Posts Tagged ‘reputation management’

While many companies pay attention to their online reputation – what comes up when people search for the company by name – they often fail to check out the online reputation of their employees. I know that some may feel that is an invasion of privacy, but in this day and age where people want to know who they are doing business with, it is not uncommon to “Google” someone to find out more about them.

Recently I did a Google search to find out about a prospective business partner, and what I found could potentially get the employee fired, and certainly would have precluded me from hiring them. I am not going to link to it for sensational value, or even get involved, but lets just say in short order I now know what this persons (should I dare use the word romantic?) desires are in graphic detail. I don’t think I could talk to this person without thinking about what I read on their MySpace page. Or even worse, what if it wasn’t really them? Perhaps it was just someone with the same name? Either way it’s an online reputation management concern.

Anyhow, I understand that everyone has a right to live life however they want to, but in the professional world, employees need to realize that having certain personal information can reflect negatively on them in the work place – especially if they mention their employer in the same venue.

So my question to you is “what do people find when they Google you?” I recommend trying it yourself and if you don’t like what you see, you might need to invest some time (or money) into getting it fixed through online reputation management.