Kaye Monty

Facebook is not just for college students anymore.  According to an article by Silicon Alley Insider, only 24% of visitors to Facebook’s United States vistors were 18-24 years old.  If social networking is not part of your bag of tricks as a recruiter, then perhaps you may want to re-evaluate your recruitment strategy.  Up until recently, I have been using it primarily to recruit junior to mid-level candidates.  Other recruiters in the professional services arena have indicated that they have had success recruiting senior level professionals through Facebook.  I should say that I am not surprised.  I have 60+ year old relatives who are on Facebook.  I have also started to notice that more of my family from Asia are migrating to Facebook as well considering how much of a foothold Friendster has in Asia.  

While Facebook might not be the right vehicle for every recruitment strategy, you would need to consider if your target candidate hangs out there.  If they are not hanging out at Facebook yet, then keep your eye out as they may be soon.   

If you are a job seeker and you do not have a Facebook profile then perhaps you may want to consider creating one.  There are Facebook groups where you can post your availability or even look for jobs.  There are groups for human resources and public relations professionals.   Recruiters will post their openings through their status.  Hopefully you are friends with the recruiter or someone in their network.  I am a bit more wary of friending complete strangers.  I do know of recruiters who will friend you if you have at least one friend in common.  

Should you keep a separate Facebook profile for personal versus professional contacts?  This led to a lively debate with colleagues.  There are pros and cons to both side.  Regardless of what you decide, just make sure to go over your privacy settings.  Check out Guy Kawasaki’s blog about privacy settings. 

Are you on Facebook?