Social vetting involves using social media data to gain insights about individuals and businesses in order to more effectively engage with them. It allows companies to verify contact information, research prospects, segment lists, and anticipate how customers may research them online. While many companies have adopted social vetting for hiring, few leverage it fully for B2B interactions where knowledge is power. Companies that take the time to thoroughly vet lists and contacts through social media see superior results, providing more accurate data to customers and stronger customer relationships.

1. Perhaps you’ve seen oblique references to social vetting’s place in B2B interactions before, or maybe the
term’s wholly unfamiliar to you. Maybe you already use the basic concepts involved, for your hiring
process and other business positions. Regardless of where you currently stand on social vetting, by the
end of this article you’re going to have a thorough understanding of the technique, how to utilize it in
B2B email efforts, and the big pitfalls awaiting those who aren’t paying attention to this powerful new
tool.
What is Social Vetting?
Let’s start by establishing the basics: What, exactly, is social vetting? In short, it’s using the massive
amount of data businesses and individuals publish on social media to gain insight into what to expect
from that individual or business, how to more effectively engage them, what they don’t want you to
know, etc. It’s become increasingly common for businesses to utilize social vetting in the hiring process,
especially with the rise of tools expressly for that purpose, but few have truly leveraged the potential of
the idea to its fullest extent.
B2B Applications of Social Vetting
In all B2B interactions, knowledge is power. The more you know about your prospects, the better you
can engage them, the faster you can build a relationship, the more effectively you can close deals. Social
vetting puts an entirely new supply of knowledge at your fingertips—all you need to do is exploit it
appropriately, meticulously, and carefully. Consider these applications:
Researching for the Approach. By researching prospects from your lists via social media, you can
gain unique insight into their behaviors, their interests, and the trends they’re paying attention to.
At the simplest level, a B2B list provider could utilize social outlets to verify contact
information. You can also gain insight into new opportunities, well before you might otherwise
spot a trend or potential value proposition.
Segmenting. Savvy business owners understand the value of segmenting their lists, dividing their
prospects and customers up by relevant demographics to better target their needs. Social vetting
gives you the bulk of information you need to spot those relevant groups, allowing you to sort by
age, interests, gender, political party, whatever correlates to different successful approaches. This
technique shows very strong returns in the long term, as you can refine for similar groups far more
effectively than doing so on a one­to­one basis, however potent that technique may be.
On the Receiving End. Consider what a customer doing social vetting of their own will see, should
they look into you upon receiving an email. By anticipating this natural course of action and
preparing your social media profiles accordingly, you can turn the candid nature of social media to
your advantage, strengthening a positive impression which your emails laid the groundwork for.
Companies which take the time to utilize social vetting provide superior service and achieve superior
profits; despite this, many don't put in the effort of vetting lists, researching high value contacts, or
organizing social data in useful ways.
An Example to Learn From
Consider email companies providing email lists for B2B sales operations:
One company doesn't engage in any form of social vetting, taking the addresses they've collected at face
value and passing them on in the same state they're obtained.
Another company engaging in a degree of social vetting, utilizing social outlets as a means to double­

2. check the data they've collected before placing it into a list and offering that list for sale. Customers of
this company will be find the list much more actionable than one provided by the first company, with far
fewer incorrect addresses, old contact information, and fakes.
The third company leverages social vetting to it's maximum efficiency, using social outlets to verify data
at every stage; of the three, this company is the only one which can reasonably expect every
nearly name and contact point on its lists to be correct and useful to its customers at any given moment.
As a company utilizing this method to vet our own lists, we can assure you­­customers take note of the
increased accuracy of the information we provide, the opportunities we pass on. The extra effort pays
dividends any savvy company should be eager to take advantage of.
Final Thoughts
Social vetting, used wisely, has almost limitless uses. Consider these stages: List development, list sale,
first contact, sale, follow up. Superior companies will utilize social vetting at every stage, passing value
on to their business partners and customers. Despite this, the process remains rare­­which means an
opportunity for the savvy.