My friend and colleague Meg Guiseppi just posted a great article here on Google Alerts. She provided great advice, which you should follow.

I’d like to add my two cents to this discussion, since Google Alerts are also a favorite tool for me. Here’s my twist: use the Alerts to write about specific target companies. You see, most companies also run Google Alerts on their company name and on their product names (and competitors’, too).

This is a great way to get a job! Write about your target companies. Use Google Alerts and blog searches to do your research first. Then write something important about the company. If you don’t hear from them the first time you do this, keep writing about them. Eventually, they’ll notice and contact you.

You’ve probably heard about companies that offer a public face on Twitter. Comcast is famous for @ComcastCares. Bank of America has a similar service I’ve used – with incredible results. You may even have tried some of these online communication channels without ever thinking about using them to get visible to your target companies.

Here’s an example: I had a target company in my area. It’s a company that offers a wide range of cloud-based software solutions. I watched this company for a long time, and read about them extensively in blogs. (If you want to read about how you can use Google Reader for this type of research, see my articles here.)

I like to research companies before I approach them. I do that before interviews, and before pitching consulting or business deals. I even do it before cold-call sales calls. The objective is to find some common topic that you, the caller or emailer, have with your intended target. My favorite tactic is to research companies deeply before interviews so I can propose some solutions for the company I’m interviewing with.  But what if you never get that invitation?

That’s where your own publishing efforts can change the probability of success. When I wrote about the company I targeted, I also wrote about their founder, a man I really respect on many levels. I mentioned him (along with a short review of one of their products), and the next day, I had an email from the founder of the company. (In this case, I actually had no ulterior motive – I had already decided I wouldn’t pursue a personal relationship with the company.)

This isn’t the only time this has happened to me – and there’s really no magic here. Even if you’re just starting your career, you can do precisely the same thing. Remember to pick your target carefully. Research them thoroughly before you open your mouth. Write convincingly and meaningfully. Keep doing it until it works.

And yes, be prepared for them to contact you! Be sure to have something compelling to tell the person who calls you or emails you.

(Here’s a great telephone technique: if you receive a call from a headhunter or hiring manager, ask if you can call back in just a minute – say you have somebody on hold on your other line. There’s a slight, but important, advantage to the caller, and it also gives you a minute to get your thoughts together.)

And while you’re at it, make sure to do Google Alerts on your own name (unless it’s a very common name), because that’s a good way to get some objective measure of how much the world is talking about you.

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Your personal brand is an important part of your job search. Reputations can make or break opportunities for new position, new clients or contracts for your company. Here are five practical ways to manage your online brand:

1. Set up a Google alert. These can be set up easily on Google and will alert you by email to any websites that list your name or other keywords that people associate with your brand. Consider setting up Google alerts for misspellings of your name, your company’s or your competition. See Meg Guiseppi’s great article on Google alerts.

2. Secure your brand. Open up accounts on social media platforms you are not currently a member of even if you do not intend to use them. This allows you to control your name, your brand, and keep those from cybersquatting. This also includes setting up a gmail account to secure your name.

3. Create value. Develop and execute your product or service and differentiation strategy.  It’s important to give in order to receive.  Create value in what you by helping others and become a source for whatever it is you have an interest in.

4. Be bold. Don’t be afraid to get a little crazy, within reason of course. People remember those that take what I call “calculated risks.” These are risks that are thought out but present the opportunity for failure. People remember people that take chances and – people who learn from those opportunities – both successes and failures.

5. Be passionate and be found. Love and live what you do and let your online brand show for it. I promote my website and my brand, Blogging4Jobs and Xceptional HR wherever I go both online and offline. Do the same for your name, your brand, and you.  Take every opportunity to meet & network, cross post on websites, and be genuine about what motivates you.  Don’t hold back sharing your message and passion with others.

Photo Credit Think Big Revolution.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is an author, new mother, and human resources professional with a passion for recruiting and all things social media.  She has over 10 years of experience in human resources & recruiting.

Her company, Xceptional HR provides businesses with social media, recruitment, and human resources strategy and consulting.   Jessica’s book, Tweet This! Twitter for Business will be released in February 2010.  Follow Jessica on Twitter, LinkedIn, & FaceBook.

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Managing  your online reputation is becoming increasingly more important these days.  The relevance of the traditional paper résumé is fading and prospective employees are more than ever graded by their online reputation. You might also know someone who was fired or was never really considered to be a good job candidate because of his or her online persona.  So what do you have to do in order to maintain a healthy online reputation that impresses potential employers and not cause their repudiation?  How can you successfully manage an impressionable online reputation from both professional and user-generated content without curbing your web presence?

1. Take advantage of online reputation management services (ORM).

Use Google alerts. This is one of the easiest tools for tracking a particular topic, enabling anyone to stay up to date with a particular word or phrase.  You may want to know when your search phrase is activated in Google’s search index.  This is an easy way to track down what people are saying about you or your company.  Of course, there are subscription-based services that also help to do this like Brandseye, but Google Alerts does it as effectively without posting any fees.  Take advantage of this free and powerful tool.

2. Control the message by participating in social media sites.

Once you start tracking certain phrases that have appeared in Google’s index pages, you may find certain information that you would rather not have appear in the search results.  Social media sites are optimized to be retrieved and viewed by search engines, so participating in them is a simple way to boost your online visibility.  By being an active member and emphasizing key phrases onto the six mainstream social media sites (Flickr, YouTube, Digg, Twitter, Facebook, and Wikipedia), search engines will generate valuable positive pages that are traced to your name.  These key phrases can be anything that you want to be linked with your name, perhaps your company name or an award you won.

3. Think twice when deciding to use your real name as your username.

An easy way to avoid potential employers searching your name and finding objectionable content is to simply be smart when choosing your username.  For sites where your words and opinions may be used against you, like some of the gawker or debate sites, sticking to a made-up online username or alias may be the difference in getting a job or not.  Occasionally, perform spot checks with Google to make sure your “clean” name doesn’t reference your online mask.

Another approach is to always use your full name whenever possible, maximizing your online presence.  By doing this, however, every sentence you write on the internet becomes much more accountable to your reputation.  If you plan to use this method, you should have the ability to resist the occasional urge to participate in the juvenile flame wars. Of course, silly things can still be said, but just think twice before posting content that others may view as objectionable. Although this approach may strip down some of your wilder and carefree behavior that the online environment tends to nurture, it’s always a good approach to take care of what you say as much online as you do in real life.

4. Don’t let your social networking sites hibernate.

Stay active.  Many people make the ironic mistake of joining a social networking site and not stay connected.  A stagnated profile can quickly backfire if you don’t keep up to date with messages, request, and stay active.  A rusty profile can effectively stifle your chances of improving your online reputation.  Keep your followers engaged; stay in the minds of your clients, bosses, and employees by not just participating in social networking, but being proactive in the site activities.

5. “Drown out” any bad content with good ones.

“Drown out” the negative content by creating positive ones and having Google pick them.  You can accomplish this by creating subdomains and active blogs.  Google especially likes to pick up sub-domains under their property (such as Google Video).   Thus, signing up for these may push any hurtful content further down on their results list, effectively reducing its visibility.

Managing a personal blog is also a very effective way, though self-arranged, to boost positive online reputation.  A well maintained blog can regularly draw job offers, you’ll be surprised.  The higher it indexes on Google’s search results page, the more free exposure you get. Maximizing the appearances of positive online references can help you get there.

Yofred an industrial and interaction design major that likes to keep up to date with contemporary technology and media trends.  He enjoy staying connected with the always-changing “wired” culture and is obsessively willing to participate in and interpret the new ideas that emerge from the internet.

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