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Can a Seattle Startup Protect Your Social “Persona” in a Job Hunt? Persona Can!

A 2012 TNW survey found that 37% of prospective employers are looking you up on Facebook.

Likewise, “one bad tweet” could be standing in the way of a new job, a promotion, or a pink slip. Seattle startup Persona, created by former aQuantive executive, Lee Sherman, is coming to help you save “face” on Facebook, expunge Twitter titters, and accentuate the plus side of Google+.

Persona is aiming to help Facebook, Twitter and Google+ users protect their professional reputations on social media, enhancing their chances of being hired and recruited for the perfect job. The easy-to-use social media utility flags potentially offensive photos and posts and allows users to delete them directly from the alerts, streamlining an otherwise time-consuming process of deleting years of inappropriate content. Persona analyzes a user’s complete profile history across social networks, and then continues to monitor posts and photos in real-time.

This week, Persona released the alpha version of its software to a limited number of hand-chosen alpha testers. Testers span across various age groups, different stages in their career, and use social media in various ways and frequencies.

Persona comes in two versions: a limited text-only Base version and a more comprehensive Persona Pro version that flags questionable photos as well as text. Both products will be available later this summer.

The new products address an increasing social media dilemma driven by a crossover of professional usage on Facebook, a space that many consider to be personal. But, with nine out of ten companies searching prospects’ social media postings and photos when hiring, social media recruiting is becoming a cost-effective, efficient talent management strategy.

“Even the most careful job seekers need to exercise extra caution with social media,” said Lee Sherman, CEO and founder of Persona. “All it takes is one off-color posting or eye-popping photo by an over-zealous, though probably well-meaning friend, to raise eyebrows among recruiters in a tight job market.”

And the need for appropriate content on social media doesn’t stop once the job hunt is over – businesses are starting to monitor employee posts to ensure a clean corporate reputation. Employees are often friends with clients and customers on Facebook and need to self-monitor their profiles to be able to best represent their organizations.

Sherman has invested $500,000 developing this solution and proprietary IP, and has a growing team of seven employees and developers. His advisory team includes Clark Kokich, chairman of Razorfish, a full-service digital agency, Greg Meyer, CTO of ADP payroll services, and Kristen Knight, CEO of Filter, a creating marketing and consulting agency. [24×7]