Back in 2006, we published a Workforce Management article that squarely focused on the job-related perils of social networking. “Web sites such as MySpace.com and Facebook can contain details about candidates that make employers think twice about hiring them,” staff writer Ed Frauenheim wrote. “The Web pages people create there sometimes include racy photos and videos, images of drinking or other compromising information.”

I’ve always been worried about having too much personal information online. Although I use LinkedIn—and that’s probably due to my age —I’m not into some of the larger social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook. And as beneficial as I find LinkedIn, I also know I need to be careful about how much detail about myself I want on the Internet for everyone to see.

You may not worry about such things, or you may share my concerns, but either way, a new nationwide survey of employers by CareerBuilder.com should make you think again about the uses of social networking. According to the survey, 22 percent of hiring managers are using social networking sites to research job candidates, up from 11 percent in 2006. In addition, 9 percent of hiring professionals say that although they aren’t currently using social networking sites to screen employees, they plan to start doing so. In other words, almost a third of recruiting and staffing professionals are using or plan to use social networking sites to check up on potential hires.

And, there’s more to the CareerBuilder survey that hiring managers revealed:

• Some 40 percent of candidates posted inappropriate or provocative information about themselves on their social networking site.
• Nearly 30 percent revealed they had poor communication skills.
• Some 28 percent bad-mouthed their previous company or a fellow employee, while 27 percent lied about their qualifications.
• About 20 percent shared confidential information from a previous employer or linked themselves to criminal behavior.

That’s the bad news, but there are some positives that hiring managers reported as well:

• Nearly 50 percent found that a candidate’s background supported their qualifications for the job.
• Forty percent said that the candidate was a good fit for the company’s culture.
• Some 36 percent said that a candidate’s site presented a professional image.
• Twenty-four percent said the candidate’s profile was creative.

This is probably not terribly surprising to anyone, but it does say that the use of social networking sites by recruiting and hiring managers to check out candidates continues to grow and will likely become just as much of a recruiting standard as filling out a job application or checking references (I’ll save for another blog posting my comments on the EEOC lawsuits that are probably brewing out there over the use of social networking).

Yes, there are pluses to social networking, but also some perils for job seekers. And, it goes back to something I used to tell first-time computer users years ago: Always be careful what you write and post online, because no matter what it is, the last person you want to see it is likely to find it at the most inopportune time.