The concept of Online Reputation Management has been working its way lately into the mainstream media. That’s no surprise though, now that studies are showing the significant impact of ORM efforts. The New York Times and eMarketer.com both recently wrote about a study conducted by Harris Interactive for Careerbuilder.com puts hard numbers behind what a lot of us already suspected:

• 45 percent of employers questioned are using social networks to screen job candidates — more than double from a year earlier

• Respondents were most likely to use search engines such as Yahoo! or Google to check out job candidates online (41%), followed by Facebook (29%) and LinkedIn (26%).

• The findings were more likely to get candidates rejected than hired: 35% of HR professionals said social networking content had caused them to eliminate a candidate, while only 18% reported deciding to employ someone based on a profile.

• On the other side of the coin, HR professionals also reported hiring a candidate because a profile page gave them a positive look into the individual’s personality, or because the profile was professional, creative or showed off the candidate’s skills.

from emarketer.com

…and we can see where this is all heading. The internet is becoming, and in many ways already is, THE go-to source for gauging a person’s reputation. I would really like to see more studies on the effect of social media and search engine results on aspects of businesses other than simply hiring. I’m sure many of us know from experience that we Google people’s names for many other purposes – finding a doctor, checking on a real estate agent, researching a potential business partner, and more. As part of our searchEGO service we actually track the effectiveness of social media for our clients. Some have agreed to be case studies and we will be sharing our findings in the future. Stay tuned!