Social Networking for Hiring

If you are wondering what value social networking provides to our society, consider a study in the March issue of Psychological Science which says Facebook Users do not overstate their profiles and that viewing a profile would be the equivalent of a first impression. The test was done by the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Mainz in Germany. Research assistants studied a Facebook profile and guessed how the person would score on a personality test based on the five common personality traits used in psychological research. They guessed correctly on 4 out of 5 personality traits. The only one they couldn’t nail was neuroticism, which is not easy to diagnose in person. Could this be a useful hiring tool?  I think I would use it to check a person out before an interview in order to have a better idea of what to expect. I’ll take all the help I can get as far as hiring the right people is concerned. If you have any good ideas on pre-screening or interviews, I would love to hear your comments.