Social Media and Employment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Social Media and Employment - Research Paper Example Instead of using social networks as a mere communication channel, people started to exploit it in different ways. For example, employers are using social networks nowadays, to identify potential candidates for the vacancies in their organizations. Recruitment through social networks is the cheapest and quickest way of filling vacancies in an organization. This paper analyses various ways through which social networks can be used for the recruitment process and also the advantages and disadvantages in using social networks for the recruitment process. Definition: Social Networking â€Å"Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighborhood subdivision. When it comes to online social networking, websites are commonly used. These websites are known as social sites†(What is social networking, 2011). Social sites help to build an online community in the virtual world to function like a social community in the real worl d. Online community can accommodate people from distant parts of the world irrespective of their cast, age, race, gender or religion. Background: Social Networking & Employment Just like alcohol or drug addiction, social media or social networking is a kind of addiction to most of the people in the current generation. Majority of the people who know something about computers and internet may have accounts in social media networks to communicate with their friends and relatives and also to express their views to the external world. The capabilities or potentials of social media networks are increasing day by day. Earlier, people used it for sharing photos, videos, music and opinions; however at present social media networks have been used for many other purposes. For example, leaders of the ongoing struggle against corruption in India have used social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook extensively to gather support for their agitations against corruption. Identification of t alents or recruitment process is another area in which social networks started to show its potentials. Since people reveal their qualifications and experiences in their profile, it is easy for the employers to search through databases of social networks and identify the talents they are looking for. Since social networks provide a platform for people to express themselves or to express their views, employers can easily identify whether a person is suitable or not for their organization. Even though social networks provide immense advantages both to the employers and the job seekers, employers may face lot of disadvantages also while using social networks for recruitment purposes. It is not necessary that people always provide details about their actual qualifications and experiences in their profile in social networks. In many cases, people provide exaggerated claims about their qualifications and experiences in their social network profiles in order to attract others and the employ ers may not get the actual information about a person while using social networks for recruitment process. Some of the social websites like LinkedIn provides not only the facility to put the user’s resume online, but also it helps the employers the facilities to communicate effectively with the job seekers. Employers can use these facilities effectively to identify talents. According to Lindow (2011), â€Å"LinkedIn can be a good place to start, because what LinkedIn has done is given people the permission to put their resume online,†