Facebook 101 for Job Seekers

You’re a manager. Why would you want to be on Facebook with a bunch of college kids? Simple…there’s 100 Million people on Facebook now, up from 25 Million a year ago. There’s only 15 million college students. Who do you think everyone else is? The highest growing segment of Facebook is the over 35 crowd…the hiring managers you want to network with and meet. But you network on LinkedIN? Great LinkedIN is also a great place for job seekers to network….but the numbers are 1/3 of Facebook. Almost overnight, Facebook has grown to be the 6th most trafficked site on the internet, and the number one site to search for people. Let’s see…you’re looking for a career change, right? And Facebook is the top site to find people….hmmm. How can you afford NOT to be on Facebook? But Facebook is very different than other social networks. Facebook is about groups and communicating within groups. You’ll have fewer people in your Facebook network than in LinkedIN. Yet, you can have greater visibility than LinkedIN. How are both possible? First, let’s set up your account. Make sure you also register as an alumni of your undergraduate, and graduate school – Make sure to prepare with an alumni email address from the school, to prove you’re a graduate. The alumni networks can be some of the most valuable parts of Facebook, especially to job seekers. Facebook is all about your network knowing what you are doing. You have a news feed that gets broadcast to your network to tell them what you are up to. So when you’re looking for a job, you are able to subtly remind your network and group that you are looking for a job…every day. Now be careful…if you’re still employed, you’ll want to be careful to control what’s on, and who sees your news feed. You’re in luck – Facebook features sophisticated privacy controls to control who sees what. Facebook is also a great vehicle to have conversations with your network…its email capabilities are more robust and fully featured than LinkedIN. Best yet, Facebook is a great vehicle to promote content to your groups and friends – things like resumes, articles, blogs, podcasts, videos, pictures. But be careful because friends can post pictures including you in their own photo albums, tag you, and it’s also displayed in your own photo album (you may not even be aware of this). Fortunately, you can set security so you approve all pictures first. That lets you control the pictures of you dancing on the bar, balancing a beer bottle on your head – maybe not what you’d want a potential employer to see.