If your name doesn’t appear regularly on Page Six, you might assume that means there is no (public) dirt to be dug on you. Ah, but this is the information age, after all. So whether the new year is bringing thoughts of a new job, or just because it’s a good idea in general, we spoke with Robyn Greenspan, Senior Editor at Execunet.com, on what you should know and do to manage your virtual reputation…
   

Know What’s Out There About You:

Here’s a sobering thought: according to Execunet, 77% of recruiters say they use the web to dig for information on candidates today. So what might have been either impossible to learn or taken months to uncover now takes minutes… and 35% of those recruiters say they then eliminated candidates based on what they found. Examples range from misstated qualifications to pending legal proceedings to postings on a blog or MySpace page that were a little too insightful.

Where and How to Look:

You may have done it once or twice as a lark, but there is real value in “Googling” yourself (search for your name, in quotation marks, on all the other major search engines too). It’s also a good idea to search for yourself on blogger.com.

Try different variations on your name, and if your name is common, it’s useful to see what’s being said about the other “yous” out there, lest there ever be real confusion.
 
   
Then What:

What’s written in cyberspace is actually quite close to indelible (another sobering thought). However, if you happen upon something disparaging, you can try to contact the webmaster of the site to see if it can be removed. You should know, however, that essentially all web content is archived, which is why it’s difficult to fully erase something.
 
   
The best advice? Think of yourself like a presidential candidate.

Assuming there may be one or two tidbits in the world that don’t show you in your most flattering light, seek to counterbalance it (and more) by being proactive about the positive. This means getting the information you control to rise to the top of a search.
 
   
Some suggestions:

• Go to blogger.com and set up your own free blog. Consistent blogging will rise up in web searches. (Just be careful about what you blog about).
• Ready to invest a little more effort? Buy a domain name as your site, and post your resume, accomplishments, activities and areas of interest on it. This gives you your own place on the web that you completely control.
• Register with a data aggregator like zoominfo.com, and you can exert some control over what data is displayed about you, including making updates and corrections.

Then, you can go back to Googling everybody else…

Learn more by visiting execunet.com
 
  
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