A colleague in the recruiting industry told me this week that he made a social media faux pas. He asked an admin to post a job opening to Twitter. But she accidentally posted it to Facebook. I was quick to tell him that I didn’t think it was a faux pas at all to post a job opening to Facebook, "le facebook n’est pas un faux pas!". Okay, I didn’t really say that. But I don’t think that it is bad form to post a job opening, job search, or anything job related to Facebook.
An article posted yesterday on TechCrunch noted some stats, visualized by Buzzpoint, that shows Facebook’s 250 million members would make it the 4th most populous country in the world…if it were indeed a country. With numbers like that, why would you not want to utilize your network there to promote your job search or job opening? If you post your message with a link, your network can easily share (repost) to their network and your message will grow more visible exponentially.
As long as you are not constantly posting spam-like links or inane business/marketing messages, your network won’t mind when you post something very relevant to you, such as you are hiring or you need a job. In fact, if you ask your network to please comment or share, they likely will. Even if they just click that they "like" your post, their network will see your message as well.
Alternately, if you rarely update your Facebook status or rarely comment on others posts or updates, your network is not likely to be very responsive to your message. Facebook is typical of social networks in that you must participate on a regular basis to get much out of it. Many people feel that Facebook is only social, or only fun. But it is a powerful tool full of helpful people who will gladly refer you or offer help if you just ask for it. Everything in moderation. But, when it comes to posting job openings or job search information, "le facebook n’est pas un faux pas!".
What’s your opinion? Do you hate seeing job openings posted on Facebook? Do you cringe when someone announces a job search? Or do you like to help?
