The internet seems to be a hard thing for some people to understand. Companies frequently forget that bad customer service stories can reach millions of people in less than a day. Individuals seem to forget that a potential employer can Google their name and find all of their tweets about how much they hate their job and find all of their blackout drunk Facebook pictures.

People in the know call this “Brand Management.” With the proliferation of technology, the brand being sold is YOU. Your online reputation needs to be modeled and crafted exactly as you would like others to see you.

That’s right, you can’t expect to just perfect your resume in order to get hired quickly, you need to take it a step further and be more proactive.

Creating the Right Image

You are the keeper of your online reputation. As a job seeker, you must maintain a certain level of decency and a certain image throughout the whole process.

Utilize Professional Networks

I’ve previously written about different networking methods, and I mentioned both Facebook and Linkedin.

I would argue that Facebook is used more for “due diligence” to see what kind of antics people are up to. Make sure to turn on your privacy settings for anything you don’t want seen by a potential employer.

Linkedin is a more traditional professional network. The sole purpose of the site is to create a network of trusted contacts who you can interact with professionally. Your profile is essentially an online resume, allowing other site members find you to network, offer a job, offer a testimonial, etc, all which can lead to a potential job. You should definitely create a profile and connect with people. Having a LinkedIn profile as the first result when your name is Google’d lets you control the exact image you are portraying.

Maximize Your Online Exposure

I can’t just write posts and hope to be found. I need to utilize something called search engine optimization.

The same goes for your social networking profiles. They aren’t guaranteed to be found just because you created them. You need to practice keyword placement and links to get a high search engine ranking. This makes more sense for a personal website or smaller social networking site… sites like Facebook and LinkedIn will automatically rank high in most instances.

Create an Online Resume

In some fields, you would call this a portfolio. The point is to showcase your resume and other career-related information like projects you have been successful on.

The goal is that if an employer is at the stage where they are looking into you, you want to manage and control every piece of information they find on you. This is a perfect opportunity to expand upon some of your achievements and showcase your hard work. If you can just shove a project that you were successful on in their face, that is a win in my book!

Be Professional

As I mentioned in my networking methods post, you need to avoid unprofessional content and pictures. Do not treat networks like LinkedIn as you would treat Myspace. A picture of you beer bonging should not find its place here :).

This means you also need to pay attention to tagged photos and content that you didn’t necessarily post, but your friends did.

Being conservative is not a bad idea.

Your Job, and Your Job Alone

Managing your online reputation is your responsibility. No one else can be blamed for how you are perceived when your future employer Google’s you.

I didn’t realize this until a friend alerted me to this… but there are actually services that will help you monitor your online reputation. For example, there is a service called My Reputation from Reputation Defender (the link I used has a 15% coupon code attached for annual plans!). How do they sell their service?

53% of American adults use search engines to find information about each other. 77% of executive recruiters use search engines to research applicants. 26% of college admissions officers use search engines to research candidates

That’s how.

Even if you don’t pay for a service to monitor your online reputation… you should monitor it on your own as best as you can. That’s what I do. It all depends on how much time you want to put into it!

If you take one thing away from this post, take this: Hiring decisions are made on a lot more than interviews alone.

Good luck!