When it comes to online reputation management, no news is good news, and many recent college graduates and job seekers are finding this out the hard way. Thanks to the vast array of social networking sites now available, companies are able to dredge up information and even pictures of events that have long been forgotten by those involved. Even pictures taken and tagged by someone else can come back to haunt an unwary graduate or corporate climber, as evidence of private events that were never meant for public consumption are suddenly first-page results in popular search engines.

It is estimated that over 75% of companies now do an online search of potential applicants, even before an interview is offered, and this is where online reputation management can prove most useful. Two similarly-equipped competitors can easily be divided into "offer" and "reject" categories simply based on a quick search of their name. In many cases, those who have been queried are not even aware of their online reputation, let alone understand how this kind of damage can be mitigated.

As always, however, with new technologies come new solutions. A growing market dedicated to online reputation management has sprung up, offering ways to help push unwanted and now-public information to the bottom of search engine results. Although at first blush this seems to be a nebulous concept, numerous hard and fast examples exist. Take bike-lock maker Kryptonite. In 2004, an online forum post gave detailed instructions on how to open a particular lock using nothing but a ballpoint pen. When the dust settled, over 400,000 locks were replaced for free, and the company had to re-design its entire lock series.

Negative online publicity crippled the business for several years, but this effect could largely have been negated had a reputable online reputation management company been available. Through a combination of submitted pages with positive information to search engines, in addition to contacting individuals or companies that have posted negative or fraudulent information, online reputation management companies attempt to de-rank negative content and replace it with either positive information or silence.

Having grown up in a world where information about everyone is everywhere, many young people and college graduates are simply unaware of how their online reputation can affect their future. Syracuse University in New York recently gave an entire graduating class - all 4000 of them - a six-month subscription to an online reputation management company in an effort to increase their chances of a successful job search. In addition to online reputation management services, companies like www.videoresumeservices.com also offer video resume services to help college graduates get the edge in the business world.