How do I get noticed? Top 10 places to show up on the web

Photo by suvodeb

Maybe you've been laid-off, or you're trying to help promote some new company or cause.  You know you want people to be able to find you on the web, and when they do, you want to look good.  There are high-visibility, high-value services like LinkedIn that are obvious places to sign up.  But after that, what are the second-tier services?

Here's how I'd prioritize putting yourself out there (and these are the tabs you should add to your Nombray page!):

1. Wikipedia:  OK, for most of us, this is not an option.  The guidelines for Wikipedia state that you need to be notable, someone else should write the article, and they need to follow the guidelines for biographies of living people.  If you're a public figure though, it's hard to beat the cachet of a Wikipedia entry.  One Nombray user who has a wikipedia page is Rich Moran.
2. LinkedIn:  The best site to show that you're a professional--in part because you're connected to other professionals.  There's an interesting question of what your policy should be about connecting to other people.  I'll do a blog post about that in the future.  If you have an opinion, send it my way.  Here's a Nombray user with a good linkedIn page: Michael Halligan.  Remember that in LinkedIn, you can control what shows up on the public version of your page, and the default is very meager.
3. Blog/Portfolio: This is a lot more work, but shows that you have real depth.  There are many options here.  One I like for portfolios is CarbonMade.  Check out Dot Johnson
4. Company Page: If you're well placed at a company, maybe you're in the "About Us" link.  It's a great tab to add.  I'll mention that I find the web 2.0 cutesy bios (like "Code Monkey") irritating, and I'd encourage you to save the jokes for other contexts.  Be careful to keep stuff like this up to date.  Sean O'Malley has a good one.
5. AboutUs:  These guys have done a really great job with SEO, their results move to the top pretty quickly.  They don't do just company pages, you can also enter people.
6. Twitter:  I was very skeptical about Twitter, but I've been using it for 5 months, and I've become a fan.  It's a great way to gather and entertain an audience. 
7. Alumni Site: Many universities offer their alumni a page, sometimes structured, sometimes not. 
8. Flickr:  If you have photos to share, it says a lot about you, and provides some common ground for people you meet.  Neeraj has a nice Flickr stream.
9. Emurse:  LinkedIn is the king, but you really just want to show your full resume to people, something much more simple is in order.  Also, Emurse has templates so you can add some style.
10. Slideshare:  I'm a fan of Slideshare, in part because it's showing that slides are a really great medium for expression on the web--it leaves the viewer more in control that video does, but it adds enough rich media to be emotionally engaging.  If you have a slideshow, put it up.  If not, make one!  David Cortright expressed his portfolio that way.