New Studies Show Importance of Online Reputation Management for Job Hunting
As Bob Dylan once sang, the Times They Are a-Changin’. According to a study done by Forrester Research, nearly half of all adults in the United States with Internet access (42%) are active on one or more social networking websites. Two years ago, this number was only 20%. Much of this increase can be attributed to the sky-rocketing growth of Facebook, which now boasts 250 million users worldwide.
Of course, with the growth of Facebook and other social networking sites, there is also a need for social media users to be responsible for how they represent themselves online. Increasingly, hiring managers and recruiters have been turning to social networks to identify potential job candidates. In a different study conducted by CareerBuilder, 45% of employers reported that they use social networking sites to screen potential employees. This number is up from 22% the previous year, indicating the fast growing importance of pro-active Online Reputation Management.
Some other interesting tidbits from the CareerBuilder study:
- 11% of employers plan to start using social networking sites for employment screening.
- Of the 45% of employers who conduct online searches of job candidates, 29% use Facebook, 26% use LinkedIn, 21% use MySpace, 11% search blogs, and 7% use Twitter.
- 18% of employers said they found content on social networking sites that encouraged them to hire the candidate, while 35% of employers found content that caused them not to hire the candidate.
