45% of Employers Using Social Networking Sites to Research Candidates

A June 2009, 2,600 hiring manager survey from Careerbuilder found that 45% of employers are examining your online, social networking presence (especially Facebook) to learn more about you before they make a hiring decision.

Well, we probably knew that this was happening. Apparently, it's up from 22% last year. Again, no surprise that it's rising. But still...

More interesting is that 35% claimed to have found information on a site like Facebook that caused them not to hire someone. 35% is huge!

What kinds of things caused them to reject a candidate?

• Over 1/2 found inappropriate photos or information.
• Almost 1/3 said they found evidence of poor communication skills (What? Do we need to ensure we use 'you're' instead of 'your' and 'its' instead of 'it's' appropriately, or never use slang or PG-13 language even when we're casually writing with friends?)
• 14% said they rejected someone for using an emoticon (:<

But, 18% also said they used online content about candidates to justify their hire. They liked what they saw, and found it to be a major positive influence on their hiring decision.

So, lessons learned? The careerbuilder article has a list of 5 dos and don'ts. Basically,they say be very aware of the messaging you're putting out there about yourself - your personal brand, and maybe your next job, is at stake.

Which Social Media Sites Would You Pay For?

Techcrunch's Erick Schonfeld reports on a survey by Abrams Research that shows which social media sites over 200 social media elite say is best for business. It's interesting, but maybe not surprising, to see Twitter on top, beating out Linkedin, for social media services they'd recommend a business pay for.

"...if you ask, which one would they recommend for businesses to pay for (if they had to), Twitter beats Facebook by more than two to one (39.6 percent vs. 15.3 percent). LinkedIn again comes in second. Why did Twitter come out on top. It is seen as an efficient way for companies to get their marketing messages out there. One typical response:

It’s the quickest way I’ve seen to spread information virally to a wide scope of people attached in a lot of random ways.

The survey was taken at Social Media Week 2009 and included “founders, bloggers, journalists, entrepreneurs and members of the Twitterati.” Basically it is the opinion of the insular social media elite. So what they say may just be wishful thinking, but the results are good fodder for discussion nonetheless."

1. Which social media service would you be most likely to pay for?

• Facebook 32.2%
• Linkedin 29.7%
• Twitter 21.8%
• YouTube 13.4%
• MySpace 1.5%
• Digg 1.5%

2. What social media service would you advise a business pay for?

• Twitter 39.6%
• Linkedin 21.3%
• YouTube 18.8%
• Facebook 15.3%
• Digg 3.0%
• MySpace 2.0%

3. Which social media service will be the first to die?

• ImInLikeWithYou.com 41.1%
• Bebo 12.4%
• FriendFeed 8.9%
• Meetup.com 8.4%
• Flixster 6.9%
• Digg 5.0%
• Last.fm 3.0%
• Other 14.4%

4. Which corporation has done the best job of using social media? (Respondents were asked to choose one; these were the most popular choices, ranked accordingly)

1. Zappos (online shopping site)
2. Obama (campaign and presidency)
3. CNN
4. Comcast (“Comcast Cares”)
5. Jetblue
6. Dell
7. Burger King
8. NPR
9. New York Times
10. Ford

Are you on twitter? Is your company on Twitter? Facebook? I'm sure you're already on LinkedIn, right?

http://twitter.com/vlastelica

One month on Twitter

So my friend Carmen Hudson (we worked together at Amazon.com; she's now with Yahoo) told me I had to try twitter. I said my initial exposure to it was not good - random comments from people "waiting in line to get a latte" and 140 character ponderings about politics or fashion from people who clearly had too much time on their hands.

Well, admittedly, you do get some of that. But what I've found - after a month really using twitter - is that I like it. Here's a few reasons why...

1. It's an easy way to stay connected to people you know. Lots-o-people I know are on it. I was surprised, frankly, at how many experienced, senior level folks I know use it. You probably know a lot of people on it, too.
2. The messages are short, and often funny. It takes little time to write and read "tweets", and at least 1/3 amuse me, 1/3 educate me, and 1/3 are just little status updates (telling me where someone is, or what they're doing at work or home).
3. Assuming the people you know have similar interests, you can benefit from community filtering of news or events. A recruiting leader I know writes a 5-10 word intro to an interesting article he read, and then links to it in his twitter update. I know he's "vetted" the article for me, as he's no dummy, and wouldn't pass it along if it wasn't interesting.
   
4. You can share timely, important updates with your network. For example, a recruiter friend of mine just went through a 40 person layoff last week. I put a note out on twitter saying I had a contact there if anyone was interested in these folks, and immediately got 3 other recruiters interested. Another friend publishes his "hot job" of the week on there, instantly exposing it to 100s of people who follow him.
   
5. You can connect your updates to feed into sites like facebook, so that you update your status in one place, not two or three.
6. You learn things about people you thought you already knew. I've learned what I do - and don't - have in common with people I know. Politics, hobbies, favorite restaurants, travel destinations, vendors they like, conferences they like, news sources they read, etc.
   

I'm going to stick with it. Have you given it a go?

http://twitter.com/vlastelica