Signing Up for about.me

This morning my friend Vicki posted on Facebook that she had signed up for about.me a web directory where you create a single profile page and add links to other accounts you have on the web. You also get a dashboard that shows visits to your page, clicks to your links and links back to you. For free.

Click to view my about.me profile

While I didn't feel the need to sign up, I did because if I didn't sign up for my own name, someone else could. Same goes for other social media websites. For years I resisted creating a business profile on Yelp because it would be just one more thing to manage. Then I heard a guest speaker at a presentation point out that if I don't sign up for my own business name, someone else could, and often people do, with ill intentions. So I signed up. And will continue to whenever I see new sites that may be beneficial to my online presence or could be harmful if someone else takes them because I didn't.

You can do a little or a lot once you create a profile online. The point is to protect your personal or company name by making sure that you control the online dissemination of information associated to you or your company whenever possible. Plus about.me is a great way to help market my blog and website for free! I could have left the profile standard with a plain background and just my name and a brief bio but why not add my blog feed and link to my website? That's all I did. Oh, and of course I added a custom background. But I didn't have to :)