Have You Googled Yourself Lately?

By Louise Pascale Google

Sounds narcissistic doesn’t it? But in actual fact Googling yourself is something you should do quite often, especially when you are approaching agents, publishers or trying to raise your online profile.

If you don’t Google yourself, they certainly will. It is the quickest way for people to find out about you without having to ring a referee or ask around. One simple search can tell them a lot about you and save them a lot of time.

I bet you’ve Googled other people to find out more about them, in fact you’ll probably Google me after reading this.

How you manage your online presence is becoming increasingly important and in some ways it outweighs your ability to write. At the end of the day we are all commodities and writers need to be sellable to move books off shelves or generate downloads. If your online – or should I say public – profile is not what they are looking for that phone won’t ring and that email may not come.

But your online profile is more than what is being said or written about you, it is also about how you present yourself and your work.

Can people find you easily? Can they navigate your blog with ease? When they go to your URL do they get what they came looking for?

When you start a profile online there are a lot of questions you need to ask yourself. The answers to which help you define your ‘brand’, your style guide and who you are online.

Unless you have been exposed to the world of communications, advertising or marketing you may think this sounds too hard and daunting. But it’s not. Contrary to popular belief it’s not rocket science and it is something we all should know when building our online presence.

This February I will be running a one day workshop at the SA Writer’s Centre that can help you with all this and more.

In this practical and interactive workshop you will learn:

  •    Why an online presence is necessary
  •    What a good one looks like
  •    How to create an online presence that works
  •    Building a following that’s not just your family and friends
  •    You will initiate your own online profile during the class and come away with handy tips to grow your online presence and build a fan base.

Louise Pascale began her career 20 years ago in children’s TV before studying Film and TV production. While at uni she worked at a global ad agency and upon graduation ran away to the UK. There she worked for Sky TV and Channel 4. In 2008 Louise went back to her first love, journalism. Today she is a freelance journalist and online editor who runs her own production company.

 

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