Online Reputation Could Cost You More Than You Think

Online privacy is something many are concerned about. While most people never stop to think or even imagine that there could be something negative about them online, the truth is that nowadays most information is easy to obtain and could easily affect your business and social life in a negative way.

Have you ever performed an online search of your name? Interested to see what the results are? You may not be the only person interested in this type of information. Potential employers can type someone’s name into popular search engines like Google and Yahoo to see if any dirt comes back on them. They can also use this information against you in interviews or job selection.

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard of someone’s family life or career being ruined because of questionable information being disclosed about them on the Internet. Don’t become a victim and make sure you maintain a clean reputation.

Here are some tips:

Use Google Alerts or Technorati Services - Both have a monitoring service that will alert you online and in real-time when your search criteria is met. You will be sent an email alerting you that someone has written something about you.

Board Tracker - Tracks discussion forums and blogs. This service allows you to see what people are posting or discussing about you in online forums and blogs.

You can also start your own Blog to try and correct some negative information or even to rank this positive information higher in the SERPs than the negative information.

If any of you have any additional tips - I’d love to hear them!

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March 15, 2008 | Filed Under Random Musings