Since launching our site and declaring that we are "the first studio to focus in Online Visibility", we've been getting many questions from clients and peers as to what exactly is Online Visibility. Specifically, how does it differ from other similar practices like eMarketing and Social Media Optimization. This is a great question and one that we also had a tough time defining when we decided to focus on it.

A little background
It really starts back in 2006. I've spoken for the past two years at conferences and in trade publications about the power of online visibility. The first time I heard this term originate, circa early 2007, was from Dave Winslow of Epik One, an Analytics and eMarketing firm in Burlington, VT. Attempting to get me to do a presentation for his Online Marketing Bootcamp he explained it to me as:

"The intersection of where social networks, web apps, and online identities merge to form a digital representation of a person or entity in the mind of the viewer."

Dave's explanation rang very true for me. At that time, it made much sense and I went forward, gave the talk, showed some of my methods, impressed the audience and went on my way. For the record, I believe that Dave originally heard of the term from Dr. Elaine Young at Champlain College whom used it to describe a class she was teaching.

The SMO Connection
Shortly after giving this initial presentation I started to get very excited about the future for OV. It seemed like something that I could really wrap my head around and put my passion for design and the web into. that was, until I realized its not really called Online Visibility. The truth is that the original definition was more close to Social Media Optimization, coined by
Rohit Bhargava back in the summer of 2006. While that is great, the actual term didn't have the ring to it that Online Visibility did for me.

Take a step back
So after this realization I kept learning as much as I could about SMO and looking at how my own passions for design and the web could contribute to the practice of SMO. What I soon realized was that Online Visibility still made sense. All along I had been thinking of Online Visibility as being the same thing as SMO, but when I examined further, what I had deemed as OV in my mind was really more like the visual extension of SMO. Placing more of the emphasis on the visuals that go with SMO such as logos, photographs, profile layouts, etc... and less on the wording is really what OV is all about.

A true definition
So I went back to the drawing board in early 2008 and gave this a better go. What I started to unravel was that everything I had been learning and all of my passions truly made up this concept of Online Visibility. So here is our crack at what OV is to us:

The calculated, visual branding of a person or entity across multiple websites, that forms a unified representation of that brand in the mind of the viewer.

This has the best ring for us and really does represent what we do. So what do you think? Make sense? Is it pure BS? You make the call!