Yesterday, we talked here about what social networking sites our visitors use most. Today, we’ll talk about how they’re being used.

Social Media Intelligence?

More and more employers are using social media to gather “intelligence” on employees and potential candidates.

We previously reported here about an employee whose bereavement leave was proven by his manager to be a lie based on a Facebook photo showing him in a fairy costume and holding a beer at a Halloween party (instead of a funeral).

CNN reports on a couple of similar recent cases:

• An employee expressed on her Facebook page how boring her job was. Shortly thereafter, she was fired and given this note: “Following your comments made on Facebook about your job and the company we feel it is better that, as you are not happy and do not enjoy your work we end your employment.”
• A Philadelphia Eagles stadium employee was upset that the team had traded one of his favorite employees, Brian Dawkins. He posted: “[expletive deleted] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver . . . [expletive deleted] Eagles R [derogatory term deleted]!!!” Two days later, the employee was fired.

If you want to know what your employees really think about you and your company, you might want to check out Twitter. Here are just a few recent real-life “tweets” posted by employees:

• “hate my job!! i want to tell my bosses how dumb they are and how meaningless this job is, then quit, and be happy!”
• “with my boss on twitter, maaaybe I should take down that sexy picture of her . . . but her reaction will be priceless!”
• “so my job was to test all the food at the new restaurant, can I just say, ughew. I’m going to taco bell . . .”
• “smoking weed at work is so [expletive deleted] great ”
• “I’m really bummed that I’m working today, i asked off so i could study but my boss is a [expletive deleted] who can’t read.”
• “Coworker smuggled out a chair for me. Currently being paid to SIT around . . . I don’t hate my job today!”

Click here for more hard-to-believe-they’re-real employee tweets.

Social Networking and Candidate Screening

According to a recent survey, 45% of employers use social media to screen potential job candidates, up from 22% just last year.

Not too surprisingly, the industries most likely to use social media for this purpose are IT (63%) and professional and business services (53%). What do employers use most for this purpose?

• 29% search Facebook
• 26% search LinkedIn
• 21% search MySpace
• 11% search blogs
• 7% search Twitter

What caused employers NOT to hire someone? When the candidate posted:

• inappropriate photos/information (53%)
• refererences to drug/alcohol abuse (44%)
• negative comments about previous employers/clients/co-workers (35%)
• poor communication skills (29%)
• discriminatory comments (26%)
• misrepresentations about job experience (24%)
• confidential information belonging to a previous employer (20%)

On the flip side, what causes employers to want to hire someone? Online information that:

• provides a good feel for the candidate’s personality and fit (50%)
• supports the candidate’s professional qualifications (39%)
• showcases a candidate’s creativity (38%)
• demonstrates solid communication skills (35%)
• shows that the candidate is well-rounded (33%)
• provides positive references about the candidate (19%)
• awards and accolades (15%)

The Bottom Line

Your employees are using social networking tools. If you don’t, too, you might be missing a hugely valuable source of information.

So, get connected. But be careful about anything (1) you personally post and/or (2) use to make employment decisions. For the former, use our time-honored “mom” test (don’t say anything you wouldn’t want your mother to read). For the later, the test is simple: job-related, job-related, job-related. If it ain’t, don’t use it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Employment Law News, Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Networking, Trends, Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.