How to Conduct a Social Media Background Check for Employment

Groupboss

Jul 29, 2024 • 6 min read

Social media background check for employment is a very common thing nowadays. Hiring the best candidate for your business is a mix between art and science. There is a lot to consider: a candidate’s qualifications, work experience, soft and hard skills…

And that’s even before you consider whether their personality and attitude will be a good fit for your company!

That said, you have several options to make the process easier and more efficient. One of them is conducting a social media background check for employment. If you’re interested in learning more about this, keep reading our complete guide.

Social media skills, such as leveraging Facebook insights, are key. They are a straightforward way to stay abreast of changes in the digital world and to harness development. But they can do so much more than this: they might even help you assess a candidate’s suitability for a specific job role. And that’s exactly what you can achieve with a social media background check.

More and more employers are turning to social media background checks for employment. According to StandOut-CV data, 58% of employers profile their candidates by analyzing their social media accounts. But what do these checks entail?

58% employers consider social media background check for employment. — Data sourced from standout-cv.com

Social media background checks are also sometimes known as social media screening. They involve viewing a job applicant’s activity on social networks. The majority of candidates' social media posts will be harmless. However, employers will keep an eye out for certain red flags. These might include:

Content or activity that promotes racist, misogynistic, or other discriminatory material.
Illegal drug use/abuse.
Other illegal activities.

Social media background checks do not have to follow a negative pattern. The procedure can offer positive reinforcement, too. Have you found a photo of a job applicant volunteering for a charity? Great, this can show commitment to a cause.

A candidate seems to have a strong interest in topics like marketing and lead generation? Passion for relevant subjects could also tell you to make the hire.

There are many things that a social media background check for employment can help you achieve. Below, we explore some of the main ones.

Get to know what the data can’t show

Traditional tests like credit or criminal record checks cannot show everything. If you want your candidate management system to include plenty of data, you need to dig deeper. Social media has become an important tool for self-expression.

People project who they are and who they want to be on their social media accounts. Their social media content and online activities become a window into their character. Running a thorough check of their social accounts can illuminate who they are as a person, which will help you in your hiring decisions.

Quell character concerns

The hiring process often requires job candidates to be performative. A candidate wants the job and will behave in the way most likely to get the position. But how do you know what they’re like outside their professional life?

Are your instincts telling you something that wasn’t immediately obvious? Do you have an uncomfortable gut feeling about a specific applicant? Social media checks can confirm or dismiss concerns about your potential employee.

Figure out a candidate’s fit

Knowing if a candidate will fit in is a million-dollar question. Team cohesion is a must for successful businesses. Social media checks can be a good way of determining how committed a candidate will be to your business.

These checks can also allow you to compare them to your current employees. Doing so will let you see if they are likely to fit with the team and your company culture.

Are you ready to conduct a comprehensive background check on the online behavior of your potential candidates? Then, follow the steps outlined below.

Outline your criteria and goals

While the ‘what’ forms the substance of a social media background check, the ‘why’ drives the process.

Define the aspects of a prospective candidate you want your business to focus on. Personal preferences on the business side might get in the way of fair judgment. A set-out plan will prescribe the same process for each candidate. This, in turn, will create a fairer and more effective system.

Sometimes, a social media background check can provide more questions than answers. Identifying why you are conducting the background check streamlines this process.

Ensuring you are set to review the right candidate is key, as is a thorough check of all their social profiles. Imagine if you started checking the social profile of your candidate’s namesake. Getting the wrong person and profiles could spell disaster and set the process back. So, it is key to get this step right.

Then, you need to gain a candidate's written consent. Make it very clear to them what you will be reviewing and why. This will help both of you be on the same page. In turn, it will also give you the confidence to proceed with ease.

Be aware, though, that there might be limitations to what you can and can't screen on social media. If you are unsure, it might be a good idea to consult with an employment lawyer. The last thing you want is to conduct a background check that ends up being against the law!

Select the content

Reviewing the content of your candidates’ social media accounts is the next step. Doing so can take a long time, so you want to be strategic. First of all, decide on a time frame. Say a candidate has been active on Facebook for the past 15 years. Going through their entire activity is not doable, nor necessary.

Checking the content they posted in the past six months to a year might make more sense. You can either do this yourself or hire a screener. If you opt for the latter, make sure they are aware of what, exactly, you want them to look at.

Review the content

Knowing what to flag can be one of the most challenging aspects of the process. For this reason, it can be helpful if you divide content into several categories:

Unlawful activity. Evidence of recent illegal drug use or similar activities can make it clear a candidate is a bad fit.
Violent and anti-social behavior. Online abuse, threats, “trolling”, and the like are all red flags. They are all strong signs that the candidate is a poor fit within your business's culture.
Intolerance. Misogyny, homophobia, racism, and ableism will be other major red flags to keep an eye out for.
Explicit material. Monitoring profiles for explicit sexual content and language is essential. This can help you foster a safe workplace.

There are other things to bear in mind that are more and more important in a digital world.

Spreading misinformation, for example, is a tricky one to get right when you are pressed for time. Have you found out that your potential employee is part of shady Facebook groups?

Conspiracy theorists with a history of sharing fake news that could lead to harm may be risky. A social media background check for employment could prevent a business from such a hire.

You need to remember something else, though. A social media background check for employment can also show a candidate's positives. Evidence that a candidate is a keen volunteer, for example, can be a green flag. It shows commitment and willingness to sacrifice for a cause.

Collate and review findings

Creating a consistent system for screening candidates’s social media is vital. There are many ways to do this, depending on the tools and resources you have available. For instance, you could create a document including the main elements of the candidate's profile. Attaching it to your recruitment dashboard will help your HR team stay on top of things.

Then, to get an even better view, you may want to combine this with the information acquired through other more ‘traditional’ checks (criminal records, credit checks, etc.).

Once completed, the document can stand as a touchstone for hiring managers. This will be a go-to resource once the check is complete and further streamline hiring.

There are many options your business can turn to to attract top talent. As we have seen in this guide, a social media background check for employment is one of them.

Screening a potential employee's online activity can reveal many things. Do you want to find out more about a candidate's personality? Are you interested in discovering the topics they talk about? Or do you want to gauge if they'll fit well with your team? Analyzing social media content can be an invaluable tool to enable all this.

Remember, though, that you must seek written consent from your job applicant before you embark on this process. Once done, keep an eye out for red – and green – flags, review your findings, and share your information with the rest of the hiring team.

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