Social Media and Selection: A Brief History and Practical Recommendations

SIOP Administrative Office

SIOP Visibility Committee Releases New White Paper

In 2010, there were only about 350,000 users on Facebook, 90,000 users on Twitter, and a paltry 50,000 members on LinkedIn (Browser Media, 2011). In the past 6 years, membership on these social media sites has exploded.

Current statistics show there are over 1.7 billion Facebook users, 313 million active monthly Twitter users, and 450 million members on LinkedIn (Statistica, 2016). During this time, many other social media sites have come on the scene such as Glassdoor, Instagram, Snap Chat, Tumbler, WeChat, and WhatsApp. Needless to say, social media is here to stay.

Over this same time period, organizations and their staffing/recruiting functions quickly embraced this new technology and found social media to be a great tool to source candidates for open positions and justify selection and hiring decisions.

SIOP’s Visibility committee recently released a new white paper that explores this rapidly growing trend. Social Media and Selection: A Brief History and Practical Recommendations, written by Richard Chambers, PepsiCo, and Jamie Winter, DDI, is now available on the white paper page of the SIOP website.

The SIOP White Paper series organizes and summarizes important and timely topics in I-O psychology for business and HR professionals, members of the press, and interested individuals. SIOP White Papers are produced by three SIOP committees: International Affairs, Scientific Affairs, and Visibility. For more information about the SIOP white papers, read the "About the Authoring SIOP Committees" section at the bottom of this page. All white papers listed are downloadable PDFs.

Visibility Committee is interested to hear your feedback about the “Hot Topics” Paper Series! Please take five minutes and provide us your feedback here.

To read this and all of the SIOP white papers, visit the white paper page here!