The internet has added a whole other dimension to reputation management. With the anonymity and easy access it brings, the chances have increased that you’ll end up being the target of a negative comment at some point. While most people will take an isolated remark with a grain of salt, if you’re seeking a leadership position, it is vital that you are seen in the most positive light.

The first step involves doing what is known as an “ego search” – googling your name. Hopefully, you haven’t found anything damaging, but don’t stop there. Online content can change in the blink of an eye, so make it a rule to search yourself at least once a week.

So, what can you do if you come across something online that you wish wasn’t there?

1)      Bury it: Most people don’t search results past the first few pages. Push the negative information farther back by putting out positive information. An article, blog comment, or press release can be distributed by you and will likely rank high in the search engines.

2)      Take legal action: If there is something you need completely eliminated, talk to a lawyer or consider a service like reputationdefender.com, a company which helps people manage their online reputations.

Whether you’re in job search mode or not, be proactive and keep your online identity spotless. You never know when someone is going to find you online and consider you for a position. Control what they see and make sure it’s positive!

According to “Social Networking: 2009,” an online survey conducted by Ipsos Reid, only 26% of Canadians who are actively online are aware of Twitter. A more interesting fact is that just 1.45% of these Canadians actually used the 140-character microblogging site.

The original survey was done just before the all the media hype caused by news outlets like CNN, celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, daytime talk show hosts like Oprah, and others, so it could be that the Ipsos numbers are a little on the low side now. In any case, we can be sure that only a very minute number of Canadian professionals are using Twitter. I suspect this is because of confusion and fear that usually arises when a new form of technology proliferates our world. People are afraid of many things:

• Jumping in too early (Remember the Beta/VHS controversy)
• Becoming addicted (Social Media Addiction does affect some, as does alcoholism)
• Becoming narcissistic (Who really cares about your lunch plans?)
• Losing privacy (Big Brother is watching-only if you are telling)

All these are valid concerns, but after trying out Twitter, what I have learned is that it is a veritable GOLDMINE for 6-figure job seekers. These hidden benefits don’t seem to get much exposure, but I will tell you today that Twitter can help you in many ways:

• if you need good career advice because you seem to be “spinning your wheels”
• if you have want to supplement applying to postings with some new things
• if you are feeling lonely and isolated in your home office and you want “business chat”
• if you haven’t been working for a while and you need to address the gap by keeping current
• if you are feeling like you need to build your credibility by showing that you are an expert
• if you feel like the economy is getting you down and you need a boost

TAKE A CHANCE TODAY – TWITTER MAY OPEN UP DOORS YOU NEVER KNEW EXISTED!

 Twitter can give your six-figure career a HUGE boost. I took the long route to get there, but you can start now. How about investigating Twitter in five easy steps?

 Step 1 – Click on this link: http://twitter.com

Step 2 – Click on Join Today.

Step 3 – Create your Account (Tip: Just complete the basic form and skip the rest for now)

Step 4 – Search for some people and start to follow (read) their tweets.

Step 5 – Visit your page daily to stay connected with your tweeps (twitter people).

Sharon Graham is Canada’s Career Strategist her twitter account is http://twitter.com/sharongraham  or @sharongraham. When you feel more comfortable and you are ready for the next steps, feel free to send Sharon a question or let her know how you are doing through the “Direct Message” link on your Twitter home page. She’ll answer with a new tweet in no time.

Recently, Canadian recruitment professionals Head2Head, in partnership with LinkedIn, performed an informal survey. They asked recruiters to tell them how they found candidates. The results were quite telling.

In short, 69% of Canadian recruiters surveyed use LinkedIn for recruiting and 44% use Facebook to find and investigate candidates. A small percentage of recruiters use other online venues as well including blogs, Twitter, YouTube, and Craigslist to mention a few.

Clearly, there has been a noticeable shift in our marketplace. Recruiters are moving away from spending money to post jobs on job boards. This is because the time and energy that it takes to weed out undesirable candidates has increased in leaps and bounds.

In the early days of the Internet, one effective posting produced a manageable number of corresponding resumes. Now, in some cases, hundreds of resumes flood the recruiter and the work required to find one good candidate is no longer worth the effort. Cyberspace has allowed a much more interesting and cost effective way to find the best candidates – by actively mining for them.

So, what does this mean for you? Rather than spending most of your valuable job search time seeking out jobs, you should be building and managing your online presence. It is now clear that your visibility is critical to your short-term goal of finding a role, but also your long-term career success.

If you want to cultivate your career prospects, then you should not treat social networking sites as entertainment. Rather, you should be treating every activity online as a potential career maker or breaker.

Step 1- Clean up your internet presence

Start by eliminating bad press. Go through your social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace and remove all inappropriate content. Be assured that if you don’t, your folly will come back to bite you during any background checking process.

Step 2- Create your brand identity

Flesh out your value proposition – the compelling message that you will be delivering to recruiters. This should be the same brand message as you deliver in your resume and other supporting career documents. If you create a memorable picture that sets you apart from the competition, you will be found and selected.

Step 3- Implement your online strategy

As an executive, it is in your best interest to develop and execute an effective online strategy. To market yourself on the internet, you must deliver a consistent brand message. Leverage sites like LinkedIn, VisualCV, Plaxo, and Twitter to your benefit.

Outlook 2010, a national survey conducted by Graham Management Group determined that 62.5% of six-figure professionals have a targeted online networking strategy that leverages LinkedIn. If you are not participating, you may be missing significant career opportunities. 77% of the Canadian recruiters surveyed by Head2Head said that online recruiting improved their ability to connect to passive candidates. Don’t you want to be recruited too?

Sharon Graham is Canada’s Career Strategist. For a summary report and analysis of the Outlook 2010: Competitive Career Intelligence Survey email info@grahammanagement.com

No doubt about it, this economy is the one of the worst for job hunters in many years. What used to take days and weeks is now taking months and years. Despite the good news in The Wall Street Journal on Monday April 19 about hiring of young engineers in Silicon Valley, by and large the outlook for old and young alike is abysmal.

Anecdotally and otherwise, I am constantly hearing stories of incredible age discrimination in today’s job market. It seems that employers want young and cheap. Folks above the age of 45 are increasingly reporting that they are washed up and no longer have the skills that companies are seeking. Young people sit frustrated due to lack of response from companies and headhunters due to their seeming lack of experience.

Well, it may be the current situation. But I do think that the tide will likely turn when employers realize that they are missing out on a surplus of great experience and talent that can significantly bolster their productivity and help them quickly accommodate the recovering economy.

So to those who have suffered through a lengthy period of job search, here are some suggestions of things to do while wading through the mire of unemployment or waiting for the economic storm clouds to part.

1. Take a break from the search. If you are looking everyday, you can become jaded and frustrated. A day or two wine tasting, golfing, bike riding or even sitting on a log at the beach is therapy from the daily grind.

2. Go pro bono! I know it’s not a paying gig. But doing what you enjoy for others can often lift the spirits and give you a sense of renewal that you are indeed talented and effective. If you are in the business of PR, marketing, creative processes, etc., there are folks who can use your skills. The Taproot Foundation http://www.taprootfoundation.org is one such organization that cherishes your writing skills, account and project management abilities, marketing savvy, IT wizardry and other talents. Also, look around in your own town, there are likely organizations waiting for your call.

3. Try a couple of acts of random generosity and expect nothing in return. If you have friends or colleagues that are in your same spot, offer to help them out. Buy them a mocha java and commiserate. Counsel them on their job search and things they may want to do to improve their marketability. Take a break from yourself.

4. Develop a personal brand statement. Conduct a brainstorm session with your friends to ferret out what is your personal brand promise. Do a focus group about you. Ask other people to identify what might be your brand essence. See if you can identify or label yourself in three words. Do a self exam and combine that with what your friends say. The result may surprise and enlighten you. If you like it, use it as your Linkedin description.

5. Present yourself in Multimedia. Take your statement of brand essence and let that be your inspiration for your own Microsoft Power Point presentation. Make it as long as you need or want. Get creative, add photos and video, include web links to your content, talk about your family if it helps describe your value in life.

Take a break from the wading and waiting!

6. Spread the gospel of YOU!   Get yourself an account on www.slideshare.com. Take your Power Point presentation and convert it into an Adobe Acrobat file. Upload it to your Slide Share account and then incorporate it into your Linkedin profile. All of this content eventually will be included in search results of Google and Bing, making it easier for companies and search firms to find you and learn your value.

Bottom line is, get creative, think outside the box, think outside the bun, run it up the flagpole, drop back ten and punt, get out of your routine and take a fresh look at yourself, at others and other things.

Woody Allen is credited with saying, “80% of success is just showing up.”  But that was before the Internet and the recent rise of social media.

These days, showing up “inappropriately” on the Internet may kill your chance at a job. Academics and teachers may be at particular risk because of the responsible nature of the work and expectation of the roles.

Among college career counselors, it’s common knowledge that at least a few students have lost job offers because of “inappropriate content” on the Internet, such as photos of them drinking and disporting themselves at parties and such.

But the trend for online “data mining” seems to have stepped up considerably, according to a study done in December of 2009 by Cross-Tab, on behalf of Microsoft. Titled “Online Reputation in a Connected World,” it reports how recruiters and HR professionals use “online reputational information in their candidate review processes…”

While the sample sizes are small, involving “approximately 275 recruiters, HR professionals and hiring managers, and about 330 consumers” interviewed in each of four countries, the results are striking.

Considering only the US recruiters and HR professionals,

• 89%  have used online data mining as part of the hiring process and most consider it appropriate to consider personal data.

• 70% have used data they’ve found online to reject job candidates – despite their own concern about the authenticity of that information.

• 63%  check social media sites of candidates, but only 57% report checking applicants’ professional and business sites.

• 75% of companies surveyed now require this online screening as official hiring policy.

• 85% say they are influenced positively by strong positive online reputations of candidates, and nearly half say their hiring decisions are influenced by this to a “great extent.” (At least there’s one positive for online reputation data mining.)

The  Trend Promises to Increase

For better or worse, recruiters and HR professionals in the US, the UK, Germany and France all expect this use of online data mining for “reputational information” to increase significantly in the next five years! Thus, even if these figures are not representative of the current state of recruiting, they may well be very soon.

Information that has influenced rejections of candidates has included

• lifestyle
• poor communication skills displayed or comments/text written by the candidate
• including that criticizing previous employers
• photos, videos and information deemed inappropriate
• membership in certain groups and networks
• concern about finances

and in addition, the list includes

• inappropriate comments or text written by friends, relatives, colleagues or work acquaintances!

“Consumers” Are Not Aware

As few as 7% of US consumers surveyed believed their job search would be affected by their online reputation.

And, 19% of those surveyed think it “very appropriate” for potential employers to check their social media sites for photos and videos, versus 44% who considered it “very inappropriate.” (Note: When age is considered, 56% of the 18-24 year-olds think this is “very inappropriate.”)

This implies, of course, that most consumers are not taking steps to protect their privacy in even simple ways, and that’s not even considering the complexity of dealing with comments or text written by others about them.

While most academics have left their former peers and childish escapades behind, their Internet history may continue  “just showing up,” but NOT contribute to their success.

For an overview of the report, see http://www.microsoft.com/privacy/dpd/research.aspx.