Personal branding is high on the list of “must-have” skills job seekers need to succeed in 2013, according to Wall Street Journal Market Watch reporter Ruth Mantell.

“Human-resources executives scour blogs, Twitter and professional networking sites such as LinkedIn when researching candidates, and it’s important that they like what they find,” she reports.

“”That’s your brand, that’s how you represent yourself,” says Peter Handal, CEO of Dale Carnegie Training, a Hauppauge, N.Y., provider of workplace-training services. “If you post something that comes back to haunt you, people will see that.”

“Workers also should make sure their personal brand is attractive and reflects well on employers. “More and more employers are looking for employees to tweet on their behalf, to blog on their behalf, to build an audience and write compelling, snappy posts,” says Meredith Haberfeld, an executive and career coach in New York.”

Her full article is worth a read. It underscores what online reputation management is all about: creating appropriate online content for the audiences that matter.