Social Media Background Checks

            For years companies have been doing background checks on potential employees.  The traditional background check told the employer if the potential employee had a criminal background or was a drug user.  Today some companies are taking the traditional background check a step further, and are also performing social media background checks.  This practice includes searching social networking sites in order to find more out about potential employees.  Commonly searched social networking sites are Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedln.

            It is currently being debated whether or not performing a social networking background check should be allowed.  Employers argue that the social media background check helps them determine if the potential employee will be a good fit in their organization.  It can provide them with insight into the candidate’s personality, and also help them design appropriate questions for the interview.  While potential employees often argue that it is an infringement of their privacy.  They tend to feel that what happens in their personal life is just that, personal.  They also worry that the information that they find while performing a social media background check will influence their hiring decision in a negative manner. 

            It has been reported that seven out of ten U.S. employers reject candidates based on information they have posted online.  The same study also reported that ninety percent of employers are "somewhat concerned" to "very concerned" that the information they find can be inaccurate and unreliable.  (Siedsma, 2012)  Yet, although these concerns have been noted employers are increasingly placing more importance on information and pictures from this source. 

            A lot of information found as the result of social media background checks can cast an unfavorable light onto the potential candidate.  For example, a candidate's age, gender, sexuality, and religious beliefs are typically exposed in such checks.  Employers are not supposed to consider this information when making their decision, but once they know something it can be difficult not to let it influence their decision.

            Another concern of potential employees is their use of short hand when writing messages to friends back and forth.  For example, “What r u doing 2nite?”  is something that a friend might post onto another friend’s wall.  Although this form of communication might be found appropriate by the two people who are actually communicating in the conversation, a potential employer will likely view it as unprofessional. 

            Social networking sites are also likely to provide the potential employers with information about your family.  They might find out that you have four young children, and worry that you will not have enough time to commit to the job.  Or they might find out that you are single, and become concerned that you are a flight risk.

            While most of the discussion related to social media background checks focuses on the negative information, some positive information can also be found.  For example, when some employers are doing social media background checks they are looking to see who your friends are, and what groups you are a member of.  This can benefit the candidate when they are connected to other individuals or groups in the same business.  The employer wants to see if you are connected to key people who can potentially benefit them. 

            Federal employment laws are in place to level the playing field.  All individuals are supposed to receive an equal opportunity regardless of age, class, gender, race, sexuality, and religious beliefs.  As more and more social networking sites are developed, new laws will have to be developed in order to regulate what is considered fair game when it comes to social media sites.  The reality is that social networking sites are a very important part of today's society, and their use will only continue to grow making this an even larger issue.

Social Networking In the Workplace

            Many social networking sites were developed with the hopes that they would be used to connect friends with one another.  It was not long after this that social networking sites were being developed in order to foster relationships with possible love interest.  Now you see social networking sites being used in the classroom as educational tools.  Based on this rapid growth across varying fields, it is really not that big of a stretch to believe that social networking sites are now making a place for themselves in the professional workplace. 

            Social networking applications have been designed that share many of the same characteristics of Facebook.  These applications allow employees that work for the company to connect with one another.  Social networking applications are designed to increase productivity.  They are each encouraged to set up a profile.  This profile might include information such as what their job responsibilities are, education, special training, and work history.

            These social networking applications allow employees to form multiple groups.  One of the benefits of this is that employees who are working as a team can form a group dedicated specifically to that project.  This allows for a virtual file where all group members can find information within a few click of a mouse.  Group members can follow one another allow them to receive status updates that are important in their workplace on their newsfeed. 

            Social networking applications are slowly beginning to replace the use of email in some workplaces.  This movement is being met with some resistance though.  In order for this new form of communication to be effective all of a company’s employees need to commit to it.  The transition from email to social networking seems go better if all group leaders are completely behind its use.  Some companies have also tried making it a game and/or competition. 

            Email systems have been in operation for over 50 years.  (Dow Jones & Company, 2012)  Over the years many upgrades have been made to the systems.  Employees are comfortable with using them.  Clients are comfortable with using them as a form of communication.  Since many companies are required to keep documentation of their communication with clients, company email has provided a great storage bin.  How will social networking application fulfill this role? 

            There is also some question as to how employees can search for older documents using social networking applications.  This will be particularly problematic for companies that employee millions of people.  Millions of employees equals millions of updates on a daily basis.  This is allows for great communication flow, but can also become somewhat overwhelming.  Heavy use can also make looking for an older document challenging if there is not an adequate history bank that the employees can use to search for historical documents. 

            Another concern with these new applications will be controlling viruses.  Although these applications are relatively safe compared to public social networking sites, nothing is fool proof.  This foreseeable problem is something that companies can prepare for by educating their employees and increasing their software security. 

            There is still a lot of room for the develop of social networking applications in the workplace, but what we have seen so far is a very promising start.  The overall goal is to unify employees of a company. 

Social Networking with Tumblr

There are continually new social networks being developed.  One of the latest is tumblr.  It is a blogging platform that is favored by individuals who are trying to foster an artistic identity.  Tumblr allows individuals to share photographs, paintings, and other forms of artwork.  As a result, tumblr is much more visually appealing then other social networks.  Text is not as important when tumbling.  Text is used as a backstory that supports the art.  “Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything.  Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and video, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be.”  (Tumblr, 2012)

Davide Karp, the founder of Tumblr.com, stated that, “tumblr is growing by a quarter billions impressions every week.”  (TCTV, 2012)  A larger percentage of this growth has come from college students.  Tumblr currently has 16.5 million users.  There have been 4.5 million posts made.  This equals out to about 26 million new posts a day.  (Mae, 2012)  Tumblr has become known as the easy way to blog.  It was designed for individuals who want to get their thoughts out there. 

Tumblr is easy to set up.  All the user needs is an email address, password, and blog name.  The user can choose to provide a photograph for their account.  They are also encouraged to provide a title for their blog.  The Themes and Appearances tabs allow the user to choose the themes for their blog.

It appeals to the less experienced bloggers.  Wordpress.com and Blogger are often used by more experienced bloggers.  Some of these bloggers choose to use tumblr as their secondary account.  When using tumblr the viewer does not have to wait for the page to load.  They can also quickly skim through the text.  The primary blog is likely to be much denser. 

Tumblr allows the user to follow other users who share the same interest they do.   Tumblr makes it very easy to reblog information.  This action allows for followers of a blog to receive these relative news clips too. 

Tumblr lets the user decide whether to publish their post immediately, or chose to have them published at a later date.  The tool that allows the user to publish post at a later date and time is particularly useful for a business professional that would like to remind client of upcoming client appreciation events, or important deadlines that are approaching.   Whereas, a writer might use it to announce an upcoming public appearance to their followers.   

Tumblr allows for post to be supported by six different forms.  They are text, quote, link, chat, and video.  Tumblr does not have some of the editing tools that some of the other blogging formats do.  Tumblr does not limit the number of words that you can use. 

Tumblr has a mobile application.  There is an application that works on the iPhone and also the Blackberry.  The lets the account holder to access and update their account around the clock. 

WordPress does a better job then tumblr does when it come to supporting big business.  WordPress is much more flexible with its designs.  It supports ecommerce, forms, listings, heavy content, and advertising.  Tumblr is not designed to support such formats. 

An individual can set up their tumblr to post to twitter as links automatically.  This is suppose to drive traffic to their site.  Facebook also allows users to set it up so their tumblr post appear on their facebook.  This differs from the way twitter supports tumblr, because the twitter uses actually go to the site.  Tumblr allows you to create these links more easily than many other blogging sites. 

There is not just one social network that works for all people.  An individual’s choice should be made based on who their target audience is, what their technical abilities are, and who will be writing the text for the site.  Some people use one social networking site, while others use multiple social media sites. 

Online Identity Relationship Building

Online identities are important to individuals in all different professions.  They are important to individuals who are freelance writers, because have an extra responsibility to reach out to the public and attract individuals and companies that are in need of their services.   It also allows freelance writers to continually update their followers with the latest news.  This is very important, because competition in this field is great.  Some news channels dedicate all or their efforts to keeping the public up to date with the latest news 24/7.  Yet online identities are also important to business professionals who are often paid on commissions or with bonus incentives, and as a result are always trying to increase their customer base. 

 In many cases the networks that these individuals use are different, because they are reaching out to a different target audience.  Business professionals, financial advisors for example, are more likely trying to attract older clients who are a year or two years away from retirement.  They will likely have better success connecting with this type of client on networks that have been around longer.  While a freelance writer is expected to be more experienced with new technology, and someone searching for their services might be more likely to use a newer network in order to find a freelance writer who has demonstrated that they are on top of new technology.  Freelance writers are also likely to favor media sites that have a mobile application, because they are becoming increasing popular with the public.  

In today’s fast past society the consumer wants what they want when they want it.  They do not like waiting for information, and in many cases if they are likely to select a provider from the top ten of the search result simply based on convenience.  This is one big reason that individuals dip into more than one network.  Having your online identity reinforced in different networks increases the chance that the provider’s name will appear in one of these searches. 

Facebook is a great network for providing contact information.  Twitter is a great tool for providing the consumer with information.  By providing a link to the consumer the provider is asking the consumer to become engaged.  In many cases the more engaged the consumer is the more successful the business relationship will be. 

Individuals in today’s society are changing the way in which they prefer to communicate.  While the older generations are still likely to pick up a phone; younger generations are choosing to communicate through online media sites such as facebook, twitter.  It important to know what your customer’s preferred method of communication is, because using that form of communication will increase the frequency of your communication and also their level of satisfaction with your communication. 

 A freelance writer’s relationship with their followers can also be strengthened through the use of online identities.  The reader can develop a deeper connection with the writer if they fill out an online profile.  They might find that they share an interest or admire a specific accomplishment.  This helps develop a sense of trust between the reader and the writer.  This is very important; because a reader will not waste their time reading something that they do not believe comes from a trustworthy source.  Another way that this relationship can be strengthened is by allowing the reader to comment on the writer’s work.  Reader’s want to feel that their opinion is valued and the freelancer can assure this be taking a moment to respond to the reader or also be addressing all readers as a group every so often. 

Introduction

Online identities are important to individuals in all different professions.  They are important to individuals who are freelance writers, because have an extra responsibility to reach out to the public and attract individuals and companies that are in need of their services.   Yet they are also important to business professionals how are often paid on commissions or with bonus incentives, and as a result are always trying to increase their customer base. 

 In many cases the networks that these individuals use are different, because they are reaching out to a different target audience.  Business professionals, financial advisors for example, are more likely trying to attract older clients who are a year or two years away from retirement.  They will likely have better success connecting with this type of client on networks that have been around longer.  While a freelance writer is expected to be more experienced with new technology, and someone searching for their services might be more likely to use a newer network in order to find a freelance writer who has demonstrated that they are on top of new technology. 

In today’s fast past society the consumer wants what they want when they want it.  They do not like waiting for information, and in many cases if they are likely to select a provider from the top ten of the search result simply based on convenience.  This is one big reason that individuals dip into more than one network.  Having your online identity reinforced in different networks increases the chance that the provider’s name will appear in one of these searches. 

Facebook is a great network for providing contact information.  Twitter is a great tool for providing the consumer with information.  By providing a link to the consumer the provider is asking the consumer to become engaged.  In many cases the more engaged the consumer is the more successful the business relationship will be. 

Instant Satisfaction

In today's fast pace society individuals want information immediately.  They do not want to have to physically search to obtain information.  They do not want to have to wait for someone else to provide them with information.  This one reason that having an online identity is so important.  An online identity allows individuals to locate you in a matter of seconds.