Your Digital Reputation Online...Ignore it at your peril!

Traditionally it is accepted that Interim Management Agencies provide up to approximately 50% of assignments to the average Interim Manager, however the other 50% will usually come through the Interim Manager's own network of contacts and referrals. Managing your reputation online is critical in a world that at the onset of a problem just 'Googles it'. We probably don't realise how frequently each and every one of us is being checked out online on a daily basis by someone else!

Social networking is very much in fashion - three of the top ten sites on the internet fall into this category. It is sucking in hundreds of millions of users and it is a highly successful niche of this the professional networking sites have come a very long way from the fist site of its kind, the successful e-cademy site launched in the early dot com days. 'Linked In' has now passed the '1 Millionth Member' in the UK and has over 14 million members world-wide.

Managing your personal brand is critical and increasingly, if you are 'Googled' and information cannot be found about you, questions might be asked about your credibility.

Online Search Statistics:

• 83% of recruiters have used search engines to research candidates (up from 77% in 2006 and 75% in 2005)
• 43% of recruiters have eliminated candidates based on their findings (up from 35% in 2006 and 26% in 2005)

The awareness-action disconnect: although 76% of senior executives expect to be Googled, 22% haven't done a baseline search on their own name. This is particularly odd given a related statistic: 11% of executives fear that their online identity could impact their viability as a job candidate. Worryingly, approximately 40% of information posted by users about themselves is allegedly false!

Proactively managing your online brand should be a critical action item, regardless of rank, technical expertise or search status. You would be a fool now to ignore the emerging power of these professional sites.

So one easy way of ensuring your online presence is to tap into the power of professional networks to enhance your brand and further your career. LinkedIn is the most prominent at present, but others like Xing or Viadeo continue to expand.

Looking into my crystal ball what does the future hold for networking sites? Allegedly we have Microsoft taking an interest in Facebook, can you imagine how powerful Facebook would be if it was integrated into a Vista SP update, Windows would become a default de facto networking platform, rendering all other networking sites redundant due to the user critical mass..wow!

The bottom line is do not get left behind. In addition to our register of competency based assessed, interviewed and referenced Interim Managers my colleagues and I increasingly use these sites to research, identify and make contact with prospective candidates for roles. Ensure you have clear and concise but informative data that enables you to be identified by us and then, that dream Interim Management role may just come your way!

Thank you to ExecuNet, Inc USA for the origination of some of the content /statistics quoted in this blog