General Social Media Information Archives

Impartial Jury: An Endangered Species

Social media usage has made it difficult for lawyers during jury selection, particularly when it comes to finding an impartial jury. Before the age of social media, news did not travel as fast, so potential jurors for an upcoming trial may not be as aware. Today, news is 24/7 and travels at breakneck speed – whether or not you’re actively social, it’s more likely now that you’ll hear more news items, quickly followed by everyone and their mother’s thoughts on it.

This is where an impartial jury gets tricky. During voir dire, potential jurors may be asked if they are familiar with the defendant, plaintiff, and/or the event that is going to trial. It used to be that major incidents were well known, but now even the more minor issues going to trial can be more well known than before. This will result in more jurors being aware prior to the selection process, and potentially being excused.

Social media poses another area of concern as it relates to an impartial jury – incorrect knowledge or predisposition. With the faced paced knowledge obtained through social media and online news outlets comes false information. Because news travels fast, and the new “journalists” are everyday people recording and commenting on what they see, there is a lot of room for misinformation. Not all people reading social and news sites will carefully consider the source or fact check before they believe information to be true. Therefore, if they are in a potential juror pool, they may have beliefs about the parts of the trial that are incorrect, leading to a juror bias.

This makes it trickier than before to select an impartial jury. It is also another reason that using social media research tools during the selection process can help. Simply put, this research tool can monitor an individual’s public facing online persona within moments to learn more about who they really are. It will also give insight into whether or not they are presenting themselves in a real light during jury selection.

At the broadest level, this type of research can uncover a potential juror’s bias or discrimination that may be a conflict during trial. More specifically, using this type of service can help with ensuring the selected jurors are in fact as impartial as possible to provide a fair trial.

For example, a potential juror is asked if they are familiar with the defendant. They may really want to be on the trial for some reason, or want to appear as though they are impartial, yet a quick scan of their online social presence may find that they were actively talking negatively about the defendant on Twitter right after the incident happened; therefore, it is easy to dispel the idea that they could be impartial during trial.

Social media has not made it easy to ensure an impartial jury, and the fear is that this is in fact an endangered species. However, lawyers can turn that around into a positive by employing social media data research tools to try to provide clients with the fairest trial possible.

Use Social Media Monitoring to Grow Donations, Contact Lists

There’s a new twist in using social media monitoring, thanks to geo-based monitoring capabilities. This is good news for those interested in increasing contact lists for email marketing, or even for non-profit organizations seeking to increase their donor base.

Below is a great example of how geo-based social media monitoring can be used effectively. With this newer piece of social media monitoring, a virtual “fence” can be set around a particular area to see real live social media posts from that area. From there, keywords can be utilized to further enhance the results if needed. What results is a list of individuals and their public social media accounts for targeted engagement.

A park is looking to increase donations to make improvements on their walkways, hiking trails, and other amenities. Outside of traditional means of gaining visibility and traction, geo based social media marketing can easily identify those who use the facilities to market directly toward them. Once they identify visitors via social media accounts, it is easy to engage with them on social sites, and use the site’s advertising platform to message this group directly. It can be effective in encouraging email signups, bring awareness of the project to a targeted group, and increase website visits, which may turn into donations.

Here’s why it works and provides better targeting for online advertising/engagement

People may be posting images while they are on the hiking trails, but never specifically say where they are. However, the geo-based monitoring will identify their location at the park. The image below is a great example of this:

In the collage of results, you’ll have the screen name for the individual who posted (these were removed for the purpose of this blog post), as well as the date/time they were visiting and details on what part of the park they visited.

You can engage in a few different ways: once you have the collage of results, you can engage with them directly from your social site, either publicly or via private message, or receive the list of screen names to import into a Twitter ad campaign, for example. Twitter offers a tailored audience feature, which allows you to segment a group of Twitter users based on your geo-based research, and have the ability to communicate and/or advertise directly to them.

This is becoming an inexpensive, efficient way for businesses to refine their advertising efforts. It’s especially useful for organizations where it may be difficult to identify visitors and groups via traditional means. You can learn more about this service on our website.

Leave Social Media Monitoring to the Police

Social media content has been helpful to police in many ways. In some instances, criminals themselves make the mistake of using social media to their disadvantage. These are two real life examples:

1. Three teenagers break into a junior high school and steal items. They are easily caught after posting images of their exploits on SnapChat, where several classmates see this and tell their parents and the school.

2. A victim met a gentleman in an apartment’s parking lot to buy a handgun. As they were agreeing on terms, the gentleman allegedly loaded the gun and demanded the victim’s belongings. The person handed over his money in an envelope, at which point the gentleman got into a vehicle and fled. Instagram posts led to his arrest, on his own accord.

In other instances, police rely on other social media data to assist with crime investigations and even crime prevention. However, there are some risks that come along with it. One example comes from eyewitness recollection and the increase in social media usage. It’s widely known that eyewitness testimony can be unreliable; some research indicates that up to 70% of wrongful convictions are due to eyewitness inaccuracy. With regard to social media, this intensifies as everyone now plays “detective” in news making situations, providing potentially false information on public venues, creating additional work on the part of law enforcement as they sort through millions of social media posts and content and follow up on these leads.

While it can be tricky, law enforcement’s use of social media data has surely been invaluable. It’s important though, as citizens, we let law enforcement do their job and not muddy up the waters, so to speak. I can imagine their social sites receive well more tips than a traditional hotline; they have tools and resources to better sort through information, but it is helpful to “post with caution” when news breaks and not flood inboxes with information that may or may not be helpful.

How to Use Social Employment Background Checks

Employers want to use every tool at their disposal for vetting potential employees – social media is one area that is more “gray” and, while HR departments realize its value, they have many questions about its use, and how to go about vetting a candidate socially.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recently published a study around the topic of social media’s use for employment screenings and recruitment. Key findings show that:

43% state that they have used social media research or online searches during the screening/vetting process.

36% have disqualified a potential candidate based on something found in an online search or in a public social media site.

Rob Walker, The Workologist columnist in the New York Times responded to a question on how HR departments can manage social media for employment screening. The response explains it very simply – HR departments should make use of what’s available, and be cautious, but not overly cautious.

Some of the top concerns HR departments have when it comes to using social media as a screening tool include:

Not being able to “unsee” information that they shouldn’t in order to be compliant (ie age, race, marital status, etc), that is easily found when looking at a person’s social media profile

How to go about incorporating social media research – what’s the best method, at what point in the process should this be done, etc?

These concerns may be keeping HR departments from jumping into the social media arena, and they may be missing vital information to help with the decision making process. There are many ways that concerns can easily be addressed.

Use a formal social media research program – whether it’s an outsource or an internal program, using a formal program or software geared toward HR can go a long way. For one, it will be compliant with state and federal laws with regard to employment; there is no chance to see things that you shouldn’t, as that type of information is stripped from the search results. Additionally, a third party vendor will add credibility to the research, which will be a benefit should issues ever arise.

Only use public information – don’t try “friending” or connecting with potential candidates. Privacy settings help those who want to keep some of their social activity from the public arena, and that needs to be respected. A strong social media program only looks at public data – if information is uncovered by viewing someone’s Facebook content that you’re “friends” with, there is a chance that the person has their settings to only show content to their friend list – it is not something that a standard social media search would uncover, so it’s off limits to you.

Use it at the right time – while that “right time” may vary and is still unclear at this point, deciding when to use it and being consistent will help with your strategy. Using social media research as a final tool, after the first round of interviews perhaps, will be helpful in learning more about the serious candidates. It’s good to have conversations within your company to determine which point in the process is best prior to rolling it out. Consistently will not only help make the process more efficient, but may help if there is ever a question of legality/discrimination brought up.

The concept of incorporating social media research into employment background checks is not new, but it is being seen more and more as a valuable tool for HR departments. I’m anticipating that this time next year we’ll be seeing it as a standard part of any employment screening. Learning now and developing a solid strategy will give your company the edge in making good hiring decisions.

Is Uber Doing Enough To Screen Drivers?

Uber has been making news recently, as their background screening policy has come under fire. They recently settled two class action lawsuits regarding their additional “Safe Rides Fee.” The issue wasn’t necessarily the additional fee (which will not go away, but will be changed to a “booking fee”), which Uber states is necessary to offset the costs of the background checks done on drivers and the 24/7 support they provide. Part of the issue was the language used; they referred to the background checks as “industry leading” and perhaps misled customers to believe that their background checks were more involved or in depth than others.

This has found to be not entirely true, as other news had circulated over the summer where four Uber drivers were found to have criminal records, ones that would have prevented them from becoming employed as a taxi driver in Los Angeles, leaving some to wonder how thorough their checks are.

Uber and other companies, such as Lyft, have been game changers in the taxi/rideshare industry. Because the business model is so different than a standard taxi service, it is more important than ever to ensure that drivers are thoroughly screened, and references to ‘industry leading’ background checks should be fully disclosed to give customers a peace of mind when using these services.

Upon review, it appears that Uber is utilizing a strong software program to conduct background checks, including social security confirmation, driving history, criminal records, and a credit check to name a few. Like most companies, adding a social media background check would provide an additional layer of security and potentially uncover issues that may not be found through traditional background checks.

Social media background checks have become more sophisticated and detailed than merely running a Google Search on an individual. Like standard background checks, they are FCRA compliant and provide detailed history of an individual from online resources.

While these new ride sharing programs are gaining steam and providing a popular option for those seeking services, it is more important than ever for these companies to provide a rock solid background check and be transparent with their customers as to what they are doing to keep riders safe. While this will not solve 100% of the issues, a thorough background check of all angles, both standard and online, is a good proactive means to providing the highest quality drivers to their customers.