Introduction Jobvite, a recruiting platform for the social web, reports from their annual 2012 survey of recruiters that 92% of U.S. companies are using social networking sites (SNS) for hiring purposes (Jobvite 2012). CareerBuilder reported in 2009 that 45% of employers were using SNS to screen and research applicants (CareerBuilder 2009). That number has increased to 59% as of the most recent survey on 2016 (Career Builder 2016). According to the Society for Human Resource Management, 77% of its members surveyed in 2013 report using social media for recruiting purposes (Segal 2017). It is important that faculty and support staff working to place students, and the students themselves, understand the developments and practices in the use of social networking sites for job search and recruiting and the best methods, as well as detriments, when marketing themselves. This study compares corporate recruiters', operating on a college campus, attitudes toward the use of social media in recruiting with students' (job seeker) attitudes. While work has started in understanding the uses of SNS for recruiting, additional research is necessary to fully understand who is using SNS for hiring decisions and how those decisions are made in light of the SNS content being evaluated, as well as the use of social media by job seekers. It is important to determine if the evaluations of social media by these two groups are somewhat similar in nature. Otherwise, social media use and content by the job seeker may be deemed inappropriate or not in fitting with the organization and/or position by a recruiter screening applicants via social media. Soon-to-be and recent graduates should be made aware of the types of content which may impact their success rate in finding a position. Previous Research Using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is becoming more popular with both job seekers and employers. This research seeks to understand recruiters' evaluation and behavior with regard to utilizing SNS for hiring decisions. As Strehlke (2010) points out, the use of SNS can improve the visibility of job seekers, but not without its challenges. The conclusion, after a review of the available literature, is for attention to privacy and work/personal life issues, online presentation, managing online information and networking practices, as well as potential legal challenges, especially when SNS use uncovers areas of the applicant that are not relevant to the job (Black & Johnson 2012). While the reported percentages seem to show an increasing use of SNS for hiring purposes, research in the area is lacking as suggested by Brown and Vaughn (2011), Davison, Maraist and Bing (2011) and Black and Johnson (2012). Very little empirical research exists in the areas of utilizing SNS for either the recruiting or screening processes. One potential benefit of using SNS for hiring procedures involves corroboration of applicant provided information from other sources, where recruiters "associate transparency with screening job applicants ...

Colorblind norms play an important role in shaping how people discuss race. There is reason to believe that these norms also affect the ways respondents interact with social surveys. Specifically, some respondents may be using nonresponse as a tactic to not discuss race in social surveys. If this is the case, very different demographics of respondents would be most prone to nonresponse, and the phenomenon should also vary on the basis of the interviewer’s race. The author conducted bivariate and multivariate analysis of the Chicago Area Study to examine whether colorblindness may be promoting “don’t know” responses and item refusals. The author finds that nonresponse to a perceived race of interviewer item follows a distinct pattern consistent with previous research on colorblind norms. For example, white respondents have nearly five times the rate of nonresponse compared with blacks and Latinos. Bolstering the colorblindness theory, an interracial interview context nearly triples the nonresponse rate compared with same-race interviews. Findings of this research have important implications for both survey researchers using social surveys to examine race and racial attitudes and race scholars who seek to understand the prevalence of colorblind norms across society.

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