Who’s Keeping Tabs on Social Networking Sites
Who is keeping tabs on social networking sites? Possibly, your next employer. Let me introduce you to a web site called spokeo.com. Have you heard of it? You should. Social media tools have swept the United States and many parts of the world. If you participate in sites like facebook and twitter, you undoubtedly have seen friends, family and those you might consider networking with posting on these sites. Some interesting posts and some not so interesting. And then there are the photos.
Spokeo is not another social networking site but a tool to help manage them. Spokeo touts itself as a place where you can see something juicy on friends, contacts and business partners.
I decided to give it a test run to see what came up on people that were in my yahoo.com address book. I do not use Yahoo as my default address but there are a few friends and family who are listed. This random test brought up four people: My sister, an old camp friend a fraternity brother from college and business contact. There were anywhere from six to 24 different entries per person. It included photos posted on flickr, Tweets a person has made and even a news article where my sister was mentioned in connection with a charity walk in connection with the America Cancer Society.
Spokeo might initially brand itself as a way to see something juicy, but it is really geared towards human resource (HR) directors or other hiring managers. Think about it. As the stock market shows signs of a rally, consumer confidence moving slightly better and the U.S. economy edging towards a possible recovery, businesses, now more than ever, will want to know more details about employees. Spokeo searches deep within 42 major social networks to find truly mouth-watering news about friends and coworkers. — their claim not mine.
It would be very easy to weed out potential employees who are posting negative or inappropriate information on web sites as a way to protect the company.
Anything you post on the Internet, a picture, comments on social networking sites and even blogs like www.sportsinfo101.com are open for evaluation by potential employers. Just look at it this way. Anything you say can and will be held against you by a future employer. If that doesn’t scream CONSUMER BEWARE, I do not know what might. Unless you are someone like Mark Cuban who attracts attention with sometimes outrageous comments, then you better start paying attention.
Want a real life example, I take this one and tried to keep it as clean as possible. In talking with an industry professional today, she suggested a website I had never heard of before, it is called www.fmylife.com On the site, people post these strange, wild and stupid things going on in their life. Here is an example: Today, I had to rub my turtle’s anus with a wet Q-tip, which is supposed to help with his constipation. I think he liked it.
Do not know if Spokeo monitors this site but people write and say the darnedest things. Spokeo’s blog, has a nice catchy phrase at the top of the landing page. ”Uncover personal photos, videos and secrets.”
Want to keep tabs on the same social networking sites. Here is a partial list of who Spokeo claims to be watching.
Windows Live Spaces
stumbleupon
friendster
blogger
Slide
hi5
yelp
Pandora
Veoh
It is not the entire list but a pretty good peek and the reach the site has.
The catch is, the service will show you a few people for free, but to see the entire list, you need to pay a fee. The payment options are a three month, six month or one year contract that ranges from $2.95 to $4.95 per month. The site teased me with an additional 32 people who came up on the contact search within the Yahoo email program, but I could only see the number of possible posts, not the actual item unless I paid.
Now you know. Keeping tabs on Social Networking Sites just received a higher priority.
