Month: March 2013

Today’s Attitude: Baby Steps

/ Lorian Lipton / 4 Comments

womanatdesk.gifTruthfully, creating and maintaining personal digital eminence is a lot harder then I ever thought. Developing eminence for a product or service seems like a piece of cake compared to self promotion.  But wait… I am the product now.  I am “The Digital Attitude,” the brand called “Lorian.”

For those of you that are following along with my journey, I realize that there is a tremendous amount of work to do, so I am going to need to do it in baby steps.

My first 24 hour’s attitude adjustment included:

(1) Reading the following stuff; Luis Suarez’s Blog – ELSUA.net.  Luis is an IBMer and his main focus is living social and working without email (It’s a cool concept, don’t you think), and, I am reading everything I can find by Chris Brogan.com , a guru on everything social and successful author.

cropped-summer122.jpg(2) I spruced up my LinkedIn profile (more on how in a future post), including a new picture.    My LinkedIn Adviser, a wonderful British gentlemen named Social Ben (Ben Martin), told me that profile pictures look best with a BLUE TO WHITE GRADIENT background.  Blue says ‘trust’ and White says ‘purity.’ I don’t have a professional business picture and I could not find one with a light background, so I am hoping this one works for now.  I guess I may have to invest in a professional shot.

What do you think?  Would you trust that face? –>

(3) I have been learning a great deal about tagging and keyword control.  I plan on blogging about that very soon.  I went and tagged my profile with a whole bunch of relevant keywords so that people can search me better.  If people can’t find me based on key words, then my profile is kind of meaningless. (I looked at what some other people had on their profile to get an ideas.)

(4) I went and endorsed a few of my colleagues for their skills on LinkedIn, so that I can help them adjust their digital attitude a little too.

If I have any time before I go to sleep I am going to try and follow a few strategic leaders, like Ginni Rometty (remember I’m an IBMer), and start to comment on what she discusses (if I have something relevant to add).  Comments help you build more eminence day by day.  (I think I am getting the hang of this.)  I also am going to take a deep look at my lack of network connections on both LinkedIn and Tweeter.  (I have a lot of work to do.  I think this week, I will make an Attitude Adjustment Plan, so I know where I am going.)

Doing all this stuff really is starting to set me off balance with my work/life things, and I know there must be a smarter way to incorporate social into my schedule. Are you with me?  Are you starting to make an Attitude Adjustment Plan to build your digital eminence? Are there topics you think I should explore?

Thanks for taking the journey with me.

digitalattitudesmall

See you in the Cloud – Lorian

(All views are my own)

Taking Out The Digital Garbage

/ Lorian Lipton / 6 Comments

maidYears ago I used to Google myself (did I really just use Google as a verb?) every couple of months.  In those days, before Facebook and LinkedIn, all the good newspaper articles with my name in them and business highlights would come up at the top of the list.  Now I Google myself about once a week, and find that the Social Media sites (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook) and years of accumulated digital clutter have taken over the first page.  I don’t want to be defined by things like my local Homeowner’s Associate Newsletter just because it mentions my name 3 times and some search engine picked up the feed – that to me is DIGITAL GARBAGE.  Internet search engines go out and pick up every instance of my name, so what I get is a lot of stuff floating to the top that I don’t want seen first, if at all.  Have you Googled yourself recently?

Today’s digital attitude adjustment will be to figure out how to take out the digital garbage.  I want people to see the stuff I think is more important on top.  I am not sure how to go about this, but I will get back to you later and let you know what I have found.  There is a whole industry around this for businesses, but what about for simple, hard working stiffs like me?  Are there secrets for us regular people for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?  Controlling my personal information is important, but it seems almost impossible at times.

How do you take out your digital garbage?  Suggestions welcome. -Thanks

digitalattitudesmallSee you in the Cloud – Lorian

Living Social Doesn’t Make You Eminent

/ Lorian Lipton / 2 Comments

After so many years of living my life in the world of bleeding edge technologies, online networks, social communities, blogs, wikis, web sites and other elements of digital business, I was surprised today to be told that my Digital Eminence is weak and almost non-existent.  I realized that for so many years I have been busy living IN the social, that I neglected the actual care and feeding of my ‘social eminence.’

At first, I was miffed.  “Me?” I thought. Are they talking about the person who held one of the first IBM Holiday parties in Second Life (though my boss fell off the flying carpet and never did reappear until after New Years)?  “Me?” The colleague who organized a international virtual baby shower complete with games for all on line and physical presents at the expectant’s home (because teams were becoming so geographically disbursed and I knew that being together was going to need to be different)?  They couldn’t have missed the fact that I was one of the first people to move classroom material to e-learning, for wider reach and higher consumption?  Alas, they did, because, while I was so busy doing, I was not making sure that my work left a digital footprint.

Networking has always been important to build your eminence, but, in these digital times, documenting yourself electronically, through membership in social networks, virtual communities, writing blogs, publishing e-books, commenting on others forums, etc, builds a picture which is now highly prized.  Unlike a resume, which is a flat recitation of experiences, your digital footprint is dynamic.

I learned a valuable lesson today. Living social does not make you digitally eminent unless you tag your work in such a way that others can see you in it.

So how did you make your digital mark today?

digitalattitudeanimation    See you in the Cloud – Lorian