Should serious professionals be present on the web?
This morning I talked to a friend about Linkedin. Neither of us have found it incredibly useful yet but we both view it as (1) an option for future value and (2) an easy and professional way to let the world know about you.
Discussing this, I realized that I still regularly come across people about whom it is very hard to find any information on the web. This is not true for lawyers, almost all of whom have firm website bios. For law firm management and legal vendor professionals, however, I often have a hard time finding any information about them.
Granted, with my 5+ years web presence, I have views. But have we reached a tipping point where we should be suspicious if a 35+ year-old professional is hard to find on the web? No web hits suggests a certain lack of involvement – no participation in professional, community, or political events and a conscious choice not to share credentials with the world.
One measure here is the “mom yardstick.” My 82 year old mother has several hits on the web because of contributions she’s made or community activities in which she’s participated. So when I look for information about professionals and find nothing, I just have to wonder.
Of course, danger lurks in the opposite direction. Stories now abound of people who post too much and too revealing information and live to regret it. A bad profile is one thing, a low profile another. No profile on the web may be just as revealing in an unintended way.