It seems everyone has a Facebook page – the site currently has more than 300 million active users! Although most of use social networking to keep in touch with friends and family, Facebook can also be a resource to connect with professionals in your field and find new opportunities.
Here at Market Street Talent, we’ve covered why Your Linkedin reputation matters, discussed the value of showcasing your tech skills on GitHub, and highlighted how to use apps for your IT job search. Now we’re offering some best practices for using Facebook for professional networking.
First, take the time to review your profile carefully. This practice should be second nature for most of us by now, but it’s surprising how many people don’t regularly edit their Facebook profile. Make full use of the privacy features provided to hide (or simply delete) photos and posts that don’t seem professional or appropriate. Also create groups, so that you can separate your professional life and more personal relationships.
Next, you can post status updates that let people you are looking for new opportunities. If you’re worried about who might see these updates, only post them for certain groups. You can also send out more specific messages to individuals. A message may be more effective anyway, especially if you reach out to your network of IT professionals that might know of opportunities in your field.
In fact, you’ll definitely want to try reaching out to many of your associates through Facebook with a message – it’s more personal, and is sure to get you noticed. It’s important to personalize your networks, because people who know you will have more interest in helping you and are more likely to want to see you succeed.
That’s why it can also be important to keep up your search by reconnecting with your friends, family and former school acquaintances – even those outside of the IT field. Send friend requests to anyone that you think might be able to help you in your search.
Expand your network by looking up hiring managers and recruiters, and the companies you’d like to work for. You might find during your research that a person or group has a Facebook friend in common. If so, you can reach out to the mutual friend for tips, ideas, information, or even a referral in the best-case scenario.
Speaking of friends of friends in common, watch for the new Facebook graph search function. If your profile doesn’t already have this feature, it will be available by the end of this year. The graph function will act as a search engine that uses all of the data Facebook has gathered to allow you to do additional research that will help build your network.
For example, you’ll be able to learn more through the graph search about which companies are represented in your extended network – through friends of Facebook friends. (The new Facebook graph search tool promises to be an amazing tool for job seekers and recruiters! You can read more about how to use it in this great article from Mashable.)
While you’re at it, try also doing more specific research on the companies you’d like to work for on Facebook. You can “Like” career experts and their pages, or “Join” business pages and job recruiting groups. Start with the Market Street Talent page on Facebook, where we regularly post helpful information and recent job listings.
Now get to networking! And we invite you to connect with Market Street Talent on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin to learn more about the latest IT job opportunities!