This article picks up one something we’ve covered here at the blog before–which is that social networking sites are fun and useful, but they can be injurious to your internet reputation.

There are many reasons one might not want certain photos or comments about their behavior to be made public information, but one of the most important is for your career. If you go to look for a job, certain companies actually go out and search the Internet for information about you. This includes the aforementioned social sites.

Facebook and Myspace can be horrible for your future as a professor, public official, student, warehouse worker, etc–because it has been proven, through surveys of employers, that your online reputation has a great deal to do with whether you are hired or not.

http://www.theeasttexan.com/above-the-law-social-sites-contain-hidden-dangers-1.1263872

One major league baseball player, Torii Hunter, is in hot water over some comments he made about his fellow baseball players. Hunter, a black player, was attempting to point out how dark-skinned Latino players are often mistaken for African-American players–but his comments created a firestorm of criticism, with some people even calling him racist for his remarks.

In the USA TODAY story, Hunter said: “People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they’re African-American. They’re not us. They’re impostors. Even people I know come up and say: ‘Hey, what color is Vladimir Guerrero? Is he a black player?’ I say, ‘Come on, he’s Dominican. He’s not black.’ …

“As African-American players, we have a theory that baseball can go get an imitator and pass them off as us. It’s like they had to get some kind of dark faces, so they go to the Dominican or Venezuela because you can get them cheaper. It’s like, ‘Why should I get this kid from the South Side of Chicago and have Scott Boras represent him and pay him $5 million when you can get a Dominican guy for a bag of chips?’

“I’m telling you, it’s sad.”

The comments certainly don’t seem to be purposefully inflammatory, though maybe ill-advised. Either way, Torii Hunter is suffering from a fair amount of internet defamation.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/al/angels/2010-03-10-torii-hunter-comments_N.htm

I know, I know–if you’re as tired as I am of hearing about Toyota, then this article is not welcome. But this article is one of few that I have seen that concentrates only on Toyota’s reputation, the damage it has suffered, or how it can get back to being well-regarded by the general public.

Toyota’s bungled global recalls has badly damaged its brand image, but while the carmaker faces its biggest-ever crisis, analysts and experts say its reputation is by no means beyond repair.

The Japanese giant, the world’s biggest automaker, has been almost constantly in the spotlight since January over a rash of defects that have prompted the recall of more than eight million vehicles worldwide.

The analysts are right–given time and work, virtually any reputation can be repaired (Jeffrey Dahmer excepted).An Internet reputation is important to maintain.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/toyota-can-restore-reputation-experts-say-20100301-pbsk.html