just about what you are saying and how it is been received, it’s also about what other people are saying about you.

Did you know that search engines are picking up everything on the web whether it is a blog post, a website update, a comment on a blog, a review on Amazon, a tweet, facebook activity….all sorts of stuff. Also, although Google may be the biggest search engine don’t rely on it solely as each of the other search engines will pick up different results. Try them out and see:

http://search.twitter.com/

http://www.google.com

http://www.yahoo.com/

http://www.bing.com/

Why is this important? Different sources quote numbers that state between 67 and 75% of those online use the internet to research before they buy or meet or visit or whatever.

Do you think that your customers or potential customers are ‘Googling’ you? I’d bet on it and they’ll be able top see a lot, if not all, of your online activity.

Put searching yourself and your company on your regular task list because if you’re not managing your reputation or brand online then someone else may be.

Time to do a search on yourself?

Where else would you be searching?

Thanks to duane.schoon for the image

I hope that you found this information useful. If you did, why not connect with me on Twitter @adrianswinscoe, LinkedIn or if you liked this article then why not subscribe to my RSS Feed?

If you’re thinking, all of this is great but I’m not sure how to implement it in my business then read this and this and get in touch here for a chat.

Just think just think how much more successful your business could be when you and I are working together! Oh, and by the way, when you do get in touch ask me how I guarantee my results.