Anthony G Adams - Blog

Go on LinkedIn and look up some of your former (or current) co-workers, classmates, etc.

The comedic value of this site is off the charts.

I don't understand the hype around LinkedIn at all.  Yeah, it's "Facebook for business" and that sounds pretty special on some level I suppose, but it's still the online equivalent of over-inflated resumes floating around the HR department.  There is little authenticity on most profiles.  What's the point?

Idea:  Make a site where your coworkers write your bio for you and compete with LinkedIn.

Instead of being the guy who grew B2B relations in key competitive accounts while leveraging existing relationships on a multi-national basis, or whatever you claim on LinkedIn, you suddenly become the office resource for fantasy football who needs to brush his teeth.  Or the gal who spends four hours on E! Online every day and arranges a great happy hour.  


At least it's honest.

I understand that a site like this would never work.  "He-said, she-said" would take over and it would be impossible to decipher what someone actually brings to the table based on their Wikipedia-style profile that anyone can edit.  But trusting someone based solely on what they say about themselves is just as silly.

Yes, LinkedIn offers a reference page where your coworkers can talk you up and recommend you to potential employers, but come on.  Everyone plays the game.

Solution:  Get some Google insurance.  Buy your own firstnamelastname.com and develop your bio with easily verifiable facts (pic of your college degree, shaking hands with Obama, volunteer work, whatever) and job accomplishments.  Add your personal url to the contact portion of your resume.

If your job doesn't provide you with accomplishments you can verify easily, and most jobs don't ('leveraging existing relationships' or 'growing new business 30% in Q3' doesn't count) then quit. 

Or ask for more responsibility.  

This way, when potential employers, business partners, blind daters, whatever, search your name on Google, and they will, you control the results.  You stand out by not being just another LinkedIn profile and they get high-quality, customized information about you that LinkedIn can't provide.  Everybody wins.

Who needs LinkedIn?

I get emails like this all the time, mostly in my spam folder:

Are You Ready to Grow Your Business? Give us 24 hours and we will:

1. Dramatically increase your search engine visibility - Connect you with
excited customers who are ready to buy.
2. Drive high-quality traffic to your website - Pump-up your conversions
and boost your Return on Investment (ROI)
3. Reduce wasted advertising expenditures by targeting customers interested
in your product or service.
4. Receive Genuine "Organic" traffic from search engines such as Yahoo and
Google.



So a company you have never heard of, with no real online identity, sending out blast emails that register as spam, is going to show you how to trick and manipulate Google, perhaps the most successful business EVER, for your own financial gain.  

This manipulation will then continue unabated for quite some time, eroding the high quality of search results Google provides on a massive scale, destroying the search giant in the process, tanking their stock price, their credibility, and so on.

Uh huh.

A better email might include tips on how to create a site others will want to link to.  But that process takes considerably longer than 24 hours and usually requires, you know, work.

Facebook allows businesses to target potential customers much like Google AdWords.  Define your customer based on the interests, movies, music, etc. listed on their profile.

We have all seen these small, text + pic ads to the right of your homepage.  You have probably even clicked on a few.  Admittedly, I invested money early on to test the effectiveness of Facebook advertising.

The problem is that Facebook is proactive while AdWords is reactive.  People go on Facebook looking for people, not stuff.

AdWords has the edge over any other form of advertising because people are telling you what they want.  You then have an opportunity to react by putting your product/service/whatever in front of them.  If done right, this can lead to a very good conversion rate.

Facebook advertising is still too passive and should be used with caution.  Just because you liked The Dark Knight doesn't mean you want to buy a Batman statue.  You have actually told us (marketers) very little about what you want to spend money on with your Facebook profile.  


Facebook is a great way to kill time at the office.  This boredom leads to click-happy Facebook users who might take a look at your site out of mild curiosity without having any interest in buying your product.  This is especially true with dating and 'singles' sites that use sex to entice you to click on their ad.

A few solutions:  Make your Facebook ad as unappealing as possible.  I'm serious.  Cut out the picture (Google doesn't need pictures) and display the price of your product in your ad.  Let people know they are expected to buy before they click on your ad.  

Even better, save your money for AdWords.