# Checked and Approved? Human Resources Managers' Uses of Social Media for Cybervetting
## 4 Results
### Digging Deeper  
Searching information about job candidates online offers a quick option to check some information and to get a broader picture about the candidate. Some recruiters stress they focus exclusively on professionally oriented SNS and systematically check LinkedIn profiles but not Facebook profiles. As stated by a respondent: \"LinkedIn is a business profile, Facebook is private\" (R2 NP, female, age: 44, experience: 16). Nevertheless, some HR managers also consult the candidates' Facebook and Twitter pages and even perform a Google search on a candidate to check which search results pop up. Therefore, online information is a supplementary source: \"I use the CV, the letter, and this (SNS) is also a source to form an impression of a candidate\" (R5 NP, male, age: 34, experience: 5). It offers some HR professionals a possibility to get a \"broader picture of the candidate. You also try to discover a kind of consistency\" (R9 NP, male, age: 41, experience: 14). In other words, some recruiters verify information of the vitae or letter with information they find online. In addition, the relation between the applicant and referees that are mentioned in a candidate's letter, are checked online. Other respondents indicate they scan the candidate's online information to check if they find something that would not fit in the organization's culture. Some HR professionals highlight that social media only come into play, when they have doubts concerning whether to invite a candidate: \"If I have some doubts when looking at a CV, I look for extra information, like their LinkedIn or Facebook profile\" (R2P, female, age: 26, experience: 6). Some recruiters even go further than a Google search or a search on social media. They use specific software or applications to search and group information of a candidate found online (recruitment intelligence applications). One interviewee indicates to have followed a \"recruiter hacking course\" (R4P, male, age: 46, experience: 16) wherein he learned, for instance, to get around privacy settings to have a deeper insight into information posted of candidates on their SNS timeline. The information found on an SNS can change an HR professional's image of the candidate. Some respondents mention that they found information that had a very strong negative influence on their assessment of a candidate. \"Once, I had a candidate who got into trouble for stalking his ex-girlfriend. I found this information in several places online, so 'where there is smoke, there is fire'. You don't want to deal with that kind of guy. Even if he has a strong profile, he got into trouble. Everyone deserves a second chance, but this story was all over the place\" (R4P, male, age: 46, experience: 16). While this is an extreme example, some respondents clearly state that information found online can lead them to \"turn down a candidate\" (R3P, female, age: 38, experience: 1). Some of them nuance the influence of online data but state that it can change the way they start the interview or interpret what is said by the interviewee. Finally, some HR managers use LinkedIn to gain information about a candidate's network to collect more information about that candidate through an informal chat with a common connection. \"On LinkedIn, if I insert the name of someone, I see common contacts. These contacts are often in sales and marketing of organizations and then I contact them... I ask how they evaluate him, how long have they worked together,... \" (R6P, female, age: 37, experience: 15). Not only can SNS play a role as a supplementary source of information for HR professionals, job candidates also use it to gain more information about their employer to prepare for the job interview or even to try to connect with the interviewer. Some recruiters attest that candidates had searched for information about them as they referred to specific topics as a conversation starter. For instance, they refer to a former job of the interviewer.