How Facebook can help job seekers find employment

Photo: Steve Woods

Although Facebook is seen primarily as a fun way to keep in touch with friends and family, it can also be helpful when you’re looking for employment. Here are some ways that job seekers can get the most out of Facebook.

• The most efficient way to use Facebook in your job search is to update your status with relevant information. For example, if you lost your job and you let your friends know, they will want to help you—perhaps by passing along a contact that they know is hiring.

   

• If you become Facebook friends with people from companies that you want to work for, be careful. Although you want to share what you’ve been doing with your friends, you may not want a potential employer to see all of that information. One way to segregate your personal and professional lives is to create a fan page for yourself, where you can keep your professional contacts separate—which can be beneficial for you and all of your contacts.

  “I may know business contacts, but I don’t necessarily want them seeing my kids and what we did on a Friday night,” said David Peck, Social Media Strategist at LSF Interactive. “Also, your personal friends don’t want to hear about your business. People don’t think of that, but it works both ways.”

   

• Adding information about the causes you are interested in shows potential employers that you are a well-rounded person. Although there is a chance that someone may object to your views, it’s important to have the confidence to be yourself and trust that someone with a job opening will consider your qualifications more than your preferences.

   

• Don’t allow people to leave virtual graffiti on your Facebook wall.

  “Sometimes people leave comments on your wall, or send you gifts or games, that are suspect—which theoretically everyone can have access to,” said Kevin Nichols, President and CEO of KLN Publishing. “As a result, you really need to be cognizant of what things you allow people to post on your profile and consider how others may interpret what is being posted.”

   

• Never say anything bad about a person or company on your page. Remember that even if you delete the comments, they live on forever and may come back to haunt you.

Part One: Why social networking is an important tool for effective job hunting
Part Three: How to use LinkedIn during your job search
Part Four: Tweet, tweet: How to incorporate Twitter into your job search
Poll: Which social networking tool is most useful for job hunting?

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