It’s All About.Me (Your Identity Online – Simplified)

by | Feb 7, 2011 | Branding, Business, Career, Social Media, Tips | 13 comments

Have you ever received an email from someone and their signature block seems to run on forever with so many links that the signature is longer than the email itself? Are you guilty of this yourself? It’s okay to admit it, you’re among friends.

I have several links in my own signature block. I want to make it incredibly easy for the email recipient to learn more about me, so I include links to find me on my own website, my professional profile on LinkedIn, Twitter (two accounts), and the Almost Savvy page on Facebook. I’ve seen others with even more links to Flickr, YouTube, SlideShare, to name just a few of the more popular sites.

Did you ever wish that there was an easy way to lead someone to all of the various pieces of your online presence with one simple link? If so, you may want to check out about.me.

Reasons to set up your own about.me page

  • You’re able to include all the links to your online presence and drive traffic to those sites.
  • With an interesting photo and small amount of text, it’s an opportunity to have a little fun and show some personality.
  • It’s easy. All you really need to do is connect about.me to your LinkedIn profile and any other sites you think help to showcase who you are. Limit yourself to those that show you in a positive light.
  • By registering your page, you’re making sure that a valuable piece of online real estate tied to your name is yours before someone else with your name claims it or a you-wannabe claims it.
  • Think online reputation. Having solid skills and a credible reputation are critical keys to success. If it isn’t easy to find evidence of your skills and reputation, however, how valuable are they? This is one more tool which will help you make it dead simple for others to learn more about you.

Tips when setting up your page

  • Find the balance between having enough text to say something interesting about yourself (enough) and not having it begin to look like marketing material (too much).
  • Use one photo for the page. You have the option to tile a small photo (have it repeat several times to fill the page), but this usually ends up looking too busy. Choose a good photo, one that makes you look good or makes your story or brand more compelling. Don’t worry if you don’t have the perfect photo when you get started; there are several stock backgrounds from which to choose when you first set it up.
  • It is extremely easy to experiment with different photos, fonts, text – everything. Try it out, send the link to friends to get their feedback, edit, repeat.

A little inspiration to get you started (click on each image to enlarge)


Here’s mine. I consider it a work in progress. I wasn’t able to find many interesting photos of myself. It turns out that years of being the one holding the camera has its downsides.

 

 

Here are more examples of interesting about.me profiles.

Do you have an about.me profile? Please share the link in the comments so that we can easily meet you.

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13 Comments

  1. Laura Gluhanich
    Laura Gluhanich on February 8, 2011 at 12:30 pm

    Hi Irene,

    Great post with helpful tips about creating an about.me profile! One more tip we didn’t get to you in time for the 1am post; the best image to add is 1680×1050, 72 dpi.

    Thanks!
    Laura
    http://about.me/lauraglu

    Reply
    • Irene Koehler
      Irene Koehler on February 8, 2011 at 3:07 pm

      Thanks for adding the information on the ideal photo size, Laura. Very helpful!

      Reply
  2. sonal khodiyar
    sonal khodiyar on February 8, 2011 at 1:54 pm

    Agree to everything you said in your blog… and Its fun experimenting new stuffs… 🙂

    Reply
  3. Ken Stewart
    Ken Stewart on February 8, 2011 at 2:50 pm

    Great article….I’ve just begun using an about.me profile…I’d love any tips, hints, thoughts on my profile.

    about.me/kenstewart

    Thanks
    Ken

    Reply
    • Irene Koehler
      Irene Koehler on February 8, 2011 at 3:10 pm

      I like it, Ken. Great photo. Couple of thoughts – I’m not sure if the font you’re using for the bio is the best. It’s a little hard to read. Sent it out to your friends and see what feedback they give you. Thanks for sharing it!

      Reply
      • Ken Stewart
        Ken Stewart on February 8, 2011 at 5:27 pm

        Irene…I think you’re on to something with the font issue. The great thing about this site is that I can make a quick change.

        Thanks again.

        Reply
  4. Susan Walls
    Susan Walls on February 8, 2011 at 9:35 pm

    Thanks Irene. I will have to experiment when I have a few minutes free.

    Reply
  6. Wendy Hoechstetter, CAPS
    Wendy Hoechstetter, CAPS on February 9, 2011 at 1:25 am

    Great post, Irene! I hadn’t heard of this service before, but it sounds wonderful.

    Methinks I need to get caught up reading your blog ;->

    Reply
    • Irene Koehler
      Irene Koehler on February 9, 2011 at 5:55 pm

      Hi Judi. Cool photo! If you have a larger one, you can really take advantage of the ability to upload a huge 1680×1050 image. It really makes a statement.

      Reply
  8. Wolfram Bölte
    Wolfram Bölte on May 10, 2011 at 4:10 am

    I think the picture on ones about.me site says even more than the small text you can write down.

    For example, when i look at the profile of elisabeth adams that is mentioned here, the picture tells me that she can get things done without setting an too big emphasis on herself. =)

    http://about.me/wolframboelte

    Thanks for the post,

    Wolfram

    Reply
    • Irene Koehler
      Irene Koehler on May 10, 2011 at 10:55 am

      Great point about the power of the photo, Wolfram. Thanks for sharing.

      Reply

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