ReputationDefender

Job hunters perfecting their resumes for that dream job are being urged to also polish their online profile — and clean it up if need be, with a new breed of companies emerging to help mold Internet images.

A study of 1,150 hiring managers by Careerbuilder.com found 26 percent of managers admitted to using search engines such as Google and 12 percent of managers said they used social networking sites like Facebook.com in their hiring process.

Those numbers may be low, but not the repercussions.

Of the 12 percent who checked social networking sites, 63 percent declined to hire an applicant based on what they found, citing lying about qualifications and criminal behavior as two of the top disqualifiers.

For $10 a month, ReputationDefender.com will search your name everywhere — even “beyond Google” — including password-protected sites, and give a report of their findings.

For about $30 a month, clients can have them do a clean-up, which involves ensuring all links to, for example, a college kegstand on Facebook.com or a disparaging blog entry from a former partner, will not appear during an online search.

“More than half of my clients use us just to search and don’t even ask us to clean anything up,” the company’s chief executive and founder Michael Fertik.

While ReputationDefender.com caters to individuals not employers, DefendMyName.com services both camps.

The two-year-old Portland, Maine-based company, a division of QED Media Group LLC, will conduct an online clean-up for any size client, from individuals to large corporations. Some clients are companies seeking positive brand image online.

Using proprietary technology, company founder Rob Russo said DefendMyName creates links to promotional sites and blogs on clients in order to bury negative search engine results.
More at:http://www.reputationdefender.com/
Source:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20143819/