People are using social media to do simple checks on people they are involved with. Examples? Employers obviously, but that is old news. Recently I have read articles mentioning that potential roommates, first dates, parents hiring babysitters, and college admission officers are also using social media to scope out people.
How? The easiest way is to look at FaceBook and then Google or Bing the person’s name.
The down side is someone checking you out could close a door on opportunity. Heard a comment on the radio yesterday that one on the announcers checked out possible baby sitters on FaceBook and ruled out some people because of what was visible. Read an article a few months ago that incoming freshmen are Googling their assigned roommates before arriving on campus to see if they want to request a change.
You might want to Google or Bing your own name. I recently learned via Google that someone at my alma mater digitized the commencement book handed out at my graduation. Names of all the grads and their degrees (along with honors, as I recall) were listed. That kind of thing makes it quite dangerous to fake your academic credentials!
At a conference earlier this year, one of the presenters said that a realtor friend told him that the first thing the realtor does when getting a new client is check all their tweets. Yes, that means that people can go back and look up your tweets after the fact! Reason to do so? Sometimes clients will say things in tweets that give away how desperate they are, which then affects the offers provided. Imagine your negotiating position if the potential buyer that just walked in the door knew that yesterday you tweeted “hi bible study –just listed house – pray for fast sale cuz we won’t make next pymt”. If that happens, knock $20k off the offer!
I am starting to read about people loosing job offers or getting fired over tweets or FaceBook postings. Found these two articles with just a few moments of research: here and here. Lots of other articles are out there.
Again, be careful what you put out there on social media. Someone might be looking!
9-19 update – word for the day: FaceBook stalking