I suggest a a modification of the “Miranda Statement” may be appropriate for our times: “Anything you chose to say (in any format in any medium) can and will be used against you by anyone at any time for the rest of your life and beyond, because they CAN…”

We may be moving toward a corporate-dominated “Santa State”:
He knows when you’ve been sleeping,
He knows when you’re awake.
He knows when you’ve been good or bad,
So be good for goodness sake!

Cheers,
Keith

This is why social networks are not easy to mine as a source of hires. Not everyone that engages in online social networking has low self-esteem, but it provides greater benefits for those that experience low self-esteem. That’s not an opinion – there are plenty of studies that indicate this – such as this one from Michigan State (http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/ellison.html).

The point is that some people will be fiercely protective of the source of their psychological well-being, and helping an employer use it to fill jobs is largely irrelevant to them. For many employees an employer wanting to get into their network is nothing more than uninvited cat in the sandbox. Failing to grasp that is a recipe for a lot of frustration as a recruiter.

When attempting to change human behavior it’s a good idea to understand the motivations that drive it. Online social networking did not take off just because networking sites were launched. It does not exist in a vacuum – it serves a purpose largely unrelated to recruiting.

Research articles in the social and behavioral sciences are pretty boring to read, but reading them prevents making generalizations of the sort Stuart makes – which suggests a simple explanation for a complex phenomenon.

Next, we should probably modify that to EVERYTHING COMMUNICATES 24/7 FOREVER IN All WAYS.
– everything you say (and don’t say)
– everything you do (and don’t do)
– everything you choose to listen to or look at

Some say we define your values by what we’re prepared to walk past. We’re judged, rightly or wrongly, on all aspects of our communication: what we communicate to others, what communication we accept from others, and how we act on both. Given that, it’s increasingly important to manage all aspects of communication and the messages we send and receive.

George Bradt
PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding and Transition Acceleration
http://www.primegenesis.com

The point of this post seems to be an attempt to make sure people take social networking with a grain of salt. That’s fine, but you didn’t have to chop it off at the knees. This kind of thinking is going to severely limit any gains (which are many) of hiring worth while people.