introduction

Jul 18 2009

You may never get a chance to make a first impression a second time but you have two first impressions to make.

When we meet each other, we’re pretty accustomed to the preparation. A couple rules come to mind like taking a shower, doing your hair, looking appropriate (what ever that might be) and trying not to stink. Standard stuff really. Smile. When we have guests to our homes the bet gets raised. Now we clean the house, choose and prepare a meal and actively host too. If you’re a nice person you usually make great first impressions when they’re made face to face.

It’s normal to make analogue impressions. These are the kind we’ve been making for years. We’re motivated by consequence in these impressions. When we meet people physically we can see their face and they can see ours. It might not seem like much but because of it we can see each others reactions. We want to get a pleasant response from people when they’re right there in front of us. I submit to you that because we can’t see people’s reactions when they meet us online we don’t care to prepare for it. Odd.

The reality of a second impression is exploding around us but it’s not easy to see or hear. It’s not right in front of us and because of that it’s hard to gage our success. This second opportunity is the digital one. It’s the impression you make online. How is you’re digital introduction doing? Are people pleased to meet you online?

Geography and time, both previous limitations for introduction and interaction, are now mitigated by new digital tools and realities. It seems reasonable to posit that never before in history has it been so easy to meet people. Yet, most of us do so in the digital world fairly poorly. With all this potential it’s weird to see so few people take advantage of it. Are you?

Today we all have a second impression to make. One of our impressions is easy. We’ve been practicing it for years. The other impression has huge potential but it’s new. Consider being very intentional about your digital first impressions. It’s one of your first impressions and it can be very powerful if you craft it well.

Why search?

Jun 05 2009

With all the opportunity now in the social networking environment to meet people and extend personal and corporate brands why are we making people search for us? When we search, the vast majority of the time we don’t find what we want to find anyway. Now consider when someone searches for you. Are they finding what they want to find? So what good is all the opportunity if it’s lost because people can’t find you?

In this context we wonder why we don’t all make a great introduction page for ourselves and make sure people in each of our networking locations point to it. It’ll sure beat the process of constantly managing your search engine optimization. Not only would you be providing context for yourself, which everyone who would search for you is looking for anyway, you can track the volume of your page. You can see if people are looking for you.

Our question is, why make people search for you? Really. Why? Why make people search when the wide majority of the time you have the opportunity to craft your introduction vs. leave that introduction to the chance of search engines. You can give people an introduction page of optimized links to your stuff online that looks like search. In that case, if they see that page first, they’ll likely never have the instinct to search.

So, one link to rule them all on your card, on your profiles, in your email signature. You’re happy. The people you meet are happy. It’s your internet signature and your network extends.

.extendr’s Creation Story

Jan 11 2009

At one point I was a window washer. When I was looking for a different gig and trying to make the best impression of myself. I would meet people in person and be able to control and package the information they received. However, when I met people online or left my card with them I had no idea what would be the best link to give them. I was continually wondering what they would find of me online. Moreover, I could not game google enough to get the links I wanted on the main page of my search results.

So, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I built a site full of the things I wished google would find of me. I tossed a little personal brand texture in, and stuck it up on one url. When I started sharing that one place that included my picture and video links right along with my company and personal websites I got huge feedback. Both traffic and positive words about the concept were sent my way. That’s when I thought maybe I had something to build as a service so others could do the same.

I approached Neil, a friend from those formative college years, with the idea and he agreed to be the developer ninja on the project. .extendr.com was born.

Since then we’ve been developing a tool to help people do more than wave at each other online. Our goal is to help people say, “Hello” in a way that makes a great introduction.

We’re happy to welcome you along for the ride. — Joseph

Introduction — Interaction

Dec 03 2008

.extendr is a dynamic tool. We built it with that in mind. Yet, the wheelhouse for its usability, as we currently see it, is in aiding both digital and analouge introductions. There are many sites that do interaction. .extendr.com’s goal is to be an elegant and easy to use tool for making your introductions more efficiently and more successfully so you can then leverage any of the many great platforms for interactions.

Join us today.

blog.extendr.com

Posts Tagged ‘introduction’