In December of 2009, as part of Microsoft Data Privacy Day, research commissioned by Microsoft found that 79 percent of United States hiring managers and job recruiters review online information about job applicants.  Interviews with over 1,200 hiring and recruitment managers and 1,200 consumers lead to the publication of Online Reputation in a Connected World and revealed some sobering statistics/facts.

• 70% of professionals surveyed have rejected candidates based on information they found online.
• 85% say that positive online reputation influences their hiring decision to some extent, while nearly half say that a strong online reputation influences their decisions to a great extent.
• 30-35% of consumers surveyed don’t feel their online reputation affects their professional life and take no steps in managing their online reputation.

Potential employers are looking at your SMCS (online reputation) and the only way to make sure that it doesn’t work against you is to make sure that it works for you.

What Now?

If you have made it this far, two things are certain.  One, you understand the impact and potential danger of a bad SMCS.  Two, you are willing to do something about it.  So what do you do now?  Until recently, there was no information on managing your online reputation.  Now different ideas are surfacing and you (the trailblazers in this new land) will have to research, research, research!  Luckily, we have some ideas to help you get started:

1. Read the report Online Reputation in a Connected World – this will help familiarize you with what employers are looking at.
2. Read Microsoft’s article Take Charge of Your Online Reputation
3. Read the JumpstartMyPC.com article Social Media Credit Score Tools and Tricks
4. Do a little research on your own, using Google and/or other search engines. – see what’s new in online reputation management.
5. Develop a game plan of how you are going to “clean up” you SMCS and/or prevent future issues.
6. Start creating your own positive online identity in a blog or personal web site.

What Next?

Managing your Social Media Credit Score or online reputation is not a one-time process.  You will need to continually review the web for changes and recent posts.  As the internet changes and more social tools come into play, the importance of monitoring your rep will increase.

“Listing all those empty homes out there” is the tagline for PleaseRobMe.com and categories like “Recent Empty Homes” are used to demonstrate the dangers of location-aware services.  Location-aware services is a broad term that basically means any software, device or site that allows you to share your current geographical location with others.  There are a lot of advantages to sharing your location (mostly social) but users should understand the dangers associated with broadcasting your whereabouts.  Mainly, telling people you are at point X means you are not at home, thus making your home a target for thieves.

Why Would Anyone Broadcast Their Location?

It might be hard for some people to understand why anyone would do this, but the world has embraced location-aware technologies and we find new uses for it every day.  Here are a few examples of sites and services that make location-aware fun and useful:

• Twitter – There are some services that add a users location to every tweet they send out.  Some users simply include their location as part of their standard message.
  BENEFIT: You might have friends in the same area that want to meet up for a meal or a drink.  While on vacation or on a business trip in a strange city you might get some recommendations from others on where to go and what to do.

• Foursquare -  A separate application for almost any smartphone, this service allows users to “check in” when they arrive at a cafe, bar, restaurant, park, etc.  They have even made a game out of your destinations where you can earn badges for “discovering new places or taveling to far away places.”
  BENEFIT: Find out what your friends are up to, what places everyone is frequenting and get reviews on just about anything before you try it.

• Latitude – This smartphone app tracks your location and shares it on a map for friends and family to see.
  BENEFIT: Keep track of family.  You can even use the service to make sure your kids aren’t wandering off too far.  And, like the other services, you can meet up with friends who happen to be in the same area.

• Facebook/Buzz – Although Facebook and Google Buzz aren’t real-time location trackers, they do provide users with a way to broadcast their plans.  You can tell your friends where you are about to go on vacation or where your date is taking you for dinner.  Mobile apps make it possible to update both of these services as often as you would like.
  BENEFIT: Sharing is fun and suggestions from friends and family are where we find out about the best restaurants and places to visit.

What People Are Doing Wrong

The services listed above can be just as dangerous as they are helpful.  People who aren’t aware of these cyber-stalkers (those looking for your location information) don’t know they are setting themselves up for trouble.  We’ve mentioned the dangers in previous articles, like Who Sees Your Social Media Credit Score and Why, but only grazed the surface of the issue.

• Twitter – Most people think that only their followers read their tweets, but that is not the case.  A quick search at search.twitter.com, with the proper keywords, can provide criminals with just enough information to get started.

Who is "going on vacation tomorrow?"

• Foursquare – Twitter posts by Foursquare users contain “4sq.com” links and are easily tracked.  Letting everyone know you “checked in” at location X means you are not at home and this is exactly what PleaseRobMe.com is exposing (in order to educate users).

Recent Empty Homes on PleaseRobMe.com

• Latitude - A “friend” or someone with a little computer know-how could potentially use latitude to track you.  Not much need for explanation here.

Google Latitude Shows Right Where You Are

• Facebook/Buzz – Do you really look at who you approve as a friend on Facebook or Buzz?  Is your information really “private” or are there ways around that.  Do you have “friends” that you don’t know so well?  Maybe posting your vacation plans is not the best move.

Posting a comment or a picture from your smartphone?

PleaseRobMe.com is not out to harm anyone, but is helping to raise awareness.  Hopefully you will change your habits just enough to prevent potential dangers.  You should also take the time to Google your user names and id’s.  Make sure that someone can’t research your Twitter user name to find your home address or phone number.  That simple link could be enough to bring a thief closer to your valuables.

Computers have really changed since the days of the apple IIe.  No longer are they giant beige boxes with floppy disc drives.  Today, computers come in all shapes and sizes and it seems like you can’t turn on a device without connecting it to the internet.  Phones, cameras and even game systems make it possible for anyone with the ability to punch a button to post material to sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, Flickr…. the list goes on and on.  Yet, there are no warnings of the potential dangers associated with your behavior behind that keyboard and mouse.  So how do we educate the children and teens of today to prepare themselves for the world ahead?

Education is key!  This slogan is used for every movement under the sun, from drug use to sexually transmitted diseases.  Why, because it is true and it helps.  So how do we educate and inform?  My opinion is that we use the very medium in question (social networking) to convey the message.  Kids are drawn to televisions and computers.  Just look at Sesame Street, which has been a great educational tool for decades.  So how about a video?

One of my very favorite companies is CommonCraft.  They design educational videos for just about any topic in the world, but seem to focus on computers, software and technology.  According to their motto their “product is explanation” and they do a fantastic job as just that.  They explain things in using short, easy to understand videos and it just so happens that they have a video titled “Protecting Reputations Online in Plain English.”   The video is only available from their web site currently, but we have provided the link below:

http://www.commoncraft.com/protecting-reputations-video

“Aimed at young or inexperienced Web users, this video explains the long term risks of sharing inappropriate information online.”  The video is not free for distribution, but CommonCraft does offer licensing options for individuals and sites.  Wouldn’t this make a great tool for a classroom?

Although this movement was originated in Europe, and now encompasses 500 events in 60 countries all over the world, it doesn’t seem to have caught on in the US. I’m not sure why, but I know that this is something we definitely need to start teaching our children, teens and well…. everyone.  New technologies, like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, cell phone cameras, Flip video cameras, etc. have turned us all into publishers of information.  Thanks to these technologies, a photo or video can be taken, posted and shared to hundreds, even thousands of people, in minutes.  More recent technologies, like “tagging,” make it even easier to find and share photos of friends and family.

As we mentioned in our Social Media Credit Score articles, these photos and videos might remain posted for the duration of one’s life.  How will this media affect the life of a young man or woman as they attend college, search for a job/career, date, etc?  Could a photo or video, taken by a friend at a party, have an impact on a young man years later?  Just look at the lives of those who have already been affected, like Michael Phelps.  He lost the respect of others, endorsements, time, and millions of dollars because of one photo.

Tips

• Use the privacy settings offered by social networking services!

• Select friends online that you can trust!

• Publish your own photos after thinking carefully about the potential consequences!

• Don’t publish pictures of your friends without their permission!

Resources

Official Web Site of Safer Internet Day 2010

List of all events planned across the world (PDF) – sadly, there were no events in the US mentioned

Use this article, and the rest of the day, to make friends and family aware of this great movement.  Share the information on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or in any other venue that you think it might be helpful.  Together, we can educate those who are not aware of the consequences of their actions.

Where Are Our Flying Cars?

Over the course of the week, we have provided you with some valuable information on the concept of a Social Media Credit Score (SMCS).  Our four previous articles, all available on JumpstartMyPC.com’s blog, outlined the following areas of this idea:

Social Media Credit Score Definition

Social Media Credit Score Formula

Who Sees Your Social Media Credit Score and Why

Social Media Credit Score Tools and Tricks

Our overall goal with this series has been to educate and inform.  The SMCS is a concept that people are currently using, in small parts, without knowing that they are doing so.  In time, this concept will most likely evolve into a tangible “thing”, whether that be a real-time score, a research site or a combination of the two.

Internet based social media has not been around for long (relatively) and has only begun to flourish as an idea and business.  Facebook and Twitter both became profitable companies this year, for the first time, and might one day go public.  With an entire world developing on the internet, it is only a matter of time before those who live in that world begin to form a structure much like that of the “real world.”  There are already laws and legal precedents, governing bodies and criminals.  You can shop, visit, educate, consult a doctor and vote.  So why not check your social credit?

As the internet develops, I believe that the SMCS will become a necessity and there are several areas that will dictate that need:

• Storage – Hard drives, servers and jump drives will soon become a thing of the past (at least compared to how we see them now).  When memory becomes so inexpensive and accessible that it is not a concern, every piece of information that has ever been written, recorded or drawn will be accessible by everyone.  As we pointed out earlier in the week, this means that your posts, entries and updates will become as accessible as a library book.
• Accessibility – We already have the internet on our computers, cell phones and e-readers.  New concepts are being released as we speak (CES – the Consumer Electronics Show is under way) that demonstrate the advancements in projectors, wireless internet, and computer components that grow smaller and smaller every day.  I can see a watch or glasses that will make the internet available to you non-stop, 24 hours a day in our near future.  You could then theoretically see and hear anything that anyone is doing at any given second or in the past.
• Software Developments – Facial recognition and voice analysis are simply tools of the Hollywood screenwriter, right?  These tools are available today and advancements in the technology will one day make them as accessible as air.  What if every picture, video and recording were to be analyzed, tagged and posted to the web?  Pictures of you, that you didn’t even remember someone taking (or didn’t know were taken), could surface and prove as a reflection on your character.
• Commerce – We mentioned before that credit agencies and companies might one day use your SMCS to calculate your financial credit score.  As more and more shopping moves online and our money turns from 1’s and 5’s to 1’s and 0’s (physical to digital), it will become increasingly important to calculate the risk of an individual.  Identity Theft is already a hot-topic and one of the fastest growing crimes in the country.  The more information that becomes available on you as an individual, the easier it will be for criminals to obtain the information they need.
• Legal – The government and legal system finally seems to be catching up with the technological age.  Your public information has always been available to law enforcement and private information just a warrant away.  If a SMCS were to become reality, would it serve as a character witness in court?  Could your actions as a young adult influence a custody hearing later on in life?  A quick Google search revealed that, as early as 2007, Facebook pictures were a deciding factor in a court case that sent a young lady to jail for 5 years and 4 months.  Read that article HERE.
• Medicine – I will admit that this is a stretch, but what if your worth as a person were to influence the decision to save your life?  If a plague were to cover the earth and a vaccine made available to only a limited few, who would be chosen to receive this life-saving drug?  Could a SMCS be the deciding factor?  It sounds like something out of a movie and I know that at least a few people are rolling their eyes at this point, but WHAT IF?

Again, the entire concept and reason for these articles this week is merely to educate and inform.  Your information is out there, whether you posted it or not.  As things develop, this information will become more accessible and begin to reflect who you are and what you have done.  You can being to shape this information by becoming aware of what is out there and how it can affect you.  So the next time you post a picture, update your status or comment on someone’s post you should think twice before hitting that submit button.  The world might be watching.

In our article What is the Social Media Credit Score Formula we outlined the areas of the internet that make up the majority of what is currently defined as social media.  While social media continues to grow and change, so will the areas that you need to keep an eye on.  We’ll start you off with some tools for each site/area, but it will be up to you to add to your toolbox as time goes on.

Tools By Site/Area

• Google – The largest and most encompassing area of the internet is the search engine category.  While there are others to choose from, none is as large or popular as Google.
  • Search – Start with a simple search of your name, email address, phone number and physical address. (one at a time)
  • Social Search – Enable the Google Social Search feature to see results from social media sites as well.  This is still “experimental” but will soon be a standard part of the Google search results.
  • Saved Searches – Create and save a Google Search of your name and receive an email notification each time your name is mentioned on the web.  This search won’t capture everything, but it will search constantly, so you won’t have to remember to run the search yourself.
• Facebook – Facebook now has over 325 million users (I was recently made aware of this number) and is growing rapidly.  What better way for others to research you?
  • Posts By Friends – A search for your name (while in Facebook) will return any instance of your name in a friend’s post.
  • Status Statistics (application) – This tool will report how often you (or anyone you know) post, where you post from, the words you use most, etc.
  • Experience Score (application) – Similar to Status Statistics, but you are given a score.  I’m not sure what the score represents exactly, but you can compare yours with friends.
• MySpace – Still a strong contender in the Social Networking world, MySpace has been around longer than Facebook and allows more freedom to users.  Surprisingly, I found no useful apps or programs for searching for information on an individual.  The best way to find out about someone on MySpace is simply to visit their profile and root around.
• Twitter – Other than Google, I consider this the most public forum on the web.
  • Twitter Search – There are several ways to do this (the easiest is search.twitter.com, but any Twitter utility has a search feature that looks through ALL Tweets and returns the most recent results.  In some utilities, like TweetDeck, you can set up searches that return results in real time.
  • Tweet Stats – Enter anyone’s username and see the frequency of their Tweets as well as a breakdown of month, day, time.  What employer wouldn’t want to know how often a potential employee might be Tweeting and not working?
• LinkedIn – This is the most used site by potential employers and has become a digital resume for job seekers.  LinkedIn also offers individuals the most control over their own Social Media Credit Score.
  • Search – Like Google, just type in a name and see what comes up.
  • Saved Searches - LinkedIn also offers saves searches, so you can stay up to date on additions and changes in LinkedIn.
  • LinkedIn Updates (email) – This newsletter, sent out on a regular basis, keeps you up to date on what your connections are doing.  Where are they working?  Who are they linking to?  What groups have they joined?
• Blogs – While other sites offer statistics and searches, blogs offer insight.  What kind of person is this?  What are their beliefs?  Opinions? Can they communicate well with others?  Blog links can be found via Google or almost any profile created for that person.  After all, people write blogs so that others will read them.  They usually aren’t trying to hide them.

Other Sites

• 123people.com - Link – Returns information from a first and last name.  One page results include address, phone number, MySpace profiles, Facebook profiles, pictures, Twitter pages and even blogs.

Use some of these tools to research your Social Media Credit Score today.  You might think you know exactly what will be uncovered, but only a search of the social media available today will tell the entire story.  Don’t let the unknown influence others’ opinions of you.  Tracking your SMCS is just as important as keeping tabs on your financial credit score and, as we mentioned before, might influence your life much further down the road than a credit issue would.  You are the only person that is going to take the time to research and correct any issues with your Social Media Credit Score.

Tomorrow, we will wrap up the week with a look at the future of the Social Media Credit Score and offer some other tidbits.  If you are interested in the final segment, or any of the previous articles on SMCS, please visit our blog homepage or add it to your favorite reader. (http://blog.jumpstartmypc.com)

Our Lineup of Potential Researchers

• Potential Employers – You might not be aware, but some employers use your Credit Report (the financial kind) as a tool to determine the type of person you are.  If you can’t handle your own finances, why would they let you handle theirs.  Why would social interactions be any different?  The way you promote your personal life and the decisions you make online (your SMCS) could in fact be a tool for potential employers.  An article from CBSNews.com from over 3 years ago uncovered this practice.  That was over 3 years ago!  Just imagine how many employers have adopted this practice since then.
• Family - Your first thought here is “oh, Mom and Dad might see what I write on Facebook or what I Tweet,” but you shouldn’t think NOW, you should be thinking FOREVER.  With the advancements in technology and storage capacities we have seen over the last few years, it is not out of the realm of possibility that EVERY single thing you post, share or comment on might become part of a permanent, searchable database.  What happens when your children decide to research Mom and Dad for that school project on their family tree?  Things might get really interesting.
  
• Friends - Your friends might not purposely research your SMCS, but they are taking in information about you constantly.  Your social media interactions could be seen by everyone.  Right now, Facebook posts are only shown to those you grant access, but will that always be the case?  Tweets and YouTube videos are no different.  Google has added Social Searches (in Beta now) to their standard search results.
• Federal Government - This is something that will blow your mind.  Uncle Sam has begun using social searches to track your finances.  “State revenue agents have begun nabbing scofflaws by mining information posted on social-networking Web sites, from relocation announcements to professional profiles to financial boasts. (taken from an article on msn.com from Sept. 2009)“  It seems that MySpace is one of their favorite sites to visit when hunting down a potential “client.”
  
• Credit Bureau/Agency – The “big brother” of your financial well-being already employs some interesting tactics for determining your financial Credit Score (see How Does My Driving Record Impact My Credit Score?) so it stands to reason that they might begin looking into your spending habits and lifestyle via another measurement tool, your Social Media Credit Score.
• Companies - If the credit agencies start reviewing your SMCS, then why wouldn’t potential lenders, like retail stores, banks or car dealerships?  They don’t want to risk a loan that will never be paid back, so they will turn to any public information that they can find to separate duds from studs.
  
• Thieves – Yeah, that is right, thieves!  Not just internet hackers and data miners, but honest-to-goodness “I’m gonna crawl in your window while you are vacation” thieves.  They have your address, they can find your phone number, then your email address, then your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace…. page and boom!  They have a monitoring system that will tell them when you will be gone on that family vacation for 2 weeks.  A simple search at search.twitter.com for “going on vacation” will give them the same information.

A Quick Search of "going on vacation" - Twitter

We will continue our look at the Social Media Credit Score tomorrow and through the rest of the week.  If you want to see more, add our blog (http://blog.jumpstartmypc.com) to your favorites or your favorite blog reader.  We’ll add new, FREE content every day that will help PC users get the most out of their computer.

Although the idea of a Social Media Credit Score is based on the more well-known financial credit score, there are some key differences that make the development of a formula very difficult.  This social media measurement (SMCS) has no governing body and there is no required reporting that most be followed by users/creators of social media web sites.  Also, most areas of measurement are not black or white, but gray.  As we look at the components of the SMCS, you will see the difficulty in developing a true formula for your Social Media Credit Score.

The idea I want you to walk away with is this.  How do others see me? “Others” can be defined as any person/group who has an interest in you as an individual (an area that we will focus on later in the week.)  What are the first impressions of a would-be researcher?  How do your actions, or the actions of others, (in social media) portray you?  Are you a positive or a negative?  Are you a strength or a liability?  These are not numbers or a traditional “score” but they are a measurement of an individual nonetheless.

What Qualifies as Social Media

The first thing you will need to know is what web sites are considered social media.  In fact, any information available via the internet can be considered social media.  A scary thought considering the fact that laws governing the internet can’t keep up with its growth and changes.  Here are the top sites that we factor in to our grading system (at the moment):

• Google – this is very general, but the exact area that most people will turn to first (if they want to “check out” someone) is a simple Google search.
• Facebook – the world’s largest social media site (with over 200 million users) is a gold-mine for anyone who is permitted to see your profile and information.  Assuming you have the proper settings in place, only invited guests can see this information (for now).
• MySpace – what was once a powerhouse in social media, MySpace has shrunk in numbers but still holds a large share of the market.
• Twitter – 140 characters can say a lot about a person, especially when they post messages about themselves day after day.  Twitter searches will reveal almost anything that has ever been tweeted about a person.  All it takes is a keyword, like your name.
• LinkedIn – Probably the single best site for you to promote yourself to the world, LinkedIn is your online resume.  You can enter in work history, awards, achievements and all sorts of personal information that might sway your SMCS in the right direction.  You can even ask others to write a review about you.  What better grading tool than the comments of a former co-worker.
• Blogs – although this is not a single social media site, it could be the most important tool of all.  Someone who blogs often writes about themselves or at least their opinions about anything and everything.  Many people compare blogging to an online diary and while it is still a hobby of few web users, the number of new bloggers is growing daily.

Credit Score Criteria

Once on a social media site, what does one look for?  How do I determine the SMCS of someone/myself?  Again, what is mined out of social media sites is mostly gray area, but there are some key areas of interest.

• How many sites does the individual belong to/participate in?
• How frequently does he/she post to or visit the site(s)?
• What are the first “returns” in a search for the individual in question?
• What groups does the individual belong to within the social media site in question?
• How is the individuals’ grammar and word usage?  Is there a lot of negative/positive wording in posts?
• What are their religious beliefs?
• Are there any pictures of this person and what are they doing in the pictures? How about video?
• What do others have to say about this person?

The list of criteria is virtually never-ending, but these are the areas that most would focus on first.  Is that simply because that is what is available now?  Who knows what the future of social media has in store for us.  What you need to know is how to research others and how they might see you if they did the same. We will continue our look at the Social Media Credit Score tomorrow and through the rest of the week.  Check back with us for more information, including:

• What areas of your life will be affected by your Social Media Credit Score?
• How can you change your Social Media Credit Score?
• What is next for the Social Media Credit Score?

Add our blog (http://blog.jumpstartmypc.com) to your favorites or your favorite blog reader.  We’ll add new, FREE content every day that will help PC users get the most out of their computer.

I have been working on an idea for some time now, and I felt that a new year and a new decade were the time to present it to the JumpstartMyPC.com audience.  Whether you choose to participate or not, you live in a digital age.  At the two ends of the social media spectrum, we have those who have jumped in with both feet and live a large portion of there day online and at the other, we have those who are scared of the computer and just don’t grasp the concepts of Facebook, Twitter, texting, etc.  Regardless of your digital commitment, one thing is certain.  There is information about you online.  You might not have placed it there, but it exists for the world to see.

Your Social Media Credit Score is out there, whether you are aware of it or not.  It is not something you can check on a web page or send off for.  Currently, it won’t affect your ability to get a car or a house.  It’s not even a whisper on Google at the moment*, but it is something that you need to be aware of.  This week, we will take a look at many different aspects of your social media credit score, but today we will just start with a definition and basic explanation.

Social Media Credit Score -  A measurement of social risk, for an individual,  based on information available through social media outlets.

In other words, if your name were “Googled” by another person, or even a business, what would they find?  Are there pictures, videos, comments, etc. available about/by you that would cast doubt about your personality, trustworthiness or morals?  What does the information about you, available on the internet for anyone to see, say about you as a person (positive or negative)?

While this term (Social Media Credit Score) is not something the world knows about yet, I argue that it will soon become a hot topic and something that you will need to be aware of.  So, why put off until tomorrow what you can take care of today?  For the rest of the week we will focus on the Social Media Credit Score and how you should handle it.    Add our blog to your daily list of sites, favorites or blog reader (http://blog.jumpstartmypc.com) and follow along with us.  Here are some of the topics that we plan to cover:

• What is the Social Media Credit Score formula? – LINK (added 1/05/2010)
• How can you keep track of your Social Media Credit Score? – LINK (added 1/07/2010)
• What areas of your life will be affected by your Social Media Credit Score? – LINK (added 1/06/2010)
• How can you change your Social Media Credit Score?
• What is next for the Social Media Credit Score?

So, as you set out to lose that weight, quit those habits or save some money, you might want to add one more thing to your New Year’s Resolution list.   Take inventory of your Social Media Credit Score.  What have you done in the past?  What mistakes did you make?  How can you change?

* A search for the term “Social Media Credit Score” returned 4 links, none of which were related to our definition or idea above.