University Helps Students Clean Up Digital Dirt

ABC News on Campus reporter Danielle Waugh blogs: Could your Facebook picture be as important as your resume? Increasingly, job recruiters finish reading a cover letter and turn to Google, Facebook, and Twitter to form opinions on applicants and dig up digital dirt. As the Facebook generation continues to graduate and enter the work force, Syracuse University has decided to do something about their students’ online presence. When the SU class of 2010 graduated, they left campus with one extra tool: a free account on Brand-Yourself.com – and the university is footing the bill. Brand-Yourself.com (pictured above), created and run by four SU alumni, is an online reputation management company that builds positive web content and relevant Google search results for their clients. An account normally runs $25 per month. There are similar Web sites out there, but the one that is perhaps most well-known, ReputationDefender.com, does not include a way for clients to build and manage personal Web sites. Instead, it offers an online image service called My Edge for a minimum of $99 a year. Recent SU graduates can use their Brand-Yourself account to build a personal Web site, monitor Google search results for their name, and build positive content on the web while burying the negative or irrelevant search results. Brand-Yourself also educates clients about the Google algorithm, which ranks relevant content in search results.  By learning how to use social networks and outside linkage, clients can boost positive content higher on the search engine list. On April 28, SU purchased 4,100 Brand-Yourself six-month licenses for the class of 2010.  Bruce Kingma, Associate Provost for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at SU drafted the contract with Brand-Yourself. “I sort of kicked myself for thinking of it so late,” Kingma said. “I should have thought of this so long ago. This is really what we want for our graduates.” Since then, Brand-Yourself reported that other universities have approached them about creating similar contracts for their students. Due to ongoing negotiations, the company could not release the names of the universities. Mike Cahill, Director of the SU Career Services said the partnership with Brand-Yourself reflects the way the Internet is changing the job hunt. “I’ve spoken with employers who have had interest in students, gone online, and then lost their interest based on what they’ve seen.” Brand-Yourself not only encourages their clients to remove questionable Facebook pictures or Tweets, but also teaches them how to enhance their online reputation, or personal brand. After four years of studying and networking in college, one picture from last night’s frat party could stand in the way of getting an interview in an already tough job market. Cross-Tab, a market research service, found in a January study that 75 percent of recruiters and human resource professionals said their companies require their hiring staff to screen applicants online. Forty-three percent of recruiters have eliminated a candidate based on Internet content according to a 2007 study by ExecuNet, a network for executives and recruiters. Sue Edelstein, a job recruiter from the Edelstein Group, said Google searching isn’t her “first line of defense” but will use Internet screening when she’s narrowing applicants down. “I know I’ve found something that I’ve searched and thought, ‘Oh man, I’m not going after that person,’” Edelstein said. “If a [recruiter] has a feeling that something isn’t right, that’s a real red flag and chances are, you’re not going to get that job.”