The power of a personal Internet presence was the subject of a conversation I had with a colleague the other day. She was trying to understand the value of a personal Internet presence to a non-executive.

I asked him if he saw value in other industry colleagues, peers, co-workers, subordinates, superiors, current or potential clients, media or trade show personnel, members of industry associations, etc. to be able to learn more about who he is as a person, professional and/or his experience and skills in the field. Note that I didn’t even mention recruiters.

I then suggested that if he believed there was tangible value in the above, then having the ability to simply say, “If you want to know a little more about me, just Google me” is an extremely powerful statement. I also told him that he would really know how powerful this is when, after saying this to someone he replies with, “I already googled you, that’s why I contacted you.”

In the business world, we are all pressed for time, and most of us have too many people asking for our time. Having information visible online that anyone can find by doing a simple “Google me” search not only helps you decide whether or not you want to consent to a meeting with another person, it can also help those who want to meet with you have a more aligned and productive conversation with you. This is saying nothing about the increased exposure it gives you in the business world to opportunities to share your subject matter expertise through talks, posts, forums, etc. Notice I didn’t even mention – career opportunities.

The key concept that many people do not understand is the following:

It’s one thing to have content floating around the internet related to you. It is something completely different to have content visible on the first page of visits when someone searches for you on Google.

So how do you go about proactively building not only a personal internet presence, but also a visible internet presence by bringing content under your control to the first page of Google? Start typing. It’s that easy.

What do you write about? Write about the problems you solve every day. Write about the systemic issues and/or issues you address every day and how you approach them based on your unique perspective and subject matter expertise. You don’t have to give the farm away. Just talk about situations and solutions in more general terms.

This also begs the question: Where do I post what I write? There are all kinds of places to post content, but the mediums you probably want to post to are blogs and articles. Typically, this content will be more visible (ie, rank higher) in search engines faster than general personal or corporate website content you might post. That said, not all blogs and article sites are created equal. There are many, many places to post content, but you want to post content in places that will result in high-ranking content that will ultimately appear on the first page of Google.

So how do you identify the “right” places to post your content? Look for sites that have a lot of traffic combined with a lot of new or changing content. Sites that have both of these elements going for them will generally result in content that ranks higher and faster in search engines. Sites that combine a lot of traffic with blog or article content are usually the best. Online networking sites like Ecademy combine a lot of traffic with fresh, constantly changing blog content. Article sites like EzineArticles combine high traffic with fresh article content that is constantly changing. You can also create even more exposure for the content you create by leveraging sites like ArticleMarketer that broadcast your article content to more articles, blogs, newsletters, etc. publishing sites

Here is the key: the power of leveraging sites like Ecademy, EzineArticles, et al. comes from using them to target other web content that you have created and/or already exists that you want to push higher in search engine rankings. You benefit from “guilt by association” as a result of hyperlinks to other content. When search engines like Google scan your content on sites like Ecademy and EzineArticles and find hyperlinks to other content, they give the hyperlinked content a preferential ranking.

With a little effort and harnessing the power of sites like the ones I mentioned above, you can create a visible personal presence on the Internet in just a couple of months. Then you can benefit from the power of being able to say, “If you want to know a little more about me, just Google me.”