| The Internet can be a very unforgiving medium. A | | | | latter is ask, and hope they will oblige. In addition, be |
| photo of you taken at a college fraternity party, which | | | | mindful of status updates, groups or fan pages you |
| you posted on MySpace at the age of 21, could still be | | | | associate with, and even details such as what |
| indexed in some of dark reaches of the Internet, even | | | | username or handle you choose, especially if it is |
| years after you deleted both the picture and your | | | | associated with your primary email address and full |
| MySpace account. Perhaps you made an errant blog | | | | name. |
| post at 2am one night after a long evening of partying | | | | Build Positive Outlets |
| that you wouldn't want to admit to writing. | | | | So, that alcohol-induced blog post is #2 in Google |
| Unfortunately for you, even though it was deleted | | | | when you search for "John Doe Chicago", just under |
| when you regained your mobility the next day, that | | | | your LinkedIn profile? Well, since it has been deleted, |
| blog post may very well already be a part of the public | | | | you've accomplished step 1; now, you need to push |
| domain. | | | | that blog post down until it is off of the first page. |
| Whatever the specific case, we all have digital | | | | The best way to do this when you are not the "host" |
| moments we would rather soon forget. Because of | | | | of the content (i.e. a Facebook page) is to create |
| this, reputation management in the online space has | | | | content that will be more relevant to that particular |
| become a major issue as of late. Even for the novice | | | | search, and therefore, will help move the disgraced |
| social networking user, there are ways to both protect | | | | blog post down the list. Some methods of going about |
| and correct your online reputation from negative | | | | this are through other popular social networking sites, |
| connotations. | | | | your own blog or website, or by writing articles such |
| Manage Your Social Network | | | | as this for sites such as this one. This isn't something |
| Many of us have fallen into the trap of accepting any | | | | you can expect to take effect overnight; but, is a |
| Friend Request that comes our way. This is great for | | | | meaningful solution to ridding the search engines of |
| those select few who have absolutely no photos or | | | | undesirable content. |
| anecdotes that they wouldn't want the entire Internet | | | | Hire a Reputation Management Firm |
| to be privy to. For the 99.9% of the rest of the world, | | | | Since reputation management has become such a hot |
| however, it is important to keep your social network in | | | | issue, an industry was bound to blossom up around it. |
| check. | | | | There are companies that will assist you in delivering |
| Managing your social network includes removing | | | | positive content to various networks in order to push |
| anything from your own pages that you wouldn't want | | | | past indiscretions out of the top results on the major |
| to expose to the world, but also asking your friends or | | | | engines. While more costly than the DIY approach, |
| connections to do the same. Unfortunately, since you | | | | hiring a reputation management firm typically can help |
| do not directly control what they include within their | | | | you see results in a shorter time frame, which can be |
| own profiles, the best you can do in the case of the | | | | important to you if a new job is in your near future. |