Microsoft, always with an eye for business, is reminding young professionals that their social networking could get them in trouble some day. Applying for jobs is a long and arduous process—and employers often plug their candidates’ names into search engines looking for addition information. If a picture of you holding a beer with no shirt on is what they receive, then you can kiss that job goodbye, whether you interviewed well or not.

Microsoft is warning people that in their social networking fever, they could in fact be shooting themselves in the foot. The HR professionals in the US which rejected job candidates because of data found by simply performing an online search on the person indicated that the top factor considered was unsuitable photos and videos shared with the world, along with examples of the candidate’s lifestyle and even inappropriate comments expressed by the candidate. It is clear that the time when a consistent CV, experience or studies were the only deal breakers when it came down to getting a job is gone.

Microsoft is ahead of the curve—many young professionals do not realize how many of their potential employees are using search engines to check them out. Some reputation management will be needed to repair the damage done by social networking.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Protect-and-Manage-Online-Privacy-and-Reputation-133299.shtml

Over the last couple of years the social networking sphere has expanded online. Indeed it has become virtually all-invasive. One’s everyday life is autobiographically chronicled through Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter. This is done by virtually everyone these days because it is fun and interactive–but there are unintended consequences too. Employers are looking, more and more, to social networking websites for cues as to how individuals would conduct themselves as employees.

Four in ten HR managers have chosen not to hire a candidate based on information they have seen on a social networking site such as Facebook, according to research by Microsoft.

The survey of 1,000 HR professionals also highlighted that 64% think it is appropriate to search the web for information on potential employees.

This is a growing trend that is going to continue to grow. The personal reputation management industry can help, though.

http://www.i-l-m.com/publications/2363.aspx?articleid=19586632&articleheading=Jobseekers+warned+to+protect+online+reputations+

Graduates looking to start their careers should be keenly aware of their online reputations. When a student graduates his first priority is generally to find a good job, and that means applying and interviewing. Interviewers are, more and more, looking to Google and other search engines for information on applicants that might not be found on their resumes. Of course, this means that they will often find facebook profiles, blog posts, or forum posts which are…less-than-presentable.

To this end, people should take a number of steps to ensure they are getting the most from it, such as creating separate Facebook profiles which outline their achievements, aims and career goals.

The point is that these graduates should be utilizing online reputation management. Whether they do it personally or

http://www.witanjardine.co.uk/news/2502-Graduates-seeking-marketing-jobs-%27should-protect-online-reputation%27

There is an entire industry on the Internet called Online Reputation Management. What exactly does that mean? Well, as everyone knows—the Internet is full of malcontents and pranksters. How much damage can these pranksters do? Quite a bit, in some cases. If a major Internet-based company is maliciously maligned by these people, it can cost them a great deal of customers, and profits. The anonymity of the Internet guarantees they will never be caught, too.

Enter Online Reputation Management. This industry has sprung up in response to the problem of online libel. Any company that has done a great deal of business online knows that search engines are the key to their reputation. If negative links exist about them out there in the ether, that is no big deal—but if they are indexed at the top of their search results, that is a major problem. Virtually every client is guaranteed to pick through their search results and see these negative comments. Online Reputation Management firms solve this by pushing those comments and links down, out of the top search results for those companies.

Amongst the most well-known and respected of these companies is ReputationHawk.com. They have incredibly positive reviews all over the Internet. I spent a while trying to comb the web looking for anything negative on Reputation Hawk’s services or pricing and was unable to find anything. They have also gotten a great deal of press, from TIME, The New York Post, and the Chicago Tribune—amongst others.

The importance of personal reputation management cannot be over-estimated, as this article says. The combination of anonymity and indexing search engine allows for any single person to have their voice heard on a particular subject–especially if it is a company or person. That company or person will inevitably suffer when disgruntled employees, malcontents, or pranksters figure out this very simple fact.
http://www.articledashboard.com/Article/Internet-Reputation-Management-and-Brand-Protection/857135

I’m not Aaron Burr or ZZ Top, but I’m certainly concerned about brand reputation management. The giant rumor mill and insult factory known as the Internet can get out of control at times and result in a bad reputation for any business or person that draws the ire of online commentators.
http://www.sooperarticles.com/internet-articles/effects-online-reputation-management-7267.html

Yahoo scored a huge victory in the war between search engines this quarter. Net income in the 3rd Quarter rose 244% to $186 million. Does this mean Yahoo is gaining in popularity? Probably not. Most of the excess income has resulted from cost-cutting, rather than any real market gains. Still, yahoo is a formidable search engine which can have quite an effect on search engine reputation management.
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/091020-162337

Susan from Googleblog has posted some very helpful information for individuals who want to manage their internet reputation. She offers a number of very valuable nuggets of information–but the best piece of information is the suggestion of preemption. It is much simpler to control whether or not your personal information gets placed on the Internet than it is to control the perception and comments concerning that information once it has been placed on the web. The advice here is, be careful what information you place on the Internet–just food for thought.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/managing-your-reputation-through-search.html

The reputation of a business is key to its sales and general marketing strategy. But what happens when a companies brand reputation comes under attack, especially in an anarchic environment like the Internet? Corporate reputation management is an industry that has become the solution to this contrived problem.
http://www.ameinfo.com/56895.html

eWord of Mouth is very important in this day and age. Social networking has made it so that no person can really escape the Internet’s grasp. Sites like Socialmention.com and Addictomatic.com allow you to keep up with your internet reputation in the social sphere.
http://www.technologystory.com/2009/09/11/online-reputation-management-%E2%80%93-play-time-is-over/