5 online assets to organize today
There’s no time like today to take inventory, and for small business owners and independent contractors, inventory is no longer counting pens and pencils. In fact, so many of the things we need to count are ethereal and virtual, which make them even harder to begin counting. These 21st century “assets” include everything from your registered Facebook accounts to the list of domain names you’ve manage to latch on to over the years, e-mail addresses and password lists, and anything else that helps you be part of the web market.
With a continued push for more marketing online, there’s no question that these tools, accounts, and virtual assets can balloon, merge, mix, inter-breed and in some cases lead to legal insanity. That’s why now’s the time to get your Levi’s on and start wrangling these valuable assets back into place. Your online reputation will thank you. Let’s get started.
1. Dig up your passwords, all of them. Find that handful of sticky notes out of your desk drawer, and dig through old e-mails. Collect your passwords in one place or better yet on one reliable Password Manger like KeePass. While you’re at it, log into any account you haven’t visited in a while — check your contact info, especially important if any name, address, or phone (NAP) has changed in 2013. Consistent NAP is step zero of any good search engine marketing plan.
2. Get your social media ducks in a row. Log into your Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp, Trulia, Google+, MeetUp, speciality forums, Craigslist, and anywhere you post information. To start just ensure that there is consistency and that there is a reasonably current post. If you have an account that you didn’t use all year long with one post from 2012 languishing, consider deleting the account completely.
3. List your e-mails. Sometimes easy, sometimes hard. When I am consulting in the field I am constantly amazed by how many lost e-mails I find. E-mail addresses forgotten, an address offered by an employer or service provider, your old Yahoo account — forward, bring current, or delete.
4. Be the master of your domain. If you have a website then your web domain(s) may be your most valuable asset. Log into your domain registrar (the industry leader is GoDaddy), and check up on your domain or domain list. Note the expiration date and consider renewal even if the date is a long way off. Are all you domains being utilized, type them into your browser or call your web designer and ensure they are.
An expired domain is bad news and can be a very costly mistake — I have seen a regularly priced domain shoot to over $600 a day after lapse of payment. If your domain, your name, and your reputation is important to you this should be your first step in your virtual inventory.
5. List your vendors and give ’em a ring. Your website designer, AdWords account manager, search engine optimization guy, blog co-authors, etc. etc., are all ramping up for the New Year too. Give ’em a call and I bet you’ll be surprised on how receptive they are to your New Year inquiry. As designers we love it when clients take proactive steps to creating content and growing their online presence. Identify who you are going to work with to grow your internet advertising sphere and begin this year’s conversations.
Good luck!
