The Background Check You Don’t Know About

Everyone prepares as best as they can for a job interview: professional clothes, practicing answers to the typical questions, and asking past employers for references. But there is a process more and more employers are adopting that you may be unprepared for. More employers are turning to social media profiles to screen applicants either: after receiving an application, after an interview, or before hiring the person.

What Are The Exact Statistics?

Reppler conducted a survey of over 300 hiring professionals, and came out with these results:

• 91% reported that they use social networking sites to screen prospective employees
• 69% have rejected a candidate because of what was posted on their social media accounts
• During this screening process, respondents reported that they use the following social media platforms to screen employees:
  • 76% Facebook
  • 53% Twitter
  • 48% LinkedIn

The social media platform (LinkedIn) created as a professional platform for potential employers, is used the least in the screening process.

Why Is This An Issue?

This screening process is an issue because social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are deemed to be “personal” social media accounts, and cannot be guaranteed to be a direct reflection of the individual’s professional performance. Often times, people act very differently when in a professional environment compared to when they are with friends or family. Social media profiles are a digital version of “hanging out with peers,” and are not used as a platform to set a professional example by users.

Furthermore, despite the popularity of this screening process, few organizations have adopted company policies on how this process should be conducted. As a result, the hiring manager is left to his or her own discretion in making decisions. There are no guidelines for them to follow, and they get to decide how extensively they can research your accounts, and what is “unacceptable” in their opinion.

The Legal Aspect

So, is screening potential employee’s social media accounts legal? In the United States, states such as California and Illinois, have passed “a law that prohibits employers from requiring applicants and employees to allow them access to social media sites” (CKR Global, 2012.) In Canada, “companies generally cannot screen potential hires, even through social media, if the process will: violate a person’s privacy rights or break employment discrimination laws (CKR Global, 2012.) However, there are grey areas in this sector, and companies can find ways around these legal restrictions, such as not informing candidates that they were screened, in order to avoid legal action against the company.

What Can You Do?

While there are legal and ethical issues with this screening process, the fact of the matter remains that more and more companies are adopting this process. Companies feel that they need to protect themselves, and social media profiles can give them an insight into what a candidate is truly like. The only preventative measures individuals who are applying for jobs can take is: to increase privacy settings on all social media profiles to block out snooping hiring managers, or simply “clean up” your social media accounts to give a more professional impression.

Warning: It Doesn’t Stop After You’ve been Hired 

Getting the job does not guarantee job security. There have been numerous cases of people being fired for social media posts. Companies have a legal right to do this if an employee has damaged the company’s reputation, or acted in a way that would negatively impact the company, or have admitted on their social media accounts to not doing their job.

• Several teachers have been fired for inappropriate social media posts throughout the world. Teachers are public figures that are in a position of authority, and are highly influential in their students’ lives. As a result, they are expected to act appropriately even when outside of school. A teacher from Denver was fired after she tweeted about her student’s being “hot” and about how she likes to smoke weed.
• A city clerk in Washington quit after she was reprimanded for tweeting during official city meetings rather than keeping track of the meeting minutes.
• An employee of a Detroit power company posted a Facebook rant swearing at her customers, and was consequentially fired.

Social media profiles are not private, and it is considered social media etiquette to monitor your public posts to be considerate and non-offensive.

References:

Broderick, Ryan. (2013, June 6). “10 People Who Learned Social Media Can Get You 

      Fired.” CNN.com. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/06/living/buzzfeed-

social-media-fired/.

CKR Global. (2012, October 25). “Social Media Can Be a Legal Minefield When Screening

Job Applicants. CKR Global. Retrieved from https://ckrglobal.com/social-media-can-

be-legal-minefield-when-screening-job-applicants/.

Guest. (n.d.) How Employers Use Social Media to Screen Applicants. Undercover

Recruiter. Retrieved from http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/infographic-how-

recruiters-use-social-media-screen-applicants/.

Klimas, Liz. (2013, November 22). ” ‘They Got F***** Up’: Energy Company Employee 

     Fired for Facebook Rant Against Those Without Power After Storm.” The Blaze.

Retrieved from http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/22/they-got-f-up-energy-

company-employee-fired-for-facebook-rant-against-those-without-power-after-storm/.

Lee, Henry K. (2014, May 20). Tweeting Clerk Quits, Tells Pleasant Hill What She Really 

Thinks. SF Gate. Retrieved from http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2014/05/20/tweeting-

official-quits-tells-pleasant-hill-what-she-really-thinks/.

Why a “Ghost” Following Isn’t The Right Shortcut for Your Brand

Could there really be a downside to acquiring thousands of followers in a day?

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and many other forms of social media platforms are full of “ghost accounts.” Ghost accounts can refer to either accounts that are inactive or accounts that are created for the purpose of being “fake followers.” In a Digital Trends article, Jam Kotenko states “studies have identified that Twitter has more than 99,000 fake accounts” (Kotenko, 2013).

Celebrities, companies, and individuals are creating a demand for quick followers, and now there is a growing market to supply it. Fake followers can be purchased on specialized websites, such as Buycheapfollowersfast.com, which gives their clients the options of purchasing a selection of Twitter followers, Facebook likes, Instagram followers, or YouTube views.

If you don’t feel comfortable with trusting these sites, you can turn to eBay, with “ghost follower packages” being sold at prices ranging from $10 – $500 depending on the follower count.

Why Would A Brand Do This?

So, why would an organization consider purchasing fake followers? The answer is obvious enough; a large following inspires confidence in the brand. If a company is just starting out, it is much quicker to purchase a following than actually building a real one. Furthermore, a large following attracts more real followers. That is, when a new consumer sees that thousands or millions are already following your brand, they believe that there must be a reason for it, and are more likely to follow you as well.

In the article “The Controversial Case for Buying “Fake” Social Media Followers,” Alex Bentley describes how this fake popularity serves to aid real popularity. “Perceived popularity (as opposed to actual popularity) can sometimes work as a stepping-stone, a short-cut for members of larger or unfamiliar groups, to knowing whether someone is good enough to follow” (Bentley, 2014). Essentially, social media actions are sheep-like, and individuals feel more comfortable following the actions of the masses.

The Downside

Like anything that sounds too good to be true, there can be severe downsides to purchasing your following. This point was clearly illustrated a couple days ago with popular singer Rita Ora. This British singer has 3.9 million followers on Twitter, and on Halloween, she sent out this tweet:

In the following hours, the tweet received only 2,000 retweets despite Rita’s massive following, and as a result the singer proceeded to delete the tweet.

Currently, Rita Ora is claiming that her Twitter account was hacked, and that she never sent out that tweet. Dozens of articles have popped up in the last few days accusing Rita of having a fake Twitter following. According to TwitterAudit.com, Rita Ora has a massive 1.3 million fake Twitter accounts following her.

This incident could easily happen to an organization with a large fake following, and could result in an extremely negative public perception for the brand. In fact, if found out, real followers could be lost.

Don’t Forget the Real Reasons for Followers

More important than the possibility of a high publicity incident such as the one that happened to Rita Ora, is the reason for having followers in the first place. Brands attempt to gain followers so that they may have an open communication channel to contact their consumer base, ask questions, listen to opinions and criticisms, and promote new products or new information to their consumers.

Asking questions, sharing coupons, or sending out opinion polls to a ghost following is just a waste of time. Instead, having a genuine following serves as a two way street for the brand and its consumers to have real-time conversations, and allow for opportunities for the consumers to interact with the brand.

 

In the end, this short cut defeats the purpose of your brand’s reason for having social media accounts. Ghost followers will not retweet or share your information, will not respond to questions, will not purchase items promoted, and will skew consumer data collection results. Just say no to purchasing ghost accounts.

Reference

Bentley, Alex. (2014, September 2). The Controversial Case for Buying “Fake” Social Media Followers. The Guardian. Accessed

November 7, 2014 from http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/sep/02/the-controversial-case-for-buying-fake-social-media-

followers.

Kotenko, Jam. (2013, July 3). Surprise! Twitter is Still Teeming with Fake Accounts. Digital Trends. Accessed November 7, 2014 from

http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/guess-what-twitter-is-still-teeming-with-fake-accounts/.

Linares, Veronica. (2014, November 6). Rita Ora Denies Twitter Promo Fail, Says Her Account Was Hacked. UPI.com. Accessed

November 7, 2014 from http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/Music/2014/11/06/Rita-Ora-denies-Twitter-promo-fail-says-

her-account-was-hacked/4731415285163/.

TwitterAudit. (2014). Rita Ora’s Audit. TwitterAudit.com Accessed November 7, 2014 from https://www.twitteraudit.com/ritaora.

Zarell, Rachel. (2014, November 2). Rita Ora Claims She Was “Hacked” After Massive Twitter Fail. Buzzfeed. Accessed November 7,

2014 from  http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelzarrell/rita-ora-twitter-fail.