When filtering through a social media account, it might be easy to get caught up in the images. It’s also easy to get caught up in the broader message of a person’s post, rather than looking at the smaller details that reveal person’s personality traits. Their use of language is vital to understanding the quality of your recruit.
Psychologists are looking to social media for a better way to understand people’s personality traits. It appears to be a more accurate indicator than the long surveys that have been used up until now. Why? Because analyzing someone’s language usage prevents selection bias. Candidates are unable to prepare and skew the answers like they can in tradidition hiring personality tests.
Language is, of course, not an exact science, but studies have shown certain characteristics to correspond with high frequency usage of certain words. The language that your recruits use can be an indicator of their compatibility with your company’s culture, so it’s important that you pay careful attention to their words.
Insecurity vs. Confidence
If a person tends to use “I” or “me” very frequently it can be a sign that they are insecure, feel threatened, are defensive, or are self-centered. These are negative traits that you don’t want to be a part of your company culture. However, social media tends to be a portrait of one’s self, so higher use of these words may actually mean a person is being honest.
Dishonesty vs. Honesty
Someone who is lying tends to use the word “we” more frequently, in order to avoid singling themselves out. An honest person will use “I” more frequently, and also use strong affirmatives and negatives. They will more likely use “no”, “never”, and “none”, or “yes”, “absolutely”, and “always” when asking questions with a “yes” or “no” answer.
Extrovert vs Introvert
Though it might seem pretty cliche, it is pretty easy on social media to tell whether someone is an extrovert or introvert by looking at their word usage. Often on Facebook if the words “party”, “love you”, “boys”, or “ladies” are found often, you have an extrovert. If words like “computer”, “reading”, or “internet” are found more often, you might have an introvert. People who are emotionally stable tend to use words like “church”, “sports”, “vacation”, or other words that link to some sort of group or family attachment.
Inclusivity vs. Exclusivity
Another good language marker would be how much a potential candidate uses “we” and “they”, or “us” and “them”. “We” and “us” are inclusive words that signal the candidate considers himself a part of the team or group. “They” and “them” can signal negative feelings toward the team or group. In an interview a good questions to pose is how a candidate feels about previous co-workers. If they use an inclusive word to tie themselves to the group then they mostly likely will be a positive addition to your team.
It is difficult in an interview to gage how often a person is using certain words. Social media is something that can be analyzed at length, and thus studied more indepthly. GoGig is a new tool that automatically analyzes a candidate’s personality for you.
Your company will receive a detailed report on the type of person a candidate might be and how to communicate effectively with them. While using social media filtering in the recruiting process is well worth it, can take a lot of time and money for a company looking to expand its workforce. GoGig can make social media filtering a low cost and effective tool for your company. Click here for a free trial of this powerful new recruiting tool.
