The Science of Communicating & Marketing Your Business

Next on Eric's list was egosurfing, something else I don't do. People occasionally send me such things with "Did you know about this?" or "Somebody else thinks you're pretty" or some such in the subject line. One fellow sent me a link to an academic paper I'd written several years ago and forgotten. Eric's concern is what to do if something damaging comes up and how to make sure future employers and potential dates find only helpful things.

Egosurfing is coming at me from several directions as of late. I wrote in The Reluctant Blogger about Jason Carmel commenting that I was one of the good things about the recent DC Emetrics Summit. Mr. Carmel wrote:

"I got to meet Joseph Carrabis who is a fascinating guy to converse with. I had no idea who he was within the web analytics community (I tend to drink from the same wells when it comes to web articles) until I googled him..."(my emphasis)

First up, I'm not anybody special within any community, at best I'm just another person figuring things out as I go, at worst, I'm a nudge that won't leave things alone. What stopped me was "...I googled him..."

I remember talking with some friends in the late '90s and they introduced me to the term "ego-surf". I believe I have a healthy ego. It just manifests itself in different ways. But I admit, this egosurf thing coming at me from several directions lately made me curious. People at the recent IMedia Agency Summit, for example, sought me out because they'd googled me and had questions on something I'd written.

Ok. I googled Joseph AND Carrabis to find out who this fellow was (here using the third person is acceptable. On the internet, we're all objects and not individuals. Also, the nature of the internet is that it can't tell us about "right now" but only past to "not long ago").

Wow! Over 9,000 entries! This Joseph Carrabis has quite a resume, if not a history.

(Okay, back to first person singular again)
I'm always fascinated by people's opinions of me (it's one of the ways I learn about myself) and it held here, too. I don't curry favor so things such as the following both flatter and throw me off:

"2. Joseph Carrabis - Chief Research Officer - Next stage evolution
I had a mind bending conversation with this guy. They have developed a technology that is able to evaluate if a product, a site, a brochure etc.. will work without doing any focus group, testing or anything. How? They have compiled bazillion of data points on the behavior, attitudes, emotions, tastes, preferences of millions of western educated people and have derived a statistical model that allows to do predictive modeling for specific behavior. This is the type of technology that will make marketing leapfrog to neuromarketing. ..." (Again, Wow! I'm going to have to pass that on to our marketing department!)

I actually prefer to lead a quiet life. I walk my dog, play my music, fly my kites...I tell people I'm a boring and dull kind of guy because I think it's true. It use to be that someone was measured not by how much they love but by how much they are loved. Perhaps now and in the Village, someone is not measured by how much they publish but by what others publish about them. After all, it's not how much your site links to others but how many sites link to yours that pushes you up in the search listings, isn't it?