Research recently carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) found that 80% of organisations don’t use Web 2.0 methods to attract and recruit new staff and only 8% plan to do so over the next year.

The majority (that’s 56%) of those polled in the survey thought that social networking sites were useful as a first port of call for job seekers, keen to find out about a new company. Whereas 52% percent of businesses welcomed it’s ability to reflect their position in the marketplace.

Indeed, there is a lack of control involved in putting your company out there and essentially inviting opinion. 62% of businesses were worried about damaging comments being posted about their company online.

A company is one thing but a candidate is whole different thing entirely. A lot has been written about candidates being vetted on Facebook before being interviewed. And as everyone knows the golden rule in recruitment is that you Google the name at the top of any CV your given – just to double check for any little surprises that might have been omitted.

Saying that, how much can a single web page really say about a person’s job capabilities? A multitude of drunken photos might be slightly off-putting but you can’t discriminate on that basis.

As I see it your damned either way. If you do have a network page you risk looking like a freak and if you don’t you run the risk of looking like a social outcast. Or worse – you’re just someone who doesn’t know about these things.