Protecting And Nurturing Your Online Reputation

Online reputation is important whether you're an invididual or a company, as stories about job candidates being outed as scoundrels by their Facebook pages and companies failing to take corrective action when they're dissed online make clear.

"We've all heard the stories of Joe, a job candidate who was a shoo-in to get that great job until the hiring manager decided to take a look at the candidate's Facebook page. Suddenly some photos of a wild party and comments that his hobby is getting wasted every weekend scuttled Joe's prospects. Joe doesn't get the job and has no clue about why he seems to be so unlucky.

Our online reputation matters. We know this anecdotally, from what we've seen and done as hiring managers, and now there is some data to support this. In January Microsoft ( MSFT - news - people )published survey results of how our online reputations affect our job prospects. Three-quarters of U.S. survey respondents said their companies have formal policies that require hiring personnel to research applicants online; 70% of hiring personnel rejected candidates based on data found online."