Chapter 13
Using Facebook as a Job Hunter
In This Chapter
Discovering Facebook’s role in your job search and career
Customizing privacy settings so you’re in control
Attracting hiring managers and job opportunities by what you share on your Facebook profile
Using Facebook apps and ads to separate yourself from the crowd
Facebook is a social networking site that was originally intended just for college students within the United States but has expanded into a global phenomenon. It has defined a generation, changed general perceptions regarding privacy, and inspired an army of entrepreneurs. But dangers still lurk around the corner for the average Facebook user in the form of careless posts that have bad consequences. Job seekers who don’t take ownership of their Facebook accounts may pay the highest price.
I used to advise people to keep their Facebook profiles totally separate from their professional aspirations. But thanks to Facebook’s dominance as the leading social network combined with the changes in how recruiters are using Facebook to find and filter talent, it’s become clear that people simply can’t avoid Facebook. If you’re serious about finding work — and people really are finding jobs through Facebook — you need to have a presence on this site. The question is how to have fun on Facebook while simultaneously satiating the curiosity of HR professionals and hiring managers.
This chapter helps you figure that out by explaining exactly why Facebook is essential for your job search as well as how to protect your privacy, update (or create) your profile strategically, and post politely and effectively. It also introduces you to some great new apps that can potentially cut your job search in half and reveals how a simple Facebook ad may help you land your dream job. (For the scoop on the latest updates to Facebook, check out http://careerenlightenment.com/category/facebook-job-search.)
Getting the 411 on How Facebook Really Works
Facebook has become one of a job seeker’s most valuable tools, thanks to engineered serendipity. To understand what engineered serendipity is, think about that moment when you bumped into someone you knew from high school or that friend who just happened to know of an open position that was perfect for you at the exact time you needed it. These moments are moments of serendipity; in other words, they’re happy accidents. The magic of Facebook is that it manifests happy accidents by running your profile information through a fancy algorithm and then showing you the names and pictures of some people you may know.
After you complete your profile, Facebook suggests friends for you. You grow a little network by sending and accepting friend requests, and then you’re ready to participate in the main way people use Facebook: writing on your or other people’s timeline — an area where friends can leave or comment on short messages, links, or even videos. The way your Facebook timeline works is also a key part of engineered serendipity. Good use of the timeline helps you spread the word about your professional aspirations, or builds trust, faster than anything you can imagine.
When you post something to your timeline, that post may show up on your friend’s home page. (I say may because whether it does is actually determined by another fancy algorithm.) And your friend’s friends may see your post if you set your privacy settings right. Also when you post comments on your friends’ timeline posts, their friends can see those comments. So your communications can spread to people you may not even know yet.
All of this is great news! It means your personal brand and your messages can quickly spread to new people within a trusted referral network. Of course, that means you need to be careful of the messages you post. Don’t worry, though. I fill you in on what you can say in your timeline posts and comments in order to get people calling you about job openings in the later section “Practicing good timeline etiquette.”
Discovering Why Facebook Needs to Be a Component of Your Job Search
At first, Facebook was used almost exclusively for personal reasons among college students. Soon, complications arose: What if my mom wants to connect with me on Facebook and sees my party pictures? If my ex-girlfriend wants to connect, what will my wife say? Will my boss be upset if I don’t accept his friend request?
Then companies started to exploit the rich profile information of Facebook users to market their products and services. And companies looking for talent used Facebook to show off how cool they were to work for. In short order, Facebook has become the largest and most dynamic social network in the world. Other networks try to copy its technology, business strategy, and company culture. And because of its size and importance in society today, Facebook can no longer be ignored in your job search.
Following are the reasons Facebook is so essential when you’re looking for a job in today’s social media–focused world, from the most important reason to the least important one:
Most jobs come from referrals. If most jobs come from referrals, and most referrals come from friends and family, guess which social network has the highest concentration of friends and family? Perhaps this is why some studies show that Facebook has been responsible for more jobs than even LinkedIn. Building trust within your personal network is the key to making Facebook your most valued career asset.
Facebook is the size of a large country. No exaggeration here. As of this writing, Facebook has more users than the United States has citizens. The number of interconnections, relationships, and interactions between people in the network are infinitely complex, which presents a wonderful opportunity to meet new connections who may be helpful. It also means that your personal brand (see Chapter 4) can be exposed to more people and accelerate your career.
You can use Facebook to find out more about a company. Just as companies can get the inside scoop on you and your personality by looking at your Facebook profile, so too can you discover the facts about and vibe of a company by “liking” its Facebook Page — a public Facebook account designed for organizations to interact with customers who “like” them. You can also conduct your research about the company from its Page because all the links to the company’s blogs and websites are right there, as well as information about benefits, culture, and other important HR information.
Not only can you find out a lot about the personality of organizations based on what they post and how they interact with consumers online, but you can also (in some cases) find out about job opportunities. Many companies today are using Facebook to attract new talent and interact with possible job candidates. So if you haven’t “liked” your target company’s Page yet, your competition may have already beaten you to it. Find out whether your target company has a Page by simply entering its name into the search bar at the top of your Facebook account. If a page pops up, navigate to it and click on the Like button.
Protecting Your Private Life
The social norms regarding what’s considered private versus public have changed. Whether or not you’re comfortable with it, people are going to find out information about you online sooner or later. Whether you want to be in control of what they find is up to you.
I can't tell you how many stories I hear where some smarty pants says the wrong thing on his Facebook timeline and winds up jobless and looking foolish the next day. Only you are responsible for the content you post to Facebook; the powers-that-be at Facebook can't be held responsible for you posting a picture of yourself frolicking on the beach when you told your boss you were deathly ill. To read just how much havoc Facebook is having on employment law, visit http://bit.ly/NLRB-Facebook-Cases.
Sometimes the need for a job precedes the need for personal expression. Anything posted online can be subpoenaed by a court, virtually making it public. Therefore the term Private on any social network simply refers to how easy it is to discover.
The privacy settings Facebook gives you by default are not necessarily the ones you want to maintain during a job search. If you don’t want to learn this lesson the hard way, then you need to make some adjustments. The next sections walk you through how to properly manage your Facebook privacy settings so your profile always looks its best in case a hiring manager’s eye comes upon it.
Facebook privacy basics
Once upon a time, the complexity of Facebook’s privacy settings was enough to make you want to bang your head against a wall. Nowadays, they’re much simpler to use. To access the privacy settings, simply log in, click on the lock icon at the top of the page, and click on See More Settings. You can then change settings that control who is able to look you up, see your personal information, see your timeline posts, and many more specific options.
Most privacy categories on Facebook offer five levels of containment that you can select from. Here they are, in order of least private to most private:
Public: Content you deem safe for everyone is indexed by Google and appears on your public profile (so employers can see it). I always set my bio and links to Public because they are parts of my personal brand; for the ins and outs of personal branding, flip to Chapter 4.
Friends of Friends: Any content marked with this label may be seen by second-degree connections.
Friends: Only first-degree connections can view content with this label.
Custom: Custom allows you to create categories of friends for anyone in your network. For example, you may create a group of people that you don’t know them very well, at least not well enough to show your holiday party pictures to. You can then exclude this custom group from seeing that album of photos. See the next section on Friend Categories.
Only Me: I’d use this one for information about religion and politics, which have no place in the job search.
In the following sections, I go into detail about how to customize your privacy settings for connecting and sharing on Facebook. I also provide some recommendations for what to share (and who to share with) in each category of your Facebook profile.
Categorizing your friends
Not all friends are created equal. Some people are really close to you, and you don’t want to miss even one thing they post. Other people you know from work, or you simply don’t want them to see everything. Finally, some people make you a bit uneasy when they ask to join your network, like bosses or recruiters.
Thankfully, there are Lists in Facebook for each of these categories.
Close friends: Posts from Friends in this category will always show up on your timeline. Better hope you like reading their bad jokes!
Acquaintances: Posts from these Friends show up less frequently. You can choose to exclude content from these folks on most privacy settings and in audience selection on the timeline.
Restricted: These weary contacts will only see posts and profile elements set to Public, perfect for bosses and nosey employers who you don’t want to offend.
Adding friends to Lists
There are four ways you can drop friends into lists.
Egress: When you send a friend request, hover over the blue Friend Request Sent box for list options. (See Figure 13-1.)
Figure 13-1: Where to find the Lists when sending a Friend request.
Ingress: When someone sends you a friend request, accept the request then hover over the blue Friend box for list options.
Individually: From your timeline, open up your list of Friends. Next to each profile photo, you see a box with a checkmark next to the word Friend. Hover over it for a list of options.
En Masse: Navigate to http://facebook.com/bookmarks/lists and click on the list you want to add a large number of people to. Click on Manage List and then Edit List. From there you can type in the names of anyone you wish to add to that list.
Not all of your friends need to be categorized, just the ones that you feel should be treated differently than most by Facebook.
Making adjustments to your public profile
As a job seeker, you want to be found. But you also want to control what information people can find about you. That’s where your “About” profile comes into play; it allows you to set what personal information people can and cannot see about you.
From your timeline, click on Update Info right next to your name to find the area where you can edit your profile, the About section. You may need to expand this section by clicking on See All, depending on how full it already is.
Employers may search for your Facebook profile to scope you out. You want to be as open as possible without stepping on your own sense of privacy.
Follow the guidelines in Table 13-1 for the optimum amount of openness while still protecting your privacy.
Table 13-1 Customizing Your Public Profile
|
Category |
Setting |
Why |
|
Work and Education |
Public |
Make sure your Work and Education section on Facebook matches that on your LinkedIn profile. Showing consistency across networks can increase trust, which is why you want this information Public and accessible. |
|
About You |
Public |
This is your chance to make a public statement about who you are. (See the section “Editing your profile for hiring managers’ eyes” for details on what to write here.) |
|
Basic Information |
Mixed |
Politics and religion have no place in your job search; set these to Friends. The rest is up to you. |
|
Contact Information |
Mixed |
Add your links to your LinkedIn profile, blog, or other landing pages and websites. I let my friends see my e-mail address and phone number. |
|
Favorite Quotations |
Public |
Add some personality to your online reputation with a quote that represents who you are. |
|
Relationship and Family |
Friends |
Employers don’t really need to know this information, though it doesn’t hurt if they do. |
|
Living |
Public |
Here you can enter your hometown and current city. This information helps Facebook suggest friends for you, and recruiters want to know if you’d need relocation or not. |
You can always view how you’re seen by the public or by a specific person by using the View As feature. From your timeline, click on the small gear icon to the right of Activity Log and pick View As. If you pick Public, then you can see how potential employers will see your Facebook profile should they find you.
Privacy settings
Privacy settings have two categories, Who can see my stuff? and Who can look me up? Here are some suggestions for how to configure these elements.
Head on over to your expanded privacy settings by clicking the gear wheel in the top navigation bar and choosing Privacy Settings. Table 13-2 lists how to optimize these for job search.
Table 13-2 Customizing Your Privacy Settings
|
Category |
Setting |
Why |
|
Who can see your future posts? |
Friends |
Although you can customize each post at the time of posting, Friends is a good and safe default. That way you have to intentionally set posts to Public when you want to build your brand. |
|
Review all your posts and things you’re tagged in |
Use Activity Log |
Any time a friend tags you in a photo or post, you get to give (or deny) permission for it to show up on your timeline. This is a safe option if you have friends who aren’t as serious about building a career as you are. |
|
Limit the audience for old posts on your timeline |
Limit Past Posts |
If you think you may have some old posts that don’t compliment you, with one click, you can limit them all to friends only. |
|
Who can look you up using the email address or phone number you provided? |
Everyone |
When employers wants to learn more about you, give them more to learn. This setting makes it easy for them to contact their future employee. |
|
Do you want other search engines to link to your timeline? |
On |
If you are managing what posts are set to public, then why not let a potential employer find your Facebook profile to learn more about you when they do a Google search? |
Timeline and Tagging settings
From your expanded Privacy Settings area, pick Timeline and Tagging from the left navigation area. There you will find the most important Facebook settings to manage. See Table 13-3 for an explanation of these settings.
This category allows you to control who can view (and comment on) the various tidbits you decide to reveal about yourself. It also allows you to restrict who can see the comments other people post on your timeline and what they tag you in. Remember: You can’t always control what your friends post, so you want to be extra careful with these settings.
If someone posts something on your timeline that you don’t want others to see, you can always remove it. When you hover your mouse cursor over the post, a little X appears in the top-right corner. Clicking on it deletes the offending post from your timeline.
Table 13-3 Determining Your Timeline and Tagging Privacy
|
Category |
Setting |
Why |
|
Who can post on your timeline? |
Friends |
You want your friends to be able to interact with you. Don’t worry; you can use the next setting to review what they post. |
|
Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your timeline? |
On |
This option sets up a queue and an alert. Whenever a friend posts something on your timeline, like a link or comment, you can review it to make sure it’s not going to damage your personal brand. |
|
Who can see posts you’ve been tagged in on your timeline? |
Friends except acquaintances |
If you are at an event and someone tags you in a photo from it, after you approve it, only your closest friends can see it with this setting. |
|
Who can see what others post on your timeline? |
Friends except acquaintances |
After approval, someone else’s post on your timeline still may not be suitable for the public. This setting gives the post a default that you should be comfortable with. |
|
Review tags people add to your own posts before the tags appear on Facebook? |
Enabled |
If someone tags you on a photo they post, you want to have some time to review its content. That person may not have the same goals you have right now. |
|
When you’re tagged in a post, who do you want to add to the audience if they aren’t already in it? |
Friends |
Unless you have many ex-lovers in your Facebook network, I wouldn’t be too concerned with this one. Your friends can see photos you’ve been tagged in. |
|
Who sees tag suggestions when photos that look like you are uploaded? |
Friends or No One |
Personally, I like being tagged in photos by my friends. However, you may not feel the same way. If set to Friends, this setting enables facial recognition software making it easy for your friends to tag you. Switch it to No One if you don’t want that. |
You can also control the audience each individual photo album is set to. Head on over to your timeline and click Photos, then click Albums. For example, you may want to share your New Year’s Eve party photos with Friends Only but share your job fair photos with Public. You can set these options whenever you create new albums. If you already have some photo albums that you want to retroactively change privacy settings for, just click on the audience icon on the bottom right of the album.
Creating block lists
Perhaps you have one of those best friends who makes you laugh uncontrollably at his completely inappropriate jokes. Well, this buddy may become an annoying liability during your job search if he insists on posting those jokes to your timeline. Or maybe you keep getting invited to join someone’s mafia gang or grow some cats on a cat ranch. Frankly, I find these games, as well as their invitations, annoying.
So what’s the cure for ridding yourself of problem posters or immature games? Block ’em. Just navigate to the expanded Privacy Settings page and look for the Blocking category. It gives you several options for various ways you can block other users.
Other important privacy features
Facebook constantly changes its user interface. Many of those changes go unnoticed but can seriously affect your privacy. Of course, the most visible changes get the most media attention, but what about those minor feature updates that not many people discuss? Some of the features I cover in the following sections are mostly unknown but can have a huge impact on how you use Facebook.
Timeline post audience selection
Many people don’t know this, but you can choose the audience for each individual post you write on your timeline. At the bottom right of the post’s text box, next to the Post button, click on the small padlock button to open up the audience selection settings for the text, link, picture, or video you’re about to post (see Figure 13-2). If you don’t set this manually, the post defaults to your global privacy settings (see the previous section).
If you’re smart, you’ll post personal branding messages (any text, links, images, or videos that reinforce your professional image and talk to why you’re different) to be viewed by Public and keep the rest of your messages to the default. So every couple of days, you may try a new version of your value statement — a statement that summarizes who you are and what makes you unique — and strategically leak it out to the public. (I help you craft a value statement in Chapter 5.)
Figure 13-2: Setting privacy for each timeline post.
Facebook’s secure browser
Facebook now offers secure browser settings (SSL) so no one can snoop on your connection to Facebook. SSL is a security feature used by bank websites, e-commerce checkout screens, and e-mail applications.
You have to manually turn on the SSL in your Facebook account. First, look at your browser window to see whether the address says http or https. If it says http, then navigate to Account Settings by clicking on the gear wheel in the top navigation bar, selecting See More Settings, and then clicking on Security. Then click on Secure Browsing and check the box next to Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) when possible.
Facebook hashtags
Borrowing a feature from Twitter, Facebook posts can now contain hashtags. Hashtags start with the pound sign (#) and indicate the subject of the post. In Facebook, hashtags are clickable to help people find other posts related to that tag. What displays are other posts that contain that same tag.
If you share a public post with a hashtag, anyone can see it. If the post is set to Friends, then only your friends will be able to see it when they click the hashtag or do a hashtag search.
You can use a #Search (hashtag search) to discover posts on almost any topic, example #cutepuppies returned hours of potentially wasted internet time. You can also use hashtags in your own posts to help them gain more visibility within your network.
Presenting the Missing Facebook Manual for Earnest Job Seekers
When you have your privacy settings under control, which I help you with earlier in this chapter, Facebook can be a very valuable resource for your job search and your career. You can communicate your personal brand, or unique message, through strategic parts of your profile. And you’re able to take advantage of your trusted network to spread the news about what you’re looking for and the value you bring to the table. After all, most jobs come from people you know through your network.
Whenever you invite new people to join your network, I encourage you to always also send a personal message. Be sure to provide your new connection with some context on how you know each other and why you should connect.
When you first set up your Facebook account, I’m sure you didn’t have professional networking in mind, so now’s the time to revisit your profile and make some changes. If you’re brand-new to Facebook, that’s perfect. Nothing quite compares with starting from a clean slate. Either way, the following sections get you in tune with how to maximize your Facebook presence for the benefit of your job search.
Editing your profile for hiring managers’ eyes
Your Facebook profile can be made visible to people who haven’t joined your network yet. If you spend time and fill it in, then nosy hiring managers and recruiters can learn more about you. Your profile info also helps Facebook find new people to suggest you add to your network. The more accurate you are in your profile, the more accurate Facebook’s suggestions are for who else you can connect with. Making sure your profile is filled out is worth the extra five or ten minutes.
The following sections cover the elements of your Facebook profile that are worth spending time on.
Your profile photo
In Facebook, your profile photo is attached to every communication you send and is considered basic information in your privacy settings. The reason is that Facebook is first and foremost a visual platform.
If you’re actively seeking employment, use your LinkedIn photo as your Facebook profile image. Why? Because unless you’re interviewing for a position at a nightclub as a dancer, you want your first impression on Facebook to be as professional as possible. For tips on taking a good profile photo, flip to Chapter 9.
To change your profile picture, simply hover over your profile picture on your timeline and click Edit Profile Picture.
Your cover photo
The larger banner behind your profile photo is called your cover photo. This large image can represent anything you like. Think of it like the cover of a book. Pick images from your life that mean something to you, like a nice picture of your family at a wedding, or a beautiful day at the beach where the sunset just took your breath away.
Your About Me section
When you click on the Update Info button you find a box called About You that’s just waiting for information about you. Your About You section should serve a very similar function as your LinkedIn profile summary, in that it communicates who you are professionally and what makes you unique. The text you enter in this can be set to appear publicly and may be the only prose a hiring manager conducting some preliminary screening may read about you on Facebook.
If you’re actively seeking work, I recommend pasting a copy of your value statement in the About You section of your profile (see Chapter 5 for guidance on creating a value statement). If you want to add a little bit more personality or personal information as well, lead with a professional statement of who you are and then conclude with a more personal statement, perhaps even mentioning some interests or hobbies.
Work and Education
Be sure your work and education history information matches that of your LinkedIn profile. Hiring managers are looking for inconsistencies (after all, some people lie on their résumés), so if they see that you’re consistent with your résumé in several places, they’re more likely to believe you.
Favorite Quotations
Sharing who inspires you and what your favorite quotes are can be powerful ways of differentiating yourself.
Spend time thinking about your role models and quotes that stick with you. (If you prefer to go the role model route, turn to Chapter 4 for an exercise that gets you thinking about who you admire most.)
All the other profile settings
Your Facebook profile also allows you to enter information about the types of music, books, movies, and TV shows you like, as well as your favorite sports teams, activities, and interests. Don’t be afraid to fill in this information. Sharing it helps round out your personality in the eyes of a hiring manager. Just keep in mind that your selections should be appropriate; use the “Would I talk about it in the office?” test to be sure. Revisit these parts of your profile with your career in mind.
Practicing good timeline etiquette
Facebook is more about posts than it is about profiles. Your most important message is your last post. Literally. Eye tracking studies show that most eyeballs spend the most time reading the last post on someone’s timeline. The Facebook timeline is your venue for communicating with your network and letting people know who you are and what you’re looking for. The timeline is an amazing platform for expressing yourself, but you need to use it wisely. The sections that follow offer some general guidance on timeline etiquette.
Don’t be desperate
Avoid posts like, “Help! I need a job. Can you pass my résumé on?” You don’t want to come across as desperate. And you don’t want people’s help out of pity. Remember, your goal is to provide value and be upbeat.
Start conversations
Unless you’re a celebrity, posting about yourself all the time won’t get you many comments. You may have to start conversations from time to time. Ask questions, post an article and share your opinion of it, bring up something from current events — all of these ideas can kick-start a conversation with members of your network.
You can also turn other people’s posts into more interesting conversations by commenting and getting the conversation ball rolling.
Share industry-related content
At least once a week, post something related to your industry and set the privacy to Public (I explain how to manage audience selection in the earlier “Timeline post audience selection” section). Sharing your opinion about professional issues can help position you as an expert.
Following are some ways to include industry-related content on your Facebook timeline:
Link to articles about your target industry.
Share your comments about a particular article. Your timeline shows your (hopefully) intelligent comment and a link to the article.
Run competitions where you can be the judge of the winner. For example, you can ask your network for the best idea to solve some industry-related problem.
Share a story from your professional life that shows you in a good light.
Post an “Ask Me” post where people can ask you questions about your industry and you answer them. For example, “Are you working in a hospital and have no idea why things are done a certain way? Ask me and I can help explain.”
Ask for introductions
Nothing’s wrong with asking your network for a little help sometimes. Because the power of your network is in who the people in it know, the best thing you can do to help yourself is to ask for introductions.
Be specific when asking for a referral. For example, don’t ask, “Does anyone have connections at a CPG company in marketing?” Instead, say something like, “I’m looking for work as a business analyst at a CPG company. Do you know of anyone in marketing at Purina?” You inevitably get much better results if you can say the name of the company and the exact role of the person you want to meet.
Finding people to network with using Graph Search
Graph Search is a way to explore Facebook’s network of information about people. Graph Search can be found at the very top of your Facebook Profile. By using search phrases instead of keywords, you can discover all sorts of people in and outside of your current network. The feature will be rolled out to everyone by the end of 2013.
As an example, in the screenshot in Figure 13-3, I used Graph Search to find employees of Charlie Sheen who live in Rhode Island. When I traveled to Nashville for a talk, I used Graph Search to see what restaurants my friends liked by searching “restaurants in Nashville my friends like.”
Figure 13-3: Example of a Graph Search.
Try some of these graph search ideas to advance your own job-search networking:
People who work at [company] who live in [location]
People who work at [company] who went to [school]
Friends of my friends who work at [company]
Companies my friends like who live in [location]
Pitch your value (statement)
A great way to let people know who you are and what you’re all about is to post your value statement on your timeline every once in a while. (I help you create a value statement in Chapter 5.) An added bonus of posting your value statement on your timeline is that you can ask for direct feedback about it regarding what works and what doesn’t. As long as you don’t overdo it — meaning don’t post your value statement every day — your friends will give you feedback and help you make your value statement better.
If you’re confident about posting your value statement on your Facebook timeline, you can set the privacy to Public so that Google and unconnected people can see your statement.
Journal your job-search journey
Use Facebook as a platform to share your job-seeking progress with friends and family. Let them know what steps you took that week to find work. Share interesting insights about yourself or about job seeking in general. Celebrate your successes, like having finished your résumé or getting a callback from a target hiring manager.
Be careful not to reveal something you shouldn’t about the companies you’re interviewing with. For example, if you learn what your salary range might be, keep it to yourself. One woman interviewing at Cisco told her network what they offered her. She was immediately disqualified for breaking the company’s nondisclosure policy.
Promoted posts make sure your message is seen
Not everyone in your network reads every post you publish. With Facebook’s filters and friends list, there really is no way to guarantee that your message will get read. But you can get pretty darn close by using promoted posts.
After posting something to your timeline, like your value statement, navigate back to the published post and choose Promote.
Promoted posts are posts that have a guaranteed audience. Prices can go up to $10 depending on the type of post and how large the audience would be. You can promote anything in your post. After you post it, click on Promote.
Promotion is a great way to get your value statement out to a larger audience. If people haven’t visited your profile or commented or chatted with you in over two weeks, chances are they aren’t hearing much from you on Facebook. Use promoted Posts to rekindle cooling relationships.
You can watch my interview with Marian here to get a better sense of her strategy: http://careerenlightenment.com/facebook-ad-got-job.
Essential Facebook Apps for Job Seekers
Unlike LinkedIn, which I tell you all about in Chapter 9, Facebook wasn’t designed for professional networking. Consequently, seeing what companies are in your network and creating a more robust professional presence isn’t native to Facebook. That’s why several companies have developed Facebook applications designed to fill this need. I highlight the best ones in the next sections.
Reppler and SimpleWash
Reppler (www.reppler.com) and SimpleWash (http://simplewa.sh) are Facebook timeline scanning tools that analyze your pictures and timeline posts for tone, appropriateness, and any telltale signs of someone hacking your account. To use this tool, simply log in with your Facebook account and give it a few minutes to scan your timeline. Using Reppler or SimpleWash is a great way to keep your timeline clean during your job search. Also be sure to sign up for weekly e-mails to make sure any new posts you accumulate aren't harmful to your reputation during your job search.
BranchOut
BranchOut (http://branchout.com) is the largest professional networking service on Facebook. BranchOut users leverage their Facebook friends network to find jobs, source sales leads, recruit talent, and foster relationships with professional contacts. BranchOut also operates the largest job board on Facebook, with over 3 million jobs and 20,000 internships.
At the core of the BranchOut user experience is the ability to find connections through one’s extended friends network. For example, when you search for a company on BranchOut, you gain visibility to a list of friends and friends-of-friends who work at that company. These inside connections can be used to increase access to new jobs.
GlassDoor
GlassDoor (www.glassdoor.com) is a job-opportunity search tool that cross-references your Facebook friends and where they work with job listings from around the internet. When you first log in using your Facebook account, you see a list of the top companies represented by your network and how many jobs they've posted.
GlassDoor is a cool way to use a job board because it gives you results based on who’s in your network. At the very least, if you use this tool, you can visualize just how powerful Facebook is for your career.