Student Awareness of the Use of Social Media Screening by Prospective Employers

Hiring professionals are increasingly using social media sites as screening tools. The primary purpose of this study was to determine what students thought employers considered important information when researching profiles. A survey was given to students enrolled in College of Business classes at a university in the Southeast. Students were cognizant that employers consider posts about drugs, alcohol, sex, profanity, and negative comments. Students did not consider posts and photo tags by friends to be important to employers, nor did they consider grammar and spelling to be important. This is in stark contrast to what recent research indicates employers consider important.