The Google Effect Goes Mass Media

Long-time followers of the Six Pixels of Separation Blog know about our tireless efforts to continually pound into and each and every Marketer’s skull the importance of managing your brand online. Chris Anderson (author of The Long Tail and Editor at Wired Magazine) said it best: "your brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what Google says it is." Couple that with the millions of Bloggers who rant, rave and comment, and you’ve got the perfect storm for an endless quantity of search engine results that may (or may not) be the "true" representation of what your brand is (personal brand or corporate). For years those who Blog, tweet away on twitter or Podcast have questioned whether or not we live in a fishbowl and are, mainly, screaming at each other – instead of the masses.

It’s something I continue to Blog, Podcast and tweet about myself.

Earlier this week I got an email from the Assistant Business Editor at the Montreal Gazette. The Montreal Gazette was interested in republishing my Blog posting, Tales From The Fishbowl – The Top Four Shifts In Media. So, in the spirit of hopefully busting the fishbowl (or expanding it into an aquarium), I’d like to welcome all the new readers from the Montreal Gazette to Six Pixels of Separation. The full "article" (funny how it goes from Blog posting to article – it’s actually called an "essay" by the Gazette) went online tonight, and it’s called: The Google Effect – Rants Stay Alive Forever. The print version will be available in tomorrow’s edition.

Let’s hope that this content lives long and prospers (wow, did I just quote Spock from Star Trek?) and create it’s own little Google Effect by expanding the voice of Bloggers to the mass media and, more importantly, new masses of people.

Final note: the “article” was edited by myself and the Assistant Business Editor for the paper, and I was given full approvals prior to print (which was pretty cool).