Social media background checks can provide companies with useful insights into a job candidate’s character, qualifications, and social behavior. By using social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to check references and search for professional experience as well as personal details such as interests, hobbies and affiliations; social media background checks can be used to make more informed and reliable hiring decisions. Employers can also use social media background checks to identify any potential risks associated with a candidate, such as negative social media posts or connections to potentially damaging activities or affiliations. Additionally, social media background checks are becoming increasingly popular for screening employees throughout their employment period in order to ensure compliance and ethical behavior at all times.
Consider the massive audience and influence these platforms can have on your business (good and bad). For example, in 2022:
- Facebook: 2.9 billion users
- YouTube: 2.5 billion users
- WhatsApp: 2 billion users
- Instagram: 1.4 billion users
- TikTok: 1 billion users
- Twitter: 436 million users
- And many more like LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, Quora, Viver, imo, LINE, Picsart, Twitch, Stack Exchange, etcetera.
Now let’s look at a leading manufacturer of beer (Golden Ale Classic Brewery) who hires a sales rep to promote them at trade shows. These are the venues where local and regional wholesalers and retailers attend. This person is in a front-line position representing your corporate brand. When hired his employment, education, and credit history all checked out fine. But 3 months later, the general manager noticed he had a picture on Facebook that portrayed a shorter overweight indigenous man wearing a feathered war bonnet with a slogan that read: “Be brave-be bold –and buy more beer!” There were also bottles of open alcohol in the background. This kind of behavior may have been in jest, it will not be tolerated because of its racial connotations, and because it reflects poorly on the caliber of people recruited to represent the beer company. This would likely result in termination and the cost associated with finding a replacement, not to mention corporate branding damage. If a social media background check was conducted in advance, this may not have happened.
Ultimately, social media background checks can be a valuable tool for employers when it comes to making informed and reliable hiring decisions. With social media becoming increasingly important in today’s digital landscape, social media background checks provide an accurate snapshot of who potential candidates are both professionally and personally. However, employers should always use social media background checks responsibly and in compliance with local privacy laws.
It is important to remember that social media background checks should be used responsibly and ethically, and employers should always be aware of local privacy laws when screening potential employees. Additionally, social media background checks should not replace traditional methods of reference checking or resume review; they are simply an additional tool for employers to use in making more informed and reliable hiring decisions.
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