More and more when a recruiter or hiring manager receives your resume, one of the first things he or she may do is turn to the web to do more research about you. The ease with which anyone can post anything online–on a social media site, forum or blog–can leave job candidates vulnerable to negative information about them that they didn’t even know was posted, but that could derail their chances for winning the position.

Effectively managing your online reputation requires you to do two things: be aware of what others are saying about you online, and be proactive in building your own mountain of evidence in your favor about who you really are and what you really know.

Here are 6 critical tasks all job candidates must do to manage and enhance their online reputations:

1) Do a Google search on your name to find out what is already out there on the web about you. You may be surprised to see yourself already mentioned on forums and/or social media sites. If you find anything objectionable that was posted by a friend, ask them nicely to remove it. For negative postings by others, it’s often better to ignore it. You’ll draw more attention to the issue and give your critic credibility by responding directly to the comments, even to correct the facts.

2) Sign up for a Google Alert with your name as the search term. You’ll get an email whenever your name comes up in news, websites, blogs, etc. indexed by Google. It’s easy to set up at Google.com/alerts.

3) Clean up your own online profiles. Take an objective look at all the photos, videos and text postings you’ve made on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, etc., and remove anything that could be embarrassing to you if taken out of context. In addition to incriminating pictures, any curse words, poor grammar and heavy slang should also be removed.

4) Start a blog in your area of expertise. Don’t treat this as a vanity vehicle to talk about your accomplishments, but rather think of it as your own online column where you can comment about items in the news and within your industry. Search engines love blogs and so do other bloggers, who might choose to link to your posts. Any Google searches on your name will be stacked in your favor with valuable content spread throughout the worldwide web, subordinating any negative material posted about you.

5) Visit popular blogs in your industry or specialty and leave insightful comments. Again, because search engines love blogs, you can add more positive fuel to the fire with your own content.

6) Don’t engage in trash talk. Any short-term satisfaction you may get from speaking your mind to criticize someone online and even "winning" an online argument will be greatly offset by the havoc the other party could wreak on your online reputation going forward. It’s always best to take the high road.

By taking responsibility early and being proactive with managing your online reputation, you can ensure that when recruiters go searching online for information about you, whatever they find will ultimately help your candidacy, not sabotage it.

Liz Lynch is author of "Smart Networking: Attract a Following In Person and Online" (McGraw-Hill, 2008). A top networking strategist, she’s appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, as well as on ABC News, Fox Business News, CNBC.com and Businessweek.com. Liz holds an engineering degree from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Stanford University, and worked for some of the top companies in their fileds–Goldman Sachs, Disney, Time Warner–before becoming an entrepreneur. To learn how to PROPERLY leverage your connections to get your next job FAST, visit http://www.SmartNetworkingBook.com To learn more about Liz and her company, the Center for Networking Excellence, visit http://www.NetworkingExcellence.com

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