The Benefits and Pitfalls of Online Social Media for

CareersGordon B. Schmidt M. A.

OLS DivisionIPFW

Outline• The Internet and careers• What is social media?• Existing Employee Relations• Recruitment/Selection Issues• Information Exchange• Q & A

The Internet and Careers

• Who here has used the Internet in a job search? How did you?• Who here has used a social media site

(ex. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) in way related to job search?• Who has used social media in some way

related to their job or profession?

Social Networking Sites• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF

7TYKVc• Social Networking Sites Definition (Boyd

& Ellison, 2008)• web-based services that allow people to:1. Construct a public or semi-public profile in

a bounded network2. Have a list of other users connected to3. View those connections and those of

connected others

What is social media?

• “a group of Internet-based applications… that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content” (Kaplan & Hainlein, 2010)

• Broader category than social networking sites • Facebook has 149 Million active users in the

U.S. alone-70% of those users log on daily

Social Media and Careers

• Social Media is already having significant impact on careers and looks to have even more in the future• We will look at/discuss examples in 3

major areas today:•Existing Employee Relations•Recruitment/Selection Issues• Information Exchange

Challenges to Existing Employee Relations

• People have been fired for Facebook and other social media site posts• Ex. Public Teachers• http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL8xIELR2Gc• Was this fair?

Public vs. Private Information• Social media connects people socially

and professional• The borders of each info type can be

blurry• If you were the manager of the following

employees what would you do?

Benefits to existing employee relations• Venues for employees to support and

share info with each other

Recruitment/Selection Challenges• Great amount of potential information

available to recruiters through social media• But is it accurate? Is it legal?• Example: definition of binge drinking• If A Facebook picture shows you and

these 5 bottles at a party, how much did you drink?

Recruitment/Selection Benefits• More potentially useful information on each

side• Both parties can look at online professional

presences so that interview is not just resume rehash• Strategy to see what people can actually

deliver• Example: Innovation Protocol, brand strategy

consulting firm• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4nD6y-P

nUY

Professional Information Exchange• Social media can also offer a medium by

which to gain professional information that helps your career and career-related knowledge base• Can make connections with people in your

field/perspective field• Get access to information and opinions

from thought leaders and the cutting edge• Potential for Serendipity•Finding information valuable to you that you did not even know you needed

Examples

Questions or Comments?

Contact Information

• Email: schmidtg@ipfw.edu

• IOPsychology feed on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/iopsychology

• On LinkedIn:• http://

www.linkedin.com/pub/gordon-schmidt/13/a90/891