Many people use Facebook to keep up with friends and family, but few realize Facebook’s potential as a networking and general job search tool.
With over one billion users, Facebook offers a repository of information on people that is much greater than LinkedIn’s 200 million user base. Users can use Graph Search to source potential contacts or decision makers and connect directly via Facebook without having an intermediary connection. To use graph search, navigate to your home page and select browse from the left side bar window.
Next, enter in the keywords that represent the parameters of your search. The information you see on each person will vary, depending on the amount of information they have agreed to share publicly via their privacy settings. From this page, you can send a message or a friend request.
You can also search to see which friends on Facebook worked for a target company or which friends of friends have a connection to a company. If you know someone who knows someone at your target company, you can potentially turn a cold call into a warm lead.
Facebook can be an excellent job search tool to complement your existing LinkedIn strategy. The people you friend on Facebook may represent a very different audience than the ones you connect with on LinkedIn, and this gives you additional opportunities to strengthen your network and open new doors in your job search.
