Use of social networking sites for evaluating candidates

This might look weird in first go but social networking sites like orkut and face book can be used as a wonderful tool for judging and analyzing potent candidates for senior positions .

Social sites like face book and orkut can give a hell lot of information regarding one's prospect candidates for senior positions .In social networking site like orkut there are options of joining various communities( since i am not a face book user till now i donot have much idea on this ),there are myriad communities available in orkut ranging from communities on fashion and life style to communities based on politics ,religion , business and others .Generally every individual has a tendency to join some communities of his taste where he can chat and share views with like minded people and also gather some valuable information .Now suppose a company wants to recruit for some senior position and it wants to judge its potential candidates on various parameters, though to make this happen it can rely on the candidate's past experience along with a thirty minute face to face interview ,though they may give some valuable insights regarding the professional behavior of the candidate but still it is n't sufficient in judging the overall personality of the candidate .When it comes to hire an employee for a senior position it is not just the professional behavior that matters but various other things like political inclination, hobbies ,interest are also important and cannot be discounted ,it is tough to evaluate these things just on account of a thirty minute face to face interview ,to know your candidates better interviewer can rely on social networking sites like orkut ,it can go to the interview's account on such sites and can see the various communities the he has joined.To join a community you need to first search that community, then you need to visit the required page,then there happens to be a join option where you need to click,immediately after this another message will appear asking you whether you really want to join this community or not and after replying in yes, finally one becomes the member of the required community .Thus though the entire process does not take more than 3 minutes but if in this fast moving world one cares for giving his 3 minutes then it surely means that he has got some inherent interest in that particular stuff with which the community deals with. Suppose if someone is the member of a community namely "NO MORE COMMUNISM " ,then it surely means that he has some sort of aversion for that communism , or if someone is a member of too many music related communities then then it can be guessed that this fellow is a music buff. Thus with the help of communities (along with some degree of deductive logic) a lot of things can be found out regarding your candidate.

Though this method is as effective in recruiting for lower ladders as for higher ladders but currently it is more practical in using it for high profile recruitment only, in low profile recruitment where recruitment is made in huge bulk and where specific skill set is required from the employee rather than a very diversified one this method will simply end up wasting a great deal of time with out giving much of desired results.

Though a very innovative and wonderful tool in itself it has got it's own flaws:-

1.Some times people join a community not out of love for it but out of hate or differences.Exp:- you might join a community called America not out of love for Americans or America but just to debate with other America lovers regarding your difference in opinion

2. Some times one might join a community not out of some sheer interest but just for some show off.

3. This method can be used as a wonderful supporting tool but too much of reliance on this might not be very effective.
rather than relying on it completely what interviewers can do is that they can get a rough sketch of their prospective candidates with the help of such tools and then based on this sketch a proper face to face interview can be taken to reaffirm the sketch .