Inside VT KnowledgeWorks: Google Yourself

That was the advice Seth Godin gave his blog readers as The first thing to do this year on January 2, 2008.

I wrote about telling novice Internet users to Google themselves for readers of Inside VT KnowledgeWorks on February 18, 2008.

As I write this on December 18, 2008 - the last Inside VTKW post for 2008 while the writer of this blog, Anne Giles Clelland, The Accelerated Entrepreneur, takes the next two weeks to fold a backlog of entrepreneurial laundry - I am thinking there's still time to follow Godin's advice.

In the past three weeks, I've read probably 100 articles and blog posts like this one in the Wall Street Journal, 12/15/08, The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World.

The articles use anxiety-producing taglines as does The Wall Street Journal: "Consumers are flocking to blogs, social-networking sites and virtual worlds. And they are leaving a lot of marketers behind."

For high-tech start-ups, the founder, president, CEO, and marketer tend to be one and the same. Left behind?! If I get left behind, my business will fail! I need to be first to market!

Since Inside VT KnowledgeWorks launched over a year ago, on November 30, 2007, I’ve been doing, studying, researching, and experimenting with social networking, social media, digital media, Web 2.0, whatever term you want to use, with regard to publicizing, marketing and advertising high-tech companies, their leaders, and their service partners.

I have one conclusion.

Quality is always first to market.

To find quality, people start with a search.

So, I echo Godin’s advice and add to it.

Google yourself. Google your company. Google search terms your potential clients, customers, partners, investors, or recruits might use to find you.

See where you are. Envision where you want to be.

Equifinality – that an end can be met by many means – offers peace to high-tech entrepreneurs in an economic downturn paired with seemingly revolutionary changes in how people connect to do business.

Whether I meet you with a Handshake 1.0 in the physical world, or a Handshake 2.0 in the virtual world, the quality of your product, service, or process determines what happens next.

Ask hard questions about the real benefits and the real features of your enterprise’s offerings. Ask yourself the big questions about the quality you truly offer to the world of commerce.

A 2009 business, marketing, Web 2.0 – whatever you want to call it – strategy becomes reassuringly simple.

Offer quality.

Peace.