Social Networking Sites – Is this just a fad? Are Employers really using it?

The last year or so I have been struggling to decide whether or not to create a Facebook or LinkedIn profile(s).  Call me old fashion, but I receive emails from friends who send me notifications from their accounts to become a member of their network (i.e. Hi5, Classmates, Friendster, Orkut, etc.).  So, I’ve always had problems trying to identify which is the best one, I don’t want to create multiple profiles, and will this really stay around?  It looks like Facebook & LinkedIn have taken hold of the market, especially as other devices/companies are integrating with them (i.e. Blackberry, Apple Iphone, etc.), the article is also stating that Social Networking sites are here for the “long haul”.

Besides me creating social networks with friends and professionals (and spending another several hours in front of the computer per week), what are the benefits to Social Networking?  Is it really being used in the work place?  The answer is ‘Yes’, according to a careerbuilder.com survey, “Twenty-two percent of employers say they use social networking sites when evaluating job candidates, and an additional 9 percent intend to do the same soon.”  When asked what is being looked for in the candidates profile, “culture…this is important too.”

The article also states, “Thirty-four percent of hiring managers chose not to hire a candidate based on what they found in profiles.”  This can be due to controversial or negative comments, bad pictures, poor communication skills, bad friends / connections, etc.  The article goes on to giving good suggestions with keeping your profile, update your resume, clean up account from pictures, bad connections, and controversial blogging sites, keep your job searching under wraps if you don’t want anyone to know, etc.  I now see some facts / benefits in having these accounts, but at the same time there is a fine line of what type of information you disclose.  My friends aren’t bad, but I don’t want to be slammed like President Obama was because of his connection. 

 Knowing the above facts, reply with you comments to the following Discussion Points:

• For those of you who have profiles in Facebook / LinkedIn, do you need to do any clean-up?  Any testimonies?
• For those of you who don’t have these accounts, do you feel at a disadvantage or are we still good without displaying this information?

CNN Article

Comments

[LinkedIN Rich guy]

I think that most people that have argued against having a LinkedIN account are not very successful in their careers, make less than 100K per year and do not have more than 100 professional contacts. LinkedIN is now very important in your "reputation" and credibility. It is a place that transforms your "word of mouth" reputation to an online reputation that is readily available for anyone new that you need to influence. You don't have to spend hours and countless meetings with people to develop some trust. You can virtually demonstrate your track record and personal connections then when meeting new people in person you can polish off that reputation with your good intentions and integrity. SPEED is what we are really talking about here.

[66epp2]

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Additionally, Individuals post copy right information about a company on these types of web sites; this is against the policy of the Google Ad Sense program.
If you believe that you are being targeted by individuals on a particular web site; simply click the Ads by Google in the bottom right hand corner of the advertisement on the web site. You will be taken to a Google page, click onto: Report a policy violation regarding the site or ads you just saw.
File a report and the Google Fraud Department will investigate.

[Michelle Trunda]

I have a profile on LinkedIn and I enjoy using this network. I keep my profile current (though I haven't spent much time making it all it can be), and I send and accept invites from people I know. I also have a FaceBook profile, but only because a friend wanted to share photos with me and I had to have a profile to see them. I have a few friends, but I'm not searchable (I hope) and I don't talk about it or try to find people out there. Part of this is because I don't want to spend the time making it a fun, relevant profile and I think I'd be embarrassed to put something out there half-baked (why bother if not to keep it fresh?). So, no cleaning up for me but no benefits from the more fun aspects, either. It works for me for now!

[Yahia]

I think this is an intersting subject. We got used to the internet as a place to be anonymous and feel free to choose a cool nickname and express yourself with ease. But the social networking sites are based on using your real identity so you can hook up with your friends. This demands a change in the the behaviour and your persona online. On the other hand, most of the websites send you an email to agree to show someone your profile so you can choose to deny it. So atleast your privacy is guaranteed.

[Peter Zucker]

Since I am from Austria, and since I also have a half-sister and a half-brother (from my father's side) in Mexico, I get invited all the time to social network sites. And frankly, I do not really like this form of conversation, even I joined Facebook, Hi-5, and metroflog. I only created a profile, and put on some family pictures to show them to my family, and it is a while (few months) that I checked on them. I personally prefer email for my personal conversations because it is (in my opinion) more effective and less dangerous to get misunderstood by any hiring manager because of having "wrong" friends, or because of using the wrong wording. For pictures, I prefer to send High-Res pictures on USB-sticks(because they are not expensive anymore) via regular mail. This method allows me to send a high volume of high quality pictures to my family.
To answer the question if I have to do some clean-up on my profiles. Honestly, I don't know, but I know now that I have to check my profiles and determine how to make them appear safe and professionally. I hopefully remember my passwords.

[upskillcoach]

I've "separated" from FB after almost 2 years. I realize that there are 456 people that I don't miss at all and 73 "real" friends that I see or even talk to more often now :). Seriously you can try to "control" or clean up your profile but to a certain extent only and if you don't have a look regularly you might be tagged on a picture you don't really want to share (and if you've enjoyed a party a lot it doesn't mean you would show up drunk at work but the picture remains...). You may also have answered some stupid quizz or be included in a group of people supporting some stupid cause etc...I'm looking to a social network for private connections that would be closer to real life than FB...by default people should be able to see omething really generic only, then they could be guests, then friends, then close friends..but that should be easier to manage without spending times giving rights or withdrawing them like in FB.

[Amajd Al-Azzam]

Frankly I would say that any user for such sites should clean up some stuff out of his/her profile before hitting the job trial because you don’t want your online identity comes in between you and the job you apply for, nowadays, it becomes a common practice for the employers to asses candidates eligibility for certain jobs through reviewing their online profiles since a user profile reflects his/her own personality…

[Sean Wilke]

I've had a Facebook account for a while, but I just created a LinkedIn account. One of my motivations is to create an additional avenue for career-based networking, so of my posted interests include, "Career Opportunities." Keep in mind that I do enjoy my job, but I am always open to new opportunities. I did, however, notice that a number of higher-ups at my company also have LinkedIn accounts. I now feel that I really have to watch who I include in my network, as this is a potential conflict of interest with my company. Is anyone in a similar situation with LinkedIn?

[Abraham Valdez]

There's always "things" to clean up on a social networking sites such as Facebook. Many use it for connecting people with an account of a different name or a nickname. Others will create a same account with their birth name for professional purposes --to network with Employers. My point is this: Although people use social networking sites, you cannot control how 'friends' will post information about you, tag you in a picture or write whatever they want on your wall; thus, [yes] there are always room to take a minute or two to clean up your profile just to be safe.

[Areej Faisal]

I think we are who make social networks matters! Some people have profiles for fun and have their friends and family members updated, no more.. (that what I do) For others, having an account attached to more serious stuff. Such as post resume for a new job, selling items or use it as a collaborative tool with people you work with..
Anyway, whatever the purpose was for owning a social network profiles, you should to keep in mind that account -with all information and pictures there- presents YOU. So if you consider this fact, you won’t need to seclude a clean-up from time to time.

[Anna Lesniak]

Now, I was thinking :) that if profile like this reflected more of a bad side of me, I would probably do some clean up before anyone non authorized see it. Whether someone knows me or not, s/he might get some wrong idea about me, which would not be good :).
Therefore we should be more careful on what we upload on websites like this and keep it balanced, so later we do not experience a bad judgement from others.

[Anna Lesniak]

I have a profile in Facebook, and I do not do or even would like to do any clean-up on my profile. As someone said above, this profile kind of reflects the user and his/her personality. So my question is why would I have to do any clean up before a hiring manager sees it or anyone else? If it reflects real me and my personality, then I have nothing to delete or hide on my profile.
In addition, I do not really see much connection on how Facebook profile reflects on how good an individual will be in his/her future job.

[Sultan]

I have been using Facebook for almost two years, and I am not addicted to it. I just use it to communicate with my family and friends. Also with this, I am making control over it. No bad picture or bad comment is kept. However, if I turn it to be public, it will be hard for me to control it. Moreover, as Kullathida Yamvinic mentioned, I will be worried about if my information is being used by someone ales who I do not know.
Any way, sometimes the person's information in Facebook or LinkedIn or in the other Social Network could be useful for providing an image to the employer about the job candidate especially if the job requires him/her to be sociable.

[Majed]

I think it is necessary to check your account from time to time and clean it up. Your profile reflects your personality and builds a certain image about you, so it is important to update your information and keep track of new posts, pictures, or links in your profile. I don’t use my face book account so often, but I think it really a great social networking site that can link you with people you don’t expect. I think it is not just a fad, it has its own world and people, and many people and employee are getting benefits from using it.

[Rawa]

I don’t have a Face book account and I think using yahoo or messenger is enough for me to communicate with my friends and relatives. That doesn’t negate that Face book is one of the top social networking sites, but for me now I don’t think that I need it or that am loosing many things without it. The only thing that might make me use it is that more and more of my friends have opened Face book accounts and I am receiving many invitations. Finally I want to say that it is good to follow what you need now, but also know what other options available that you might need someday.

[RJ Babu]

I have had a Facebook account for a few years now, but still no LinkedIn account. The privacy settings should be used according to your networking intentions, so be sure to restrict certain types of people during a job search if you feel you have some sensitive pictures, revealing information, and discredited friends. Companies do use these social networking sites to find out more information about their job candidates and why not? The company wants to make sure they hire the right person that they see fit for the job and they'll use any sources available. Grace made an interesting post above discussing all the statistics for hiring managers screening candidates. These social networking accounts should be kept in mind when applying for jobs because as you can see your life is being broadcasted in the online world and can be used against you.

[Darius Zakeri]

I recently took the facebook plunge and from day one made my privacy settings "friends only" for every single thing. I am way too paranoid of people misconstruing anything, and I am a dad with two kids, so my days of partys are usually the Chuck E Cheese type! I liked that the article gave suggestions on how to clean up your facebook. I actually think having two different profiles is probably even better. In the world of facebook, TMI is ruling.

[hanan]

i dont have any type of accounts in socila network simply because i am not comfortable with sharing my life with others. i believe that the moments of our life are precious. not every one can see it. and on the other hand, i think these sites are really balanced in thier advantages and disadvantage. by this i mean when the advantages overlap the disadvantage hisitaters like me would consider it.

[Grace Adefuin-Keller]

Here are a few interested stats from Careerbuilder showcasing both the employer and job seeker view:
Top areas for concern among those hiring managers included the following:

* 41% - candidate posted information about their drinking or using drugs
* 40% - candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information
* 29% - candidate had poor communication skills
* 28% - candidate bad-mouthed previous company or fellow employee
* 27% - candidate lied about qualifications
* 22% - candidate used discriminatory remarks related to race, gender, religion, etc.
* 22% - candidate’s screen name was unprofessional
* 21% - candidate was linked to criminal behavior
19% - candidate shared confidential information from previous employers

Top factors that influenced those hiring decisions included the following:

* 48% - candidate’s background supported qualifications for the job
* 43% - candidate had great communication skills
* 40% - candidate was a good fit for the company’s culture
* 36% - candidate’s site conveyed a professional image
* 31% - candidate had great references posted about them by others
* 30% - candidate showed a wide range of interests
* 29% - candidate received awards and accolades
* 24% - candidate’s profile was creative

I created a FB account with the intention for professional networking. I have yet to see employers reach out via this stream. As for personal clean-up, it never hurts to do it once in awhile to make sure that everything is in check. My network of friends on FB understand that we are all professionals and only use FB to post appropriate comments and photos.

[rita n]

It is important to know that safety is the important concepts of the social networking site. This is because social networking sites provide you the option to provide personal information. Some people steal others personal information for their use. So be careful while you give your personal information. If you carefully use this website, you would not be next victim.