Social Media Pays Off

Curious to know if all the time I’ve been spending learning LinkedIn, Facebook, and Plaxo was paying off, I Googled “Gil Effron.” Much to my surprise, the very first listing was my recently updated profile on LinkedIn -- my fully-updated profile that incorporates all the tricks I’ve been learning thanks to Hilary Topper and LinkedIn expert Jan Wallen.

What was even more surprising as I clicked through the listings were how many references there were to “Gil Effron.” I counted seven pages of solid hits followed by a thinning out over the next several pages… then I stopped. By comparison, when I did this exercise a couple of years ago, there were only six hits.

But I learned several things through this little exercise. First, nothing… absolutely nothing… is private. Anyone in the world can find me… and find out about me. Fortunately, I don’t have too much to hide. (Or do I?)

Second, other people have referenced me or acknowledged me… and my name and activities appear along with theirs. That’s pretty cool.

Third, whatever is out there doesn’t go away. It’s there forever. For example, there were frequent references to my book Direct Mail Success. I found this a little embarrassing. The book was written in 2000. The content is desperately out of date… and the book is out of print (except for 200 copies I have tucked away for a rainy day).

I wasn’t so embarrassed that the book is still there. It was right on target when I wrote it. But I was embarrassed by the fact that I haven’t written another since. So guess what I’ve just added to my to-do list? No problem! I needed something else to do.

Perhaps writing a new book will push the old one to the back and I won’t be embarrassed anymore.