Why You Should Care About Your Social Media Footprint

Last time you met someone new in a social event, a work conference, or through a friend, what did you do afterwards? Did you quickly scan any social media platforms to get further information about that person, or to confirm any of the things he or she said during your interaction? Last time your sibling informed you of a new partner, did you have the curiosity to find out more about that person through exploring their social media footprint?

Perhaps you did, perhaps you did not.

Whether we like it or not, our social media footprint is frequently utilized by others, to more quickly identify facets of one’s character that perhaps were not exposed through an introductory interaction. Since this is a process that we frequently employ in order to acquire more information on each other, does it surprise you that an employer would also utilize this method to screen a prospective hire?

For many employers, a cover letter, a resume, and even an interview, all represent static or limited portrayals of individuals. While an employer can deduce valuable take-aways and insights about an individual through these means, frequently, a company might want to get a deeper understanding of a candidate by examining him/her through time. Employers are more and more concerned and interested in hiring a profile candidate, that will fit into their culture, not a just an individual to fill a role. Most individuals have been utilizing and sharing information and opinions on social media for over a decade. When compiled, this data can be used to generate an individual’s profile, sometimes accurate, other times not.

Hence, it should be of no surprise that 70% of employers use social media to screen candidates during the hiring process, while about 43% of employers use social media to check on current employees.

AI technology is rapidly becoming embedded in all sorts of business processes. Similarly, recruiting officers and HR professionals have also started to deploy such technology in order to save time, money and in order to acquire more information about candidates, so as to ultimately source for individuals that seemingly will be well matched to integrate in a company’s existing culture.

While this process can entail a myriad of benefits for employers, it can also lead to a lot of stress for individual jobseekers. Up to now, it was difficult for employers to gather information about a candidate beyond that which the candidate or a reference disclosed. Subsequently, one could portray themselves in a light which they deemed most appropriate in order to ultimately attain the desired job. This however is now changing, as employers have access to more information than that which you simply share. Furthermore, the fact that this information is being aggregated and analyzed by a software program can lead to misinterpretation of information or exaggerated assumptions which are not accurate. It is reasonable to assume that an individual is not constant throughout his/her lifetime, but rather can change values, ideology and philosophy through time. Something you made publicly on social media 10 years ago might not (probably doesn’t) reflect anything about who you are today. Additionally, you might correctly wonder if a given AI tool is in position to pick up figures of speech such as irony or sarcasm that a given post may contain? Or whether it can understand broader contexts, such as what is the relationship of the individuals in a social exchange, or what was the context at the time of the post that may have been implicit then, but not to an AI tool analyzing it now. You may fear that your past posts may be misconstrued and negatively impact your chance of receiving the job offer you so badly desire.

To combat such potential negative outcomes and help take this stress off your shoulders we have come up with our own new and innovative AI tool. Our tool will scan your social media footprint on sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc. in order give you an idea of what a potential employer would see when conducting a similar search. Our tool will flag any posts that may appear controversial and provide you a report that contains a compilation of all your publicly made posts for your viewing. Ultimately, the tool will also output a “Hire-Score”. This score reflects you “hireability” to employers based on the aggregation of your social media footprint. You will then be able to take action and remove or alter certain content in order to increase your score.

Seems like a lot of work? All you need to provide is the email address associated to your social media accounts and we will do all the work for you. Make sure no ghosts from the past come to haunt you! A professional online persona is key!

Subscribe for our service today, increase your chances of being hired tomorrow!