As a Job Seeker, Here’s What You Should Know About Social Media Screening

Social Media Screening

To find the right person who fits their organization and the vacant role, hiring managers deploy a range of techniques. Today, social media screening has become an important part of this.

Of course, checking social profiles and activities can be more relevant for certain roles, like front-end positions, than others. But this doesn’t mean you can take things lightly if you are applying for a back-office role.

Many employers examine a candidate’s online presence to improve the accuracy and efficacy of their hiring decisions. According to CareerBuilder, as much as 70% of companies now rely on social media checks to learn more about a person during pre-employment screenings.

So, if you are job hunting, it is time to take note. In this article, we shed light on all you should know about social screening for hiring. 

So, Why Do Employers Opt for Social Media Background Checks?

When researching potential employees, networking platforms can help hiring managers with:

  • Verifying candidate information, such as their work experience, education, and past employers.
  • Identifying personal interests, skills, and strengths. Communication, social empathy, and tact also come under this.
  • Assessing a person’s cultural fit in terms of values and characteristics.
  • Discovering conflicts of interest and potential red flags that could ultimately damage the organization’s reputation. This could include a bad online image, questionable activities, and offensive, violent, or racist behaviors.

According to state and federal regulations in the U.S., social media checks are treated like any other employee background screening.

For instance, hiring managers are prohibited from checking a candidate’s social profiles to find their race, religion, sexual orientation, citizenship, disabilities, and other protected class information, which could be used for discrimination.

As long as employers comply with such applicable laws, there is nothing preventing them from investigating someone’s social presence for recruitment purposes.

Which Networking Platforms Will Employers Check During Social Screenings?

Professionals serious about career advancement often maintain an active presence on LinkedIn. So, this is usually the first place organizations would turn to when they want to dig deeper into a person’s work background.

But hiring managers often check platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and others, too. These can provide useful insights into how an individual conducts themselves in regular social settings outside the norms of a professional environment.

What Exactly Do Employers Look for on Social Platforms?

On LinkedIn, organizations could particularly focus on discovering a candidate’s work history, including when and where they worked, positions and responsibilities held, key achievements, and recommendations. The site is also an excellent resource for identifying skills, certifications, licenses, awards, honors, patents, and education-related details.

If you consider social platforms in general, hiring managers will be curious about your posts, comments, likes, reshares, followers, and the like.

They would pay attention to extremist views, exaggerations or lies, negative remarks about former employers, confidential business information, and inappropriate, offensive, violent, discriminatory, or disrespectful content.

Even regular typos, language errors, and excessive social activities could raise alarm bells during a pre-employment screening.

How Can You Spruce Up Your Digital Presence to Improve Your Chances of Getting Hired?

If you want to sway potential social screenings in your favor, here are simple steps you can take before you send in your next job application.

  • Build a Presence on Key Platforms

Setting up a profile on LinkedIn is a must, while sites like Facebook, Instagram, and X can also help, especially for presenting your personal interests in a positive light. Ensure your profiles on these are complete with the key information an employer would be interested in knowing. And keep things concise but impactful and catchy to help you stand out.

Be mindful of spelling and grammar, too. It is ok to use informal language, but a certain level of professionalism and depth could work to your advantage when getting hired.

  • Pay Attention to What You Post

Avoid sensitive topics like religion and politics, and instead focus on how you could use your strengths and interests to help others. For example, promote social causes you love or share your knowledge and expertise with insightful posts and comments.

Be also careful who you follow and engage with. The content and people you associate with will speak volumes of your character in the eyes of a potential employer.

  • Be Authentic

Bluffing on social media will only work so far in getting hired. A hiring manager is bound to see you for who you are once they meet you in person. By being your true self, you can achieve much more in the long-term. For instance, when followers see authentic content, they tend to engage with it better. This, in turn, could help you gain new followers and build a sizable community of real humans (in place of bots).

So, avoid exaggerations and misrepresentations, be relatable, share real stories, and stay true to yourself.

  • Screen Your Digital Presence

If you are not careful, your digital presence could jeopardize your career prospects. But with regular screening, you can eliminate much of the risk.

The easiest way to do this is by running a name search on Google and identifying what a potential employer could uncover. Sometimes, you may find old and abandoned social accounts from your younger days. Or there might be duplicate accounts set up by others to imitate or resemble yours (usually a result of a prank, personal grudge, or even a scam). Addressing all these is a must before you start job hunting.

Summing It All Up

Every hiring manager knows that one wrong hire could significantly hamper an organization’s success and reputation. So, they deploy extensive screening processes to help make the right recruitment decisions.

For many employers, social media screening has become a regular part of pre-employment checks. When done properly, it could give insights into a candidate’s work history, skills, strengths, interests, values, and more.

So, if you are getting ready for your next big career move, pay attention to your digital activities. A smartly managed social presence might boost your chances of getting hired.


Share on:

Leave a Comment