Review Public Digital Footprints with Greater Accuracy
Resumes, interviews, and traditional background checks provide valuable information, but they may not reveal public online behavior that could affect workplace safety, company culture, customer relationships, or brand reputation.
Metrodata Services Inc. provides AI-powered social media screening services for employers throughout Buffalo, Western New York, the Capital Region, Long Island, the greater New York City area, and across New York State. Powered by technology from our partner, Ferretly, our solution helps organizations identify potential workplace, reputational, and safety risks by reviewing publicly available online activity through a structured, consistent screening process.
Ferretly combines advanced machine learning with profile-matching technology and human review capabilities. The platform evaluates public posts, comments, replies, reposts, images, memes, news sources, and other online content for configurable behavioral indicators.
Social media screening can be used as a standalone service or combined with Metrodata’s pre-employment background screening services.
Social Media Screening for Safer, Smarter Hiring
Social media screening reviews publicly available online activity associated with a candidate, employee, contractor, or volunteer. It gives organizations additional context that may not appear in a traditional employment background check.
Employers may use social media screening to support:
- Pre-employment screening
- Executive and leadership hiring
- Customer-facing hiring
- Safety-sensitive hiring
- Contractor and volunteer screening
- Brand and reputation protection
- Workplace culture initiatives
- Ongoing workforce monitoring
- Executive and board appointments
- Public-facing leadership positions
This service can be especially valuable when employees interact with customers, work with vulnerable populations, access sensitive information, represent the organization publicly, or perform their duties with limited supervision.
What Does Social Media Screening Review?
Metrodata’s social media screening service evaluates publicly accessible information from major social platforms and other online sources.
Depending on the selected package and available content, reports may include:
- Public social media profiles
- Original posts, comments, and replies
- Likes, shares, and reposts
- Public images, memes, and visual content
- Blogs, forums, and news articles
- Behavioral summaries and flagged posts
- Sentiment insights and word clouds
- Public web and media results
Supported sources may include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Reddit, TikTok, Pinterest, online forums, blogs, and public news sources.
Ferretly uses identifiers such as names, usernames, email addresses, locations, education, employment history, and profile images to help locate the correct public profiles and reduce false matches.
What Types of Online Behavior May Be Identified?
Metrodata’s social media screening technology analyzes both written and visual content. Instead of relying only on isolated keywords, the system evaluates context and classifies selected behavioral indicators.
Configurable categories may include:
- Disparaging or abusive language
- Drug or alcohol references
- Drug-related imagery
- Threatening statements
- Weapons-related imagery
- Violent or graphic content
- Prejudicial language
- Profanity
- Explicit or suggestive content
- Extremist symbols or gestures
- Self-harm indicators
- Employer-defined keywords
The platform can review text and images within the same workflow, including symbols, gestures, objects, memes, and other visual content.
A flagged post does not automatically determine whether someone is qualified or appropriate for a position. The report provides information for the employer to evaluate according to the responsibilities of the role, established policies, and applicable laws.
How AI-Powered Social Media Screening Works
Metrodata helps employers implement social media screening through a standardized process:
Candidate information is submitted.
Relevant identifying details are used to begin the search and accurately match public profiles.
Public profiles are identified.
Ferretly uses AI, phonetic name matching, usernames, location data, profile images, and other identifiers to associate public accounts with the correct individual.
Public content is analyzed.
Machine learning reviews available posts, replies, images, news results, and other online content for selected behavioral indicators.
Results are organized into a report.
Reports may include confirmed profiles, digital footprint summaries, flagged posts, behavioral composition, sentiment analysis, and public web or news results. The sample report demonstrates how matched profiles, behavioral categories, flagged content, and broader digital-footprint findings are organized for review.
Protect Your Workplace, Culture, and Brand
A structured social media screening process can help employers identify public conduct that may conflict with workplace expectations or create unnecessary risk.
Potential benefits include:
- Protecting your organization’s reputation
- Supporting workplace and customer safety
- Identifying potential threats or concerning conduct
- Reinforcing respectful workplace standards
- Applying a consistent process across comparable candidates
- Reducing informal searches by individual hiring managers
- Improving confidence in high-trust hiring decisions
Ferretly’s technology is designed to help organizations reduce digital blind spots, strengthen workplace culture, protect their brand, and identify potential risks.
Designed to Support Compliant Hiring
Social media screening should be conducted carefully and consistently. Public profiles can expose hiring managers to protected information related to religion, disability, medical conditions, sexual orientation, and other characteristics that should not influence employment decisions.
Using a professional third-party provider can help employers:
- Focus on publicly available content
- Apply a standardized screening process
- Improve profile-matching accuracy
- Reduce exposure to irrelevant protected information
- Concentrate on job-related behavioral indicators
- Maintain consistent reports and documentation
When third-party social media screening is used for employment purposes, Fair Credit Reporting Act requirements may apply. Employers may need to provide disclosures, obtain written authorization, and follow applicable adverse-action procedures. Employers should not request passwords or access to private accounts.
Metrodata does not provide legal advice. Employers should consult qualified counsel regarding their policies and legal obligations.
Industries That Benefit from Social Media Screening
Metrodata supports organizations across New York with screening programs tailored to their workforce and risk requirements.
Social media screening may be useful for:
- Healthcare organizations
- Education and higher education institutions
- Financial services and collections employers
- Government and public sector organizations
- Retail and customer service employers
- Information technology employers
- Office and administrative employers
- Manufacturing and industrial employers
Why Organizations Across New York Choose Metrodata
Metrodata combines more than 30 years of background screening experience with advanced social media screening technology from Ferretly.
Organizations choose Metrodata for:
- PBSA-accredited screening expertise
- AI-powered text and image analysis
- Advanced profile matching
- Configurable behavioral categories
- Organized, consistent reporting
- Scalable screening programs
- Local support throughout New York State
Frequently Asked Questions About Social Media Screening
Social media screening is the structured review of publicly available online content to identify job-relevant behavioral indicators that may affect workplace safety, culture, customer relationships, or brand reputation.
It is generally permissible when employers review public information and comply with applicable employment, privacy, discrimination, and background screening laws. Employers should consult legal counsel about their specific process.
No. Metrodata’s service reviews publicly available information and does not require passwords or access to private accounts.
Public content may be reviewed across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Reddit, TikTok, Pinterest, blogs, forums, news sources, and other public websites.
Reports may include matched profiles, digital-footprint summaries, flagged content, behavioral categories, sentiment insights, word clouds, and relevant web or news results.
Ferretly uses names, usernames, email addresses, phone numbers, locations, employers, schools, profile images, and other identifiers to improve profile-matching accuracy.
No. It complements criminal record searches, employment verification, identity verification, drug testing, and other screening services.
A third-party provider can improve consistency, reduce incorrect profile matches, limit exposure to protected information, and provide organized documentation for employer review.
Third-party screening providers use standardized processes, advanced identity matching, and consistent reporting to reduce the risk of reviewing the wrong individual or exposing hiring managers to protected information. This approach also supports a more consistent hiring process.
Strengthen Your Hiring Process with Social Media Insights
Metrodata provides structured social media screening services for employers throughout Buffalo, Western New York, the Capital Region, Long Island, the greater New York City area, and across New York State.
Our social media screening service can be ordered independently or incorporated into a comprehensive employment background screening program.
Contact Metrodata today to learn how AI-powered Social Media Screening can help your organization reduce digital blind spots, support informed hiring, and protect your workplace and brand.