Many times when we come up with great inspiration for a blog post or twitter status update, we take it straight to the web and start typing. Since numbers and analytics data are what drive many of us, (perhaps we should call it egolytics), we’re always on the lookout for that one great post that drives a huge amount of traffic.
…and to you it seems like the most important post of your career. This is the one. You’ve got some great info and you’re ready to bust on the scene with a groundbreaking update.
It may be good info, it may bring you a ton of traffic, and get lots of inbound links, but it’s not your most important post.
In my opinion, your most important post is the last one you did. The post you did last night before you went to bed was your status for a good 8 hours or so, assuming you got back online the next morning. That’s one third of one day just for one status post.
Since many businesses only post updates during office hours, there is a potential of that Friday afternoon post being your ‘status’ for up to 60 hours. That’s a long time in the online world.
Why does it matter?
Your last status update is your resume. Think about it. When someone (say, a recruiter, boss, or business partner or customer) decides to check out the referral they got about you from a colleague, what will they see? What will they learn about you in just 5 minutes online? Will it be good, bad, or ugly?
Ouch.
And what if you’re a business owner or the main account for a business but sometimes you use your twitter feed to post personal things as well? How long would you want this to stay up as the first post someone sees when they visit your page?
With social media taking up more and more room in the media, your profiles are going to be much more visible. Google already shows tweets in some organic results, and now Yahoo has announced a similar function. Soon (if not already) it’ll be pretty easy to find out anything and everything about you or your company with just a few searches.
And this shouldn’t scare you away from inviting the social media craze into your business. Embrace it, but understand that everything you say is being seen, plain and simple. From a business standpoint, you gotta be careful. That last post, in my opinion, is your most important one yet.
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Excellent point, Will. We live in a “what have you done for me lately?” world, and your last on-line post is the perfect example of this. Definitely worth remembering, because every single post you do is your “last” post for at least a while.
Good stuff Will — I try to watch what I say online all the time but I will start taking extra care when I am going to take a longer break.
Egolytics.