Employers are now admitting that they often Google applicants’ names in order to unearth extra information about them that they might not get in an interview. If your facebook has statuses of you mouthing off about how drunk you got, or how you’re “bored at work”, you can kiss that job goodbye. This is where personal reputation management comes in.

When Megan Maloney lost her job at a Detroit auto supplier last April, she made sure her online reputation was as strong as the image she would present in person to prospective employers. She Googled herself to check for unflattering links. Then she changed her Facebook privacy setting so no one could see beyond her profile picture. She updated her profile on LinkedIn.

Megan certainly did the right thing–you can read more about what happened to her and others at the link below.

http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/20/manage-online-reputation-leadership-careers-identity.html

This article at GetElastic gives some very good pointers concerning how to find a good reputation manager. The author clearly has done this a time or two and knows the ins-and-outs of the industry fairly well. The article also speaks to the many hats that reputation managers must wear.

Depending on the size of your business and consumer propensity to search for your name, you may require a PR/social media marketing firm or in-house professional to handle your reputation management needs, serving as a community evangelist and corporate spokesperson full-time. Many companies have this and a search on any job board for “Public Relations Manager” or “Community Manager” may include reputation management in the list of responsibilities.

The article is much longer and has more gems of knowledge to share. Web libel is a serious problems for businesses and it should be combated early and often.

http://www.getelastic.com/how-to-find-an-online-reputation-manager/

Message to Southwest: Don’t screw with Kevin Smith. The famed director of movies like Clerks and Dogma was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight, supposedly for being “too fat to fly”, though Mr. Smith says the company admitted to him that that was not the reason at all. At any rate, Smith has been lambasting the company on his twitter all day–a fiery attack which reached his 1.6 million twitter-followers loud and clear. Southwest is, naturally, having to back off now.

The controversy is a public relations challenge for Southwest. The airline had the lowest rate of passenger complaints among U.S. airlines last year, according to a government report issued last week.

Of course, none of that matters now–the story has broken wide open and Kevin Smith is basically on a crusade at this point, one which will either end in lost business for Southwest or an apology. Either way, Southwest Airlines would benefit from some corporate reputation management.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/15/kevin.smith.southwest/index.html?hpt=C2

There are many things to look out for in the personal reputation management industry. One of the single most important aspects of the industry seems pretty simple and non-threatening–Blog Comments. But the fact is that blog comments are almost always anonymous, short, and free to post. So one person, in only an hour, can manage to leave comments all over the Internet which do severe damage to the reputation of the individual or business that is being maligned.

It doesn’t stop at the blog post, however. Often times, some of the most passionate and/or nasty comments will come in the comments sections of these blog posts. If you need to defend your brand or product out there, don’t overlook what people are saying in the comments themselves.

It cannot be understated how important blog comments can be–they serve as unofficial reviews, basically.

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/11/16/5-less-obvious-online-reputation-management-issues

Negative search results are a disaster for any company whose image is important to its function. These days, that means virtually any company. It is essential that companies present themselves with a squeaky clean image in such a competitive atmosphere. I found an article that had some very good things to say about internet defamation.

If something negative about you or your brand starts showing up in Google search suggestions, you’re in for a bit of a battle.  There really isn’t an established method for dealing with this problem.  There are a few tricks I’ve seen work in the past.  For obvious reasons, I can’t give specific examples, but the overall tips aren’t person or brand specific.

The only part I would disagree with is that there isn’t an established method. There are many methods of dealing with internet defamation, ranging from litigation to online reputation management. Read the author’s tips at the link below.

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/advanced-orm-influencing-google-search-suggest-and-sublistings/16483/