Microsoft released a study in January that showed 70% of HR recruiters in the U.S. use online profiles and social networks to determine employment, while only 7% of U.S. consumers thought this was true. This discrepancy is significant -- and points to the clear fact that in order to be successful job seekers have to recognize the importance of their online reputations and the impact this information can have on their careers.
I came across a great service that was
developed expressly for this purpose. ReputationDefender
helps people take control of their identities
and reputations online. The service scours the deep web recursively to
ensure you
know
not only what is being said about you online, but who is saying it. If
it finds
content you deem to be false or negative, or perhaps just irrelevant,
Reputation Defender can
help you make it become less prominent in searches, and in some cases,
disappear. The service protects your privacy by removing personally
identifiable
information from databases that sell your information.
I thought ReputationDefender would be great for organizations but prohibitively expensive for individuals, but the packages actually start at just $9.99/month. And no, I'm not a spokesperson for the company. I just think it's useful and cool and am thinking about signing up myself. Seems a lot more thorough then doing my periodic Google scans.
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