40% of tech firms view potential staff on web
The report, carried out in association with Irish agency Simpson Financial & Technology PR, will further galvanise the debate over privacy settings on personal pages, and if they are rigorous enough to keep out unwanted eyes.
Ronnie Simpson of Simpson FT PR warned that while social media is a great way to network and build career opportunities, it is becoming more difficult to differentiate between a professional and personal persona on the web.
“Job seekers may be happy for their LinkedIn profile to be viewed by a prospective employer but are they comfortable with what’s posted on their Facebook profile?” Mr Simpson said.
“They may be comfortable that their own privacy settings are locked down tight but what about the career suitability and accessibility of photos or other personal information posted on friends’ sites?”
The survey of more than 660 senior level executives in technology companies, included 5% from Ireland, was conducted during January and February 2011 and also highlights corporate usage of social media.
Just over a third (36%) of technology firms have a formal process in place, other than a Google alert, for listening to what is said about their company on the web.
The survey also found that there has been no growth in corporate blogging over the last two years.
The main barriers to corporate blogging were that it is too time consuming, cited by 33%, followed by 29% who said they don’t see the value of it.
Mr Simpson said given the value of corporate blogging from a search perspective alone, it was a surprising that only a third of technology firms do it.
However, since it does require a significant time commitment companies are better not to do it at all than do it badly or infrequently, he added.
Despite a mixed reaction to blogging, more than half of firms surveyed had a Facebook page, 46% had a corporate Twitter account, 43% are on LinkedIn and just over a third (36%) of companies had a YouTube presence.
Of the total, 38% expect to increase their spend on social media over the next 12 months.
